Thank Goddess, It's Friday

Have you ever seen the film Thank God It's Friday?

It is an amusing and entertaining film about a night at a disco and features the singing of Donna Summer. It also includes a femulation by actor Howard Itzkowitz, who goes to the film's disco en femme.

Thank God It's Friday is not great cinema, but watching it is one of my guilty pleasures.

Seeing the gorgeous disco fashions in that film got me thinking about what I am going to wear to a banquet I will be attending in three weeks.

Most of my banquet wear is for the cooler weather, but I am sure I must have some things in my closet appropriate for the summer (like the number I am wearing in the photo).

Worse comes to worse, I can always buy something new!

 

 

 

Wearing Burberry (dress), Edie Parker (clutch) and Bulgari (jewelry).

 

 

 

Actor Howard Itzkowitz femulating in the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday.

Color Me Upset

Colors

This week, Daily Makeover had an excellent article, "How to Find the Most Flattering Makeup Colors for You." The article is short, but full of excellent tips about finding your best colors. I learned a few things after reading it and I am sure you will, too.

Upset

On the way to work today, two rabbits, a turkey, and a turtle crossed my path. The rabbits and turkey were not an issue and went on their merry way into the woods after crossing the pavement in front of me, but I dunno about the turtle.

When I came upon the turtle, he was half way across the road. I slowed down momentarily to see if could do anything to accelerate his crossing, but the road is narrow, heavily traveled and worse, there was no place to pull over to park. I did not know what to do except continue on to work, but I was upset (and I am still upset) that I wasn't able to help this guy.

I hope I don't see his carcass on the way home this evening.

Depression Femulation

Courtesy of Pat, here is a page from the 1934 Montgomery Ward catalog that femulators of the Depression probably studied carefully.

Item A, the “Inner-Belt,” was quite a contrivance – I wonder how well it worked!

By the way, a 1934 dollar equals $17.65 today.

 

 

 

 

Wearing Badgley Mischka.

 

 

 

Actors Patrick Page, Reed Birney and Gabriel Ebert
femulating on stage in Casa Valentina (2014).

Boys Will Be Girls

"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls" is a line from a 1970 song titled "Lola" by The Kinks, which describes a close encounter with a drag queen of the same name.

That line has been taken out of the context of the song and has been tossed about to describe the phenomena of gender role reversal for the past 44 years.

I have been very aware of gender role reversal even longer than that. From nearly five decades of experience, it is my opinion that either there are more gender role reversals today than in the past or the gender role reversals are more public about it today than in the past. I believe that it is a little of the former and a lot of the latter.

In the past, that is, before 1965, gender role reversals were very closeted. Girls being boys and boys being girls were invisible. There were places where the reversals could meet and socialize, but those places were very private and unknown to the majority of the general public.

Personally, I found out about two of those places around 1968 after I had been dressing in the closet for about 5 years perfecting my femulation and itching to explore the world as a woman. Through Darrell Raynor's 1966 book A Year Among the Girls, I found out about a transwoman getaway that I later learned was called "Casa Susana.” Through the 1968 film documentary The Queen, I discovered drag beauty pageants. Both of those places were out of reach for the 17-year-old girl I had become, but it was reassuring to know that those places existed.

Today, it is almost laughable (and kind of sad) to consider the lack of places that were available to gender role reversals in the past. Now we are everywhere --- even on the cover of Time magazine!

Our increased visibility has encouraged other gender role reversals to leave the closet behind and explore the world for themselves. And their new visibility encourages still others to become visible and on and on and on.

So, "the gender role reversals are more public about it today."

Our increased visibility has also encouraged others to try gender role reversal for themselves. Here, I am referring to people who would have been clueless without our increased visibility. They would have gone through life lost in between genders, trying hard to adhere to the definition of their birth gender, but not succeeding  and not knowing where to turn because as far as they knew, there was no place to go.

Thus, "there are more gender role reversals today than in the past."

 

 

 

Wearing Harley Viera Newton.

 

 

 

Orloff, an early 20th Century professional femulator

I want one of these!

Heck, at only $4.98, I’ll take one in each color!

 

 

 

Wearing Christian Dior.

 

 

 

Actor Sam Littlefield femulating in a 2002 episode of television’s V.I.P.

At the Grocery Store

Saturday, I am the little househusband and among other things, I do the grocery shopping for the following week. I buy what I can at Aldi, then go to Price Chopper to pick up the things that Aldi did not have.

Most of the people I encounter in the two stores are in grocery shopping drag… very casual to very grubby. However, while I was in Price Chopper, I encountered a pretty young woman wearing what I thought was a navy blue dress covered with white polka dots, a dress not very different from the navy blue polka dot dress I wore on a few occasions this spring. She also wore cute navy blue flats and little or no makeup. Her short bob was a deep auburn.

The woman was shopping with an older woman, who I assumed was her mother, who unlike her daughter, was in grocery shopping drag like the rest of us. The “mother” was taking her time going up and down the aisles while the “daughter” scurried around the store picking up items and depositing them in her mother’s shopping cart.

As it turned out, I kept bumping into the daughter in various parts of the store as she scurried about. It was actually a little amusing that we kept bumping into each other and during one of our bumps, she smiled at me in recognition of the ridiculousness of the chance encounters.

Anyways, all these numerous encounters revealed a few things.

Her navy blue dress was not festooned with white polka dots. Rather, it was covered with little white crosses — a navy blue cross dress!

As I wrote above, she wore little or no makeup and on closer inspection, she had very thick almost bushy eyebrows, which brought my trans radar to attention and she struck me as being a pretty boy dressed as a girl.

My last encounter was as I passed her depositing yet another item in her mother’s shopping cart. I actually heard her speak to her mother ...in a distinctly male voice!

Wow! It made me very happy to see her out and about and with a supportive parent to boot! Very, very cool.

Wearing Daily Look.

Actor Brian Charles Rooney femulating on stage in Bedbugs!!! (2012).

and Dad lent me the purse

 

 

 

Wearing Tom Ford (sandals), JAR (earrings), Jil Sander (top)
and Amarcord Vintage-Fashion (pants).

 

 

 

Actors femulating on stage in Pageant: The Musical in New York City, 2014.

Got Support?

Jan Brown passed along a valuable online tool for folks seeking GLBT support and resources: GLBT Near Me. Enter your ZIP Code and how many miles you are willing to travel from your ZIP Code to get support. Then select a category, for example, "Transgender, and click on the Search button. In response, the web tool returns a list of resources that fit the parameters you entered. Very cool and very useful!

 

 

 

Wearing Daily Look.

 

 

 

Recent womanless beauty pageant contestant.

Beatlemania

I loved The Beach Boys' music first, then I fell in love with The Beatles' music. I have been a Beatlemaniac ever since.

During the height of Beatlemania, I acted indifferently towards The Fab Four. My indifference was part of my disguise.

I worried that if I showed any interest in The Beatles, people would perceive that as a girly thing. Next thing you know, they would put two and two together and figure out that if I was doing girly things, then I must be girly. The fact that I had feminine speech and mannerisms would just confirm their conclusion.

In my late teens, I abandoned my disguise (because it was not working) and was completely open about my Beatlemania. I bought all their LPs, 45s, EPs, tapes, CDs, DVDs and as many bootlegs as I could find. When I visited the UK in the mid-1980s, I found Abbey Road and had my photo taken crossing the famous crosswalk. And on and on and on.

Anyway, I finally saw The Beatles in person on Saturday night! Well, more like one-quarter of The Beatles or one-half of the surviving Beatles.

Ringo Starr performed at a local concert hall and I had almost a front row seat to see the show. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the show immensely.

Two things stuck out in my mind about the show.

• Ringo is petite. He is short and amazingly thin. When he came out on the stage, I thought that he looked more like a college kid than a 72-year-old.
• Although most of the audience were my peers, there were a lot of younger people in the crowd who seemed to be big fans. For example, in the row in front of me there were three girls in their late teens or early 20s who twisted and shouted throughout the show and knew all the words to all the songs --- not just the words of The Beatles' tunes that Ringo sang, but his solo hits and non-hits as well!

So, goo goo g'joob.

 

 

 

Wearing Brahmin.

 

 

 

 

Femulate reader Fiona femulating at Royal Ascot.

DMV Neanderthals

This beautiful teenager was hassled by the South Carolina DMV after passing the driver's license test and waiting to be photographed for the license. Chase Culpepper, who wears makeup and androgynous or girls’ clothing on a regular basis, was told to remove the makeup and “look more like a boy" for the photo.

According to a DMV spokesperson, the DMV works with law enforcement on these decisions. "If it says male [on the license], that's what they're gonna look for. They expect the photo to be of a man."

I guess it's time to introduce those folks to the 21st Century!

Meanwhile, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) is on the case.

 

 

 

Wearing Shoshanna.

 

 

 

Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone, before and after.
Note that they are wearing dresses before and after!

Signs

In response to my clip-on earrings post on Monday, Robin wrote urging me to get my ears pierced. She mentioned that if the pain of getting my ears pieced was the issue, I had nothing to fear but ear fear itself, because the pain "was nothing."

I replied that I usually get my teeth fixed without Novocain or whatever they use these days, so pain is not an issue.. Rather, my spouse is the issue.

She is not thrilled with the fact that her husband is a woman, but she realizes that I must let my girl out for air once in awhile. I appreciate that she is OK with me being the authentic me some of the time, but I don't want to rub her nose in it.

Everyday, she sees signs that remind her that her husband is a woman.

We share a walk-in closet and as she enters it, she encounters a rack now half full of her husband's dresses, skirts, blouses, and slacks. On the floor below those pretty things are countless boxes containing her husband's high heels. Next to the shoes are storage totes containing her husband's lingerie and hosiery. Next to the totes is her husband's cosmetics box. Still other totes contain her husband's jewelry and purses. And on the shelf above her tops and jeans is a tote containing her husband's coiffures.

If I dress as a woman when my spouse is home, I avoid my spouse so that she does not see her husband as a woman because she has often said, "I don't want to see you dressed as a woman." (On occasion, curiosity gets the best of her and she wants to see how I look, but I don't show her unless she is interested.)

My body has signs that may remind her that I am a woman. My hairless arms, legs, breasts, shoulders and back are the most obvious signs.

Less obvious are my neatly maintained eyebrows (eyeglasses hide how neat and feminine they actually look).

She never mentions the stuff in our closet, nor my shaved body, nor my feminized eyebrows --- out of sight, out of mind.

But if I had my ears pierced, there would be no way to hide that from her. It would be a constant reminder that I am a woman, so I let it be.

 

 

 

Wearing Light in the Box.

 

 

 

Femulating British sailor, circa 1910