Oscar for Femulator?

Mickey Mantle’s nephew, Kelly Mantle, is making Academy Awards history. The gender-fluid Confessions of a Womanizer performer is eligible for Oscar nominations in both male and female categories for portraying a transgender prostitute named Ginger in the film

The film’s producers submitted Mantle in both male and female categories when the paperwork for Oscar submissions required the actor be classified by gender. The Academy granted their request and Kelly is eligible for either the Supporting Actor or Supporting Actress category.

This comes in light of my post last week about femulator Paolo Ballesteros winning the Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Kelly Mantle in the 2014 film Confessions of a Womanizer

Femulate reader Julie Shaw.

"Hi, I'm Julie M Shaw - 58, currently living in Spokane WA.  I've been dressing since I was a young child. Not out, but getting closer and closer each day."

No Questions Asked

If you are a regular reader here, you probably are familiar with the daily Femulator spot at the bottom of each blog post. In that spot, I feature images of femulators that I have found hither and yon.

Often, the source of those images are theatrical films and television shows. It seems to be a bottomless source for guys dressing up as gals.

Years ago, while I was searching for femulator images, I came across a photo from a 1951 film titled No Questions Asked. The photo showed an actor in 1950’s high glam fashion and he looked so good that I thought “he” might have been an actress playing a man impersonating a woman. But, in fact, the high glam gal was actor William Reynolds.

I was so impressed with his femulation that I sought out more information about the film, as well as more images of his femulation in that film. Turns out that there was not much on the Internet beyond the film’s entry in IMDB.

I sought out the film itself, but I could not find a copy on VHS or DVD. Evidently, TCM had the film and had shown it a couple of times, but of course, I missed it. So I kept it in mind while I continued searching for other femulations.

A week ago, I learned that the film had recently been released on DVD, so I ordered a copy and USPS delivered it yesterday. After the mailman dropped it off, I wasted no time and dropped everything to watch the film.

Here is the plot summary from IMDB:

“Steve Keiver, young lawyer working for an insurance company, hears his boss remark that he'd pay a large sum "no questions asked" for return of stolen property to avoid paying a much larger claim. On his own initiative, Steve arranges such a deal, earning a nice commission. But he catches the eye of gangsters who think he's the ideal middleman for future similar deals...many of them. As Steve is drawn in deeper, the police take an interest in him, and he's ripe for a doublecross.”

No mention of the femulation, so I will fill in that part of the plot.

The gangsters hire two guys, who dress as gals and go to the “Ladies’ Lounge” of a Broadway theater to rob the female patrons of their jewelry.

The blond femulator, actor William Phipps, enters the Ladie's Lounge of the Broadway theater as if he owns it. (You go, girl!) 

The brunette femulator, actor William Reynolds, follows brandishing a handgun and a dainty purse. Don't you just love the outfits the boys put together for their caper?

Blondie relieves the ladies of their jewelry. The ladies were completely fooled by the boys' femulations and during questioning by the police, one lady remarked that they were very pretty.

Sans jewelry, the ladies are forced into the back room of the lounge. 

With the ladies safely stashed away in the back room, the femulators prepare to exit the premises.

The femulators sashay out of the theater to their getaway car.

Inside the car, the femulators switch from girl mode to boy mode. How they managed to accomplish this in the cramped back seat of the getaway car is not revealed.

Using descriptions given by the ladies in the lounge, the police produced composite drawings of the perps. 

The blonde and brunette femulators in boy mode. The hero of the film identified the boys as female impersonators from the burlesque. The blonde femulator corrected our hero and said they were "artists" from vaudeville.

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Outed?

Femulating at Airline High School, Bossier City, Louisiana, in 1982

In case you don’t read comments that follow my blog posts, Paulette had this to say about Friday’s All the Pretty School Girls post.

I hesitate to cast a cloud over anything you do on this site, having been a big fan for many years. 

(Now comes the 'but'...)

However, have you considered the possibility that these old buried cross-dressing photos (aka womanless beauty pageants) are better left undisturbed? In today's fevered environment, being outed on the internet could be most unwelcome. A dusty schoolbook yearbook is - thankfully for many - lost to history. And despite our prurient fascination in others like ourselves, we have no right to dig up potential problems that will strike 40-50 year olds and their families, like a proverbial bolt from the blue.

Just sayin'

On more than one occasion, I have considered Paulette’s point, but fter writing about and posting over 4,000 womanless images from online school yearbooks, I have never received a complaint that someone has been outed. I believe there are primarily two reasons for this:

Although we like to think differently, most of the people in the images are not femulators. Their high school femulation was a one time occurrence, so there is nothing to be outed about.

About half of the images do not name the people captured in the photo; their anonymity provides protection from being outed.

If anyone ever complains, I will delete their photo immediately.

Wearing Metisu.

Femulating in the 1984 Italian film Cop in Drag.

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All the Pretty School Girls

Lara, Maureen and Curly Joan are just three of the pretty girls captured in a new batch of photos that Starla uncovered in on-line school yearbooks. In case you are new here, the girls are really boys crossdressed by their mothers to participate in womanless beauty pageants (or other gurly events) put on by their respective schools.

Starla came up with 53 new yearbook images and they are now available on flickr, where you may view the new photos by opening one of the Yearbooks sets (A through Z). There you will find the newest uploads at the end/bottom of the set. (The oldest uploads appear at the beginning/top of the set.)

The contents of the Yearbook A through Z sets are organized according to school name, for example, the photos from Sacred Heart High School would be in the Yearbooks S set.

By the way, if you participated in your school's womanless beauty pageant or attended some other school activity en femme, I would love to post your photos along with any description you would like to provide. For example, here is my photo attending my school's Halloween party in 1976.

Say, "Cheese!"

Wearing Parker dress, Oscar de la-Renta earrings and Michael Kors Collection sandals.

Zackary Drucker femulates in a recreation of Blondie's classic 1978 album cover.

Readers Welcome

Today's Femulator spot features Femulate reader, Lily Longlegs. I believe it is her first appearance here. I would love to feature other Femulate readers in the Femulator spot, too, especially readers who have not appeared here in the past.

Send me your photo and as long as it is suitable for family consumption, I will post it in the Femulator spot. If you would like to tell us about yourself, I will also include a brief bio with your photo (by "brief," I mean about one paragraph in length). Tell us where you are from, your age, what you do for a living, how long you have been femulating, how far out of the closet has your femulation gone, etcetera, etcetera .

I know that anonymity is important to many readers (been there, done that), so I understand if you don't want to reveal too much and that is OK, too, but consider coming out of the closet just a little. It can do wonders for you.

Wearing Eloquii.

Lily Longlegs

Femulator Wins Film Award

Actor Paolo Ballesteros won the Best Actor award at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival for his portrayal of a transgender woman named Trisha in the film Die Beautiful. Paolo, known for his makeup transformations, accepted the award in a gold sequin gown while femulating Hollywood actress Julia Roberts. Wow!

Read all about it here and here and see the award presentation here.

Wearing Ida No.

Paolo Ballesteros femulates Angelina Jolie at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival.

My Bio

Her Bio

Last week, Meg commented, "I (and perhaps others) would be interested in hearing your trans-bio as you present it to an average group of young civilians."

I am always happy to acquiesce to your requests, so here is the biography I wrote for my outreach presentations. You may recognize some of the words because they originally appeared in the blog, but you asked for it, so here it is.

⇓

My name is Stana.

I am a 65-year-old male-to-female transgender person. I am married and have one child. I have been crossdressing for over 55 years. 

My earliest memories of gender confusion was with regard to the wallpaper hanging on the walls of my childhood bedroom. The wallpaper had a nursery rhyme theme and depicted Little Boy Blue wearing Mary-Jane-style shoes – just like my sister wore. What's with that?

When I was about 10-years-old, I noticed a weekly ad in a New York City newspaper for a night club that featured female impersonators. The impersonators made glamorous women and I became fascinated that a guy could look so good as a gal. 

I tried to find out more about female impersonation, while I continued to enjoy boy things like playing sports, especially baseball (I could hit the ball a mile, but I threw like a girl).

I was not the "all-American boy." I excelled in school; always got excellent grades and was often the teacher's pet. I was also shy and soft spoken; guys called me "fairy," "faggot," etc. I did not know why. In retrospect, I guess some of my mannerisms were effeminate, but I did not think so. My speech and mannerisms were natural to me.

When I was about 12-years-old, I was home alone and I heard my mother's dresser call out to me, "Try on Mom's nylon stockings."

I did and then I heard my mother's closet call out to me, "Mom's high heel pumps will look nice with the nylons." 

So I tried on her heels, then I looked in the mirror and my legs were as shapely as a female - just like those female impersonators I admired. Soon I was wearing my mother's bra and girdle, her slips, her dresses, her hats, applying her makeup, etc. I got into my sister's stuff, too.

Whenever I was home alone, I practiced the art of female impersonation. I believed I was becoming an accomplished female impersonator, but I was frustrated and had to get out and show somebody. 

Next Halloween (when I was about 18-years-old), I borrowed some things from my mother and sister and dressed as a girl. I was not invited to a party or anything; I just dressed and drove around town surprising some of my friends and relatives.

Then I was back to practicing the art of female impersonation in seclusion except for a few Halloween parties I was invited to in my 20s. By then, I knew I was getting pretty good at dressing because on more than one occasion, I would overhear another party-goer ask "Who is the woman not in costume?" while referring to me. What a compliment!

In my late 20s, I met my future wife. We got married and I did not tell her about my hobby because I believed in the old wives’ tale that marriage would cure me. I had not crossdressed since I began dating her, so I believed the tale.

About a week before the wedding, I threw everything away. 

A month after the wedding was Halloween; we were invited to a party and I went shopping for a new women's wardrobe

Too many Halloweens in drag, my wife figured things out and asked me if I was a transvestite. I confessed. 

Initially my wife was supportive and suggested that I find a support group. I found Connecticut Outreach Society (COS) and started attending their meetings crossdressed. Then I started attending COS roadtrips to public restaurants crossdressed. Then I went to a couple of trans conventions where I could be a woman for a long weekend.

I became better at crossdressing by getting makeovers, reading how-to books, viewing how-to videos, etc. I got so good that I found that I could occasionally pass as a woman in public.

The better I got, the less supportive my wife became. I attribute her waning support to her disease, multiple sclerosis. As my crossdressing became better, her MS became more debilitating. 

Today, I only go out once or twice a month crossdressed in deference to my wife, whereas if I had my way, I would live 24/7 as a woman.

For most of my life, I believed I was a plain vanilla crossdresser, but I came to the realization that I am more than a crossdresser. 

Simply put, I identify as a woman. I am not woman trapped in a man's body, I am a woman. I think as a woman, I emote as a woman, and when I have the opportunity, I present as a woman. To most of my acquaintances, I am the most feminine male they know and that's because I am a woman.

True, my container is male, but its contents are 100% female. I am very adverse to fooling around with my container. Many things can go wrong and so far, my container has held up pretty well, so why mess with it. As a result, I have no interest in taking hormones or having surgery to modify my container so that it matches its contents. I have no plans to have a “sex change” operation.

I would be happier if I could live as a woman full-time, but I have commitments that make that impossible. Those commitments are my wife and daughter. 

So I live part-time as a male and part-time as a female, but no matter how I live, I am a woman all the time. 

Wearing Metisu.

Marcin Rogacewicz femulates on Polish television's Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo.

Reaching Out

I wrote about shopping and slogging through the rain in my previous two posts about my day out on Tuesday. Now I will regale you with part three of the story.

The drive to Southern Connecticut State University was uneventful. If anything, traffic was lighter than usual. I parked in the visitors' parking lot that was closest to the classroom where the outreach would take place and switched to flats for the half mile walk.

Once indoors, I switched to my nude high heel pumps and proceeded to the classroom, where I met up with Professor Schildroth and my outreach teammates, Mary Anne, Michelle and Quinton, who I have done outreach with countless times.

Once the class settled in, we kicked off by telling the class our trans biographies in a nutshell. Then we split up the teams with the post-ops going to another classroom with half the students and the no-ops (Mary Anne and me) handling Q&A with the other half of the students. At the half time, the teams switched off so that all the students had a chance to interrogate the post-ops and no-ops alike.

For the first time, there were religious and political questions. In light of the recent election, the political question did not surprise me, which was how secure we felt as transgender people after the election? (My answer: Very insecure.) The religious question was how religious were we? (My answer: Not very.)

Since we are no-ops, one student asked us if we considered becoming post-ops. My answer was that at my ripe old age, I would not consider it, but if I was young again, I would seriously consider it.

I don't recall the other questions probably because they were the same or similar to questions we have answered in past outreach sessions.

At the end of the class, the students thanked us and we moseyed over to the student center for a late lunch. I had a slice of veggie pizza, which was very tasty, but a few hours later, I experienced some of the worst indigestion I've had in quite awhile. Since I had eaten nothing else that day, I assume that the peppers on the pizza did not agree with me.

Other than that blip on the radar, it was a good day out among the civilians and I hope to do it again real soon now.

Wearing Boston Proper.

Coco Martin femulating in the 2015 Filipino television action drama Ang Probinsyano.

Cyber Dress

While I was at Macy's shopping for a hat on Tuesday, I saw a womanikin wearing a dress to die for. I perused a nearby rack and it came in my size, but I was reluctant to disrobe to try it on because I had on a white sweater dress that I had to pull over my head to take off and put on.

When I tried on the sweater dress at Dress Barn a month ago, I got some makeup on the dress. I pointed out the mess I made to the sales associate and somehow she cleaned off the makeup.

Next time I am at Dress Barn, I will have to ask her how she did it, but without that knowledge, I did not want to take a chance and mess my dress before my outreach session. And after I saw the price tag ($109.50), I did not feel too bad.

Online Christmas shopping the next day, I found myself on Macy's website checking out the dress and realized that cyber sales were still in affect at Macy's and I would not have to pay list price.

So I added the dress to my virtual shopping bag, proceeded to check-out and was shocked by the cyber sales price: $43.99 ― 60% off list! And free shipping!

What a deal!

Wearing White House Black Market.

Barry Scott (center right) and Ricky Renee (far right)
femulating in the 1970 British film Goodbye Gemini.