Wednesday, March 28, 2018

One Liners

I am working for Uncle Sam this week wrestling with Turbotax.

When we were dating, I gifted my wife with a dress for Easter that she never wore.

I am a sucker for large cap wigs because they are rare and my head is so voluptuous.

Hyacinths I planted last summer are pushing up through the snow.

Slipping my nylon clad legs into a pair of high heel pumps never gets old.

On Saturday I planted green peas, sugar snap peas, arugula, kale, Bibb lettuce and cauliflower seeds in my Earth Boxes and covered them with clear plastic.

Raquel Welch Salsa in Golden Wheat is in the mail.

My Subaru needs to go to the dealer for the airbag recall.

Even though I have been a computer nerd since the 1970's, I still don't get Twitter (#femulate).




I'd wear this!
I'd wear this!




boy ballerinas
Early 20th Century boy ballerinas.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Got Tuesday

Got Drag Dept.

Zoe informed me that Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame will appear in the film version of Matthew Lopez’s play The Legend of Georgia McBride. Parsons will play the role of Miss Tracy Mills, a veteran drag queen who coaches a broke young man in the art of performing, transforming him from a washed-up Elvis impersonator to a show-stopping drag queen. (Source: Variety)

Parsons is no stranger when it gets to getting girly. That is Jim en femme in the accompanying photo with Steven Weber attending a 2013 benefit in Los Angeles.

Got Links Dept.

Jan Brown suggested I add links to online videos of the Your Face Sounds Familiar femulations that I post in the Femulator slot below. Videos of the femulations do not always exist, but I have embraced Jan's suggestion and have added links when I find them, as I did with todays Femulator, the amazing Janek Traczyk.




Source: moldesdicasmoda.com
(Source: moldesdicasmoda.com)


Janek Traczyk
Janek Traczyk femulates Slawa Przybylska on Polish television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Monday, March 26, 2018

The Engaging Miss Eng'g


The Miss Eng'g (Engineering) womanless beauty pageant at the College of Engineering, University of Philippines-Diliman is one of the best, if not the best womanless pageant conducted at an educational institute or anywhere else for that matter. This year's edition of the pageant was held on March 9 and the Miss Engineering Facebook page has hundreds of photographs documenting the pageant including an album of spectacular evening gown photos (samples above and below).

Wow!

In the 1969, I was a student in the UConn School of Engineering and I cannot imagine my fellow engineering students participating in anything like this. Me, yes, but not the other students in my school!

(Thank you Aunty Marlena for the heads-up about the pageant!)




Wearing Zuhair Murad
Wearing Zuhair Murad




2018 Miss Eng'g womanless beauty pageant
A contestant struts his stuff in the evening gown competition of the 2018 Miss Eng'g womanless beauty pageant.

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Shapewear Sale Alert!

I don't know if Lady Grace is going out if business or just having a clearance sale, but they are now offering huge discounts on shapewear and other unmentionables. The sizes and colors are limited, but I still managed to find seven assorted items to purchase for $78 total!

Someday Funnies






Source: Intermix
Wearing Rag & Bone blazer, Self-Portrait dress and Jimmy Choo heels (Source: Intermix)




Susanna Valenti
Susanna Valenti of Casa Susanna fame

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Friday, March 23, 2018

Trump Bans Most Transgenders from Serving in Military

Trump's War on Transgenders Continues

(CNN) The White House on Friday announced a policy to ban most transgender persons from serving in the US military.

Following a long review of a policy following a tweet by President Donald Trump last year, the White House said the policy will say "transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria -- individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery -- are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances."

Living in the Red Zone

Man and Wife
Responding to my open invitation to "ask me anything," Connie wrote, "I have been enjoying your blog for a long time. I wonder what is your ultimate goal in femulating?"

Ultimately, my goal is to live as a woman full-time. But achieving that goal is another matter.

Reading my blog regularly, you know that I live as a woman as much as possible, but it is not full-time.

Yet I know I could live as a woman full-time because I have done it successfully over long and short periods of time in the real world, out among the civilians.

Coming out is not holding me back. The important people in my life already know about Stana. There is only a handful of people who don't know and it does not matter much to me if they accept Stana or not.

So it is like living in the Red Zone. I am so close to the goal line, but I just can't get across it. The only thing holding me back is my commitment to the woman I married.

Falling in love 35 years ago, I stopped crossdressing and I bought into the old tale that finding the love of my life would cure me. I did not know any better and the lack of information in those pre-Internet Dark Ages did not help. But two years of not crossdressing indicated that there was something to that old saw.

And so it went until one month after our wedding, when we were invited to a Halloween party and I reopened my Pandora's box never to close it again. One too many Halloweens en femme, my wife suspected something. When she asked, I admitted to her that I was a crossdresser.

Fast forward to the Caitlyn Jenner era... when my wife asked, I admitted to her that I was transgender.

And if she asked, I would admit to her that I want to live as a woman full-time.

In the past when I crossdressed, she often commented, "You want to be a woman, don't you?" and I would always deny such a notion. But in my heart, I knew the true answer, but I was afraid to admit it to her or myself.

Today, I think she knows the true answer, too, so she does not bother asking the question. And I am still afraid to admit the truth to her.

And so it goes.




Source: Vensette
Wearing Vensette cosmetics (Source: Vensette)




Glenn Tryon
Glenn Tryon femulating in the 1926 film Along Came Auntie.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

What to do on March 31?

Empty Dance Card Dept.

March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). So how does one celebrate the day when it is on a Saturday of a long holiday weekend?

You can't show up at the office en femme because the office will probably be closed.

How about showing up at an Easter egg hunt dressed en femme or even better, dressed as a Playboy bunny?

But seriously, how does one celebrate the day?

I checked and there are no public events scheduled in my neck of the woods to celebrate the day. Nothing in Connecticut, nothing in Massachusetts and nothing in New York! The closest event is 256 miles away in Burlington, Vermont. And the Burlington TDOV webpage has not been updated since 2016, so I'm not so sure that the Burlington event is a sure thing.

So, what are your plans for Transgender Day of Visibility?

Change is Good Dept.

I made a couple of changes to the blog recently.

No more AdSense ads.

Added the Coffee Break! link. A number of readers asked how to make monetary contributions to the blog and I finally found an easy way to do it. If you click on the link, you will see my better half listed rather than me, but I assure you that anything you donate will go to the blog.

UConn Eats Earrings Dept.

When I attended the True Colors Conference at UConn two years ago, one of my earrings slipped off my ear, fell to my feet and I stepped on it. It was a pair of my favorite vintage retro gold earrings. I retrieved the flattened wayward earring, but there was no repairing it.

Friday, while crossing the street at UConn as I exited the True Colors Conference, there was a gust of wind so strong that it took off one of my earrings and I did not see where it landed. I retraced my steps back and forth over the crosswalk, but I could not find it. I admit my search was not too thorough because the crosswalk was on the main street of the UConn campus and I was dodging vehicles during my superficial search. Sadly, the lost earring was my go-to silver earring, an expensive pair from Napier.

Next time I visit the UConn campus, I will go sans earrings!

Hiding My Goodies Dept.

Club 82's "Who's No Lady" thumbnail ads featuring glamorous female impersonators fueled my interest in crossdressing when I was a young teenager. So much so that I clipped and saved the ads from the newspaper.

I surely did not want any of my family to find my collection, so I had to find a safe place to hide them. I had a shoe box where I stored my baseball card collection that was sorted alphabetically by team name, so I stored the Club 82 ads behind Washington – first in war, first in peace, last in the American League and in my baseball card collection!






Source: Boston Proper
Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)




Diane Michelle
Femulate reader Diane Michelle

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Ask Me Anything


Whenever I do outreach or a workshop like the one I conducted at the True Color Conference on Friday, I begin by saying, "You can ask me anything." (You can also ask me anything by e-mail.)

My standing offer resulted in questions at my workshop and by e-mail. I have answered these questions here in the past, but these three come up so often that I am rerunning them today.

What do you recommend for developing a feminine voice?  

I highly recommend Melanie Anne Phillips' female voice course "Melanie Speaks."

Practice, practice and practice. It took three weeks of practice for 30 minutes every day before my feminine voice arrived, but it was worth the wait because it was amazing!

What do you recommend for hiding a beard?

After a close shave using a shaving gel (like Edge) and a multi-blade manual razor (like Gilette's Fusion), apply a beard cover to your muzzle. Then apply your usual foundation over the beard cover.

For beard cover, I highly recommend RCMA BC2, which is available from Alcone. It is expensive, but lasts forever because a little goes a long way.

I was looking at your photos online. How did you achieve your amazing cleavage?

Since puberty, I have had boobs. I assume I have gynecomastia, but I never sought out medical help for the "problem," so I don't know for sure.

Anyway, my breasts fill a B cup bra, so it does not take much to femulate cleavage when I wear something revealing. I just add a little padding to push my girls up and closer together and the results are fabulous!




Source: Romwe
Wearing Romwe (Source: Romwe)




Shpat Kasapi
Shpat Kasapi femulates Marylin Monroe on Albanian television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

A Full Femme Friday - Część Druga

After my workshop at the True Colors Conference, one student came up to me to ask some questions that she did not want to ask in front of the other attendees. I happily answered all her questions and she went away a happy camper. (Check out tomorrow's post for the questions and answers.)

I returned to the Student Union to turn in my paperwork and meet up with Diana and Maryann to head out to the Adams Mills Restaurant for an early dinner. I gave Maryann the address of the restaurant so she could program it into her smart phone's GPS, then we went our separate ways to retrieve our vehicles and drive to the restaurant.

Thirty-five minutes later, I arrived at the restaurant. Diana's car was already there, but Maryann's car was not. I went inside, found Diana seated in the upper dining room, ordered a drink and we bided our time until Maryann showed up.

Forty-five minutes later, we gave up on Maryann and ordered our meals. Our male waiter referred to us as ladies and he could have not been nicer. I ordered baked stuffed shrimp with rice pilaf and grilled vegetables. The meal was delicious.

We left the restaurant around 5:30 PM and I headed in the general direction of home. Google Maps indicated that the route I normally take was a mess on the west side of Hartford, which is typical for a weekday evening. The alternate southern route was not so messy, so that's the route I took.

There were a couple of areas where the traffic slowed down, but in general, it was not bad and since I was in no hurry to go home and had gotten my second wind after eating, I decided to visit my favorite Roz & Ali (nee Dress Barn), which was located only a few exits further than I normally would exit to go home.

Entering the store, I did not see any of the sales reps I knew by name and vice versa. This did not surprise me because they usually work days, but I was hoping one of them would be working later so I could see and greet them, but it was not to be.

I had received a $10 Roz & Ali coupon in the mail for my birthday that I had to use by the end of the month and I had recently taken notice of a polka dot jumpsuit on their website, so it was a perfect shopping storm.

I found the rack containing the jumpsuits (see the photo above) and took a size 12 and size 14 to the dressing room. The size 12 fit perfectly, so I returned the 14 to the rack and took the 12 to the cash registers.

The sales rep asked for my phone number, typed it into the terminal, which I assume turned up separate accounts for my wife and myself.

"And you are... ?" she asked.

"Stanley," I replied.

As expected, she did not react negatively and rang up my purchase. And that's all I have to say about that.

During the 30-minute trip home, I reflected on my full femme Friday and felt that it had been very fulfilling and I look forward to more days like it.




Source: ModCloth
Wearing ModCloth (Source: ModCloth)




Polish girl wearing polka dots
Polish girl wearing polka dots

Monday, March 19, 2018

A Full Femme Friday


Friday was a full day out en femme. My primary objective for the day was to go to my alma mater, the University of Connecticut, to attend the True Colors Conference and conduct a workshop titled "Cross-Living: Out Among the Civilians." There were also other planned stops during the day.

Getting going was a problem. My 15-year-old blind dog started barking while I was doing my makeup, so I had to stop what I was doing, put her on a leash and take her outside in case she had to do business with the great outdoors. This occurred four times and as a result, I left the house about 30 minutes later than I intended. Once on the road, I encountered a five-mile backup on the Interstate due to a truck fire, so I lost another 30 minutes.

By the way, I wore a houndstooth sheath dress from Dress Barn, black opaque tights from Hue, black bag and black patent high heel pumps from Payless, a black scarf and white and gold watch from Avon and silver hoop earrings from Napier. I also wore a white fake fur jacket from Fashion Bug.

My first stop was the Christmas Tree Shop to exchange a purchase that was broken out of the box. It was actually my sister's purchase and she planned to make the 80-mile roundtrip to exchange her broken purchase. Since the store was on my way to UConn, I offered to make the exchange for her and so I did.

It was uneventful. I had to deal with a woman staffing the customer service desk and a man who fetched the replacement from the stockroom. No one reacted negatively to me and other customers paid me no mind. The only concern I had was loading and unloading a 20-pound box between my car and a shopping carriage without breaking a nail!

I arrived at UConn, parked my car and walked two blocks to the Student Union, which was the epicenter of the conference. The weather was similar to the past few True Colors Conferences — temperature hovering around the freezing point with a steady brisk wind that made it feel a lot colder and caused me worry that my wig might take flight!

After checking in to obtain my workshop paperwork and ID badge, I immediately began encountering old friends and acquaintances (Arlene, Diana, Holly, Lee Ann, Maryann, Robin and another Robin).

I also ran into Bob, who is someone I see at most ham radio conventions I attend. Even though he is openly gay, I did not expect to see him at True Colors Conference and he was just as surprised to see me. He was staffing the booth for a church that supports LGBTQ folks. We talked about his church and my involvement with the conference. As we parted ways, I said, "See you at Hamvention in two months!"

My workshop was at 1:15 PM in another building. Since it was lunch time, my assigned room would be empty, so I decided to go there to get my act together in peace and quiet. I had requested a room with a computer and large display to view photos of me out among the civilians. Turned out that the room had a huge display — approximately 6 x 8 feet, but I forgot my USB flash drive of photos. However, I was able to use the computer to access the Internet and use my blog and flickr account for the visual portion of my workshop.

I had a small, but attentive audience. No one walked out on me and there were pertinent questions and comments.

I emphasized that whether you think you pass or not, just get out there and experience the real world as a woman because in this day and age (especially in our neck of the woods), most civilians won't notice you and even if they do, they probably won't care.

Then I went on to tell them about my positive experiences out among the civilians, especially those times that I seemed to be accepted as a woman by other women. That triggered a comment from one of the students, who said that initially she thought I was a cisgender female! Her comment made my day, but it kind of blew the premise of my workshop out of the water.

And so it goes.




Source: Madeleine
Wearing Madeleine (Source: Madeleine)




Helmut Zierl
Helmut Zierl (center) femulating in the 1997 German television series Ein Mann steht seine Frau (A Man Stands His Wife).