On the Road Again

This is the only photo I have of me and my Subaru. I must get more photos with the most favorite car I ever owned.

I have driven my Subaru thousands of miles cross-country cross-dressed and I will do so again next week when I drive from Connecticut to Ohio and back. My experiences as a woman driver were revealing to me.

(Funny story: After I purchased my Subaru back in 2007, a lesbian friend remarked, "How appropriate," because Subaru's are reputed to be the vehicle of choice among lesbians. I had no idea!)

👠 If I wear shorts or a short skirt or short dress when I drive, tractor trailer drivers will occasionally honk in appreciation of the view. Even though I am an old lady, I have had this experience more than once.

👠 No surprise here, but male drivers will take advantage of woman drivers. Men drive more aggressively when they cross paths with me. They assume that I will back off and give them the right of way, which I usually do, not because I am meek and mild, but because I am crossdressed. I do not want to get into an accident, then have to deal with civilians and police as an outed crossdresser, which showing my driver's license will clearly reveal.

👠 Following up on the previous point, I drive legal as a woman driver. I closely follow all the rules of the road because I don't want to deal with police as a crossdresser. My understanding is that in my neck of the woods, dealing with the police is not an issue because they have been trained to deal respectfully with our kind. Beyond my neck of the woods, who knows? In any case, who wants to deal with the police respectfully or not?

👠 Car trouble as a woman driver is a piece of cake. You won't break a nail or get a smudge of car grease on your skirt fixing the problem. Being an AAA member is one solution, but instead of waiting for AAA to show up, just look helpless and soon a gentleman will stop by and do the dirty work. It happened to me once while shopping at a strip mall. When I returned to my car with my purchases, my car would not start, so I opened the hood to see if that would help. It did! Within minutes, two gents in a pickup truck pulled up, assessed the situation and determined that my battery was dead. They carefully explained to me how to start the car by popping the clutch and I was quickly on my way.

👠 Passing is easy as a woman driver. Just use your turn signal to indicate what you are doing and when the passing lane is clear, speed up to enter the passing lane. After you passed, use your turn signal again and return to the travel lane. Seriously, passing as a woman is easier sitting inside your car. Tinted glass and reflections off the glass camouflage your appearance so you are less likely to be read sitting in your Subaru. Waiting at a traffic light one night, a guy in the lane next to me rolled down the window on the passenger side of his car and tried earnestly to engage me in conversation. I ignored him, but I assumed that I passed especially since it was dark.

👠 During long roadtrips, you are likely to need to use a restroom. I have no fear about using the ladies' room in Connecticut because I know the state laws protect me, but I feel less comfortable using the ladies' rooms in other states because their state laws may not protect me. However, I will feel even more uncomfortable if I don't use the ladies' room, so I do what I have to do and have never had a problem. For what it's worth, I have successfully relieved myself in ladies' rooms in the following states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia.

And so I go.

Wearing Bebe

Womanless fashion show (circa 1970)

Peer Appearance

Karen Bigelow: A Peer

What do celebrities Kirstie Alley, Jane Seymour, Kathryn Bigelow, Lynda Carter, Angelica Huston, Cheryl Ladd, Pam Dawber, Karen Allen and Patricia Wettig have in common?

They were all born in 1951, so they will all be 68 years old by the end of this year, just like me.

Cool cats occasionally scold me that I dress too young. My hair is too long, my skirts too short, my heels too high and my makeup too too for a 68-year-old woman. They whine that I should "dress my age!"

OK — so how do I dress my age?

I know how my grandmothers dressed when they were in their 60s (back in the 1960s coincidentally), but no one of any age dresses like that today.

Looking around to see how my peers dress does not work because I am bad at guessing peoples' ages, so I am never sure who are my peers age-wise.

So I resorted to the Internet.

I searched "women born 1951" and Google came back with a variety of lists of famous people born that year. After checking to see if I made the list (I did not), I checked to see who did.

I culled the females from the top of the lists, searched the Internet for any of their photos taken during the past 12 months and I found recent photos of the females mentioned above. (By the way, four of them also appear on my Famous Females of Height List: 5'8" Kirstie Alley, 5'9" Lynda Carter, 5'10" Angelica Huston and 6' Kathryn Bigelow.)

First I looked at the hair. None had hairdos shorter than mine. Two wore pageboys and the rest wore shoulder-length or longer hairdos. Therefore, based on my peers, my hair is too short for a 68-year-old woman!

Next I looked at the shoes. All wore heels of various heights. Hard to be exact, but I estimate that the average heel height was in the 3 to 4 inch range. (Hands down, the tallest female, Kathryn Bigelow, wore the highest heels.) So I conclude that my choice in footwear, that is, heels in the 2 to 5 inch range fit right in with my peers.

To determine how much makeup a person wears, you need a photo of that person without makeup to compare it with a photo of that person with makeup. I had no photos without makeup, so determining how much makeup my peers wear was difficult.

Nearly all of them wear eye makeup, probably no more or less than I do. Nearly all also wear lip color, but here is where I need to make an adjustment. No dark reds, so if I want my lip coloring to match my peers, a more natural lip color should be my goal.

I knew going in that skirt length might be my downfall and I was correct. Most of the hemlines were in the neighborhood of the knee, either at the knee or slightly above or below the knee. None wore a thigh-high hemline like I occasionally find myself wearing.

In conclusion, all I have to do is wear a more natural lip color and lower my hemlines, then I will be dressing my age. On the other hand, life is too short, so maybe I will wear whatever I damn well please!

Wearing Wholesale 7

Carollyn Olson wearing Venus

Wednesday Wanderings

Actresses Portraying Transwomen: Counterpoint

My post yesterday suggested that male actors should portray transwomen in films and on television. My friend Diana suggested something different and you can read here post on this topic here.

Second Planet from the Sun

Monday, I wrote about my discovery of clothing from online seller Venus. It's not like I just discovered Venus a week ago; I have been aware of Venus for years, but I thought that in general, their clothing was too sexy and I held off buying their clothing... because I didn't want to look too sexy???

I Love the Smell of Ohio in the Morning

Did I mention that I will be living as a woman 24/7 for 5 days the weekend after Mother's Day? I'm so looking forward to my annual trip to Ohio for Hamvention! I hope to see some ham radio sisters there.

Wearing Etienne Aigner (Source: Etienne Aigner)

Bill Kaulitz

Actresses Portraying Transwomen

I have a pet peeve: actresses portraying transwomen.

Here are two portrayals that come to mind that are so unrealistic: Rebecca Romijn on Ugly Betty and Famke Jannsen on Nip/Tuck.

Both are television portrayals, but the film industry is just as guilty using actresses to portray trans-woman, for example, Raquel Welch in Myra Breckenridge and Felicity Huffman in Transamerica.

Male actors should portray transwoman. Such portrayals would be more realistic if men filled the T-girl roles. Few actresses are the right size to realistically portray a male-to-female transperson. Their voices are not convincing and in boy mode, their mannerisms are not convincing.



When male actors do portray transwoman, the portrayals are very realistic. Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto, Lee Pace in Soldier's Girl and Johnny Depp in Ed Wood are examples of successful portrayals of actors portraying transwomen.

Can you imagine someone like Drew Barrymore portraying Ed Wood? I think not.

Wearing Venus (Source: Venus)

Ed Wood femulating in the 1953 film 📺 Glen or Glenda.

Transwomen are from Venus

Venus "Neck Detail" jumpsuit

I have been shopping for a new outfit to wear when I make my presentation at Hamvention next week. As a presenter, I thought something "business casual" would be appropriate (like the jumpsuit I wore last year).

Not finding anything I liked in the brick and mortar stores around here, I began looking at the usual suspects online. Nothing caught my eye, so I began exploring online stores that I have never purchased from before. Doing so is a little unpredictable because I have no purchase history and don't know if a store's clothing runs small, large or true-to-size. I also don't know anything about the quality of the clothing.

Despite those reservations, I visited Venus and among their large selection of jumpsuits, I found one that screamed "business casual;" I thought it would be perfect for making my presentation. They had my size and I put it in my shopping cart ($49).

I also was on the lookout for a second new outfit to wear during my roadtrip. So I poked around the Venus website and found a romper – an item of clothing that I have considered purchasing in the past, but never did because I thought the styles were too young for me.

The romper I found is unlike most romper styles I have seen in the past. It is called a "tailored romper" and looks so business-like that some women might not think twice about wearing one to work. It certainly would be appropriate to wear on my trip, so I added it to my shopping cart ($29) and checked out.

I placed my order on Sunday and began worrying if the clothing fit? Was it cheaply made? I soon received an email that Venus shipped my order and tracking it indicated it would arrive on Friday.

It arrived on time and I opened the package soon after the mailman dropped it off on the front porch. My first impression was that the quality of the clothing was very good, but my second impression was that the jumpsuit looked too small for me and I was disappointed.

Looks can be deceiving and in the past, clothing that I think looks too small fits fine when I try it on, so I slipped into my shapewear, tried on the jumpsuit and discovered it was a perfect fit as was the romper.

I was so impressed with my purchase from Venus that I plan to revisit their website real soon now.

Venus "Tailored Romper"

Bert Errol, early 20th Century professional femulator (Source: Queer Music Heritage)

Someday Funnies

Wearing Veronica Beard (Source: Intermix)

Andreo Ermel femulates Amanda Lear on Spain's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

15 or 18, Give or Take 3 Million

Working on the blog!

I am well into Year 12 of writing Femulate and this weekend, the Statcounter near the bottom of the left column will increment past 15,000,000 hits!

15 freaking million!

On the other hand, Blogger, which hosts this blog claims that the "Pageviews all time history" for Femulate is over 18 million! '

18 freaking million!

Either way, I am proud of those figures and want to thank you readers for your loyalty. I couldn't have done it without you!

To keep you coming back, I am constantly tweaking the blog, trying to improve the your blog experience. For example, I recently started using the video screen icon 📺 to indicate that there is an internet video associated with whatever I happen to be writing about. Just click the icon 📺 and you will be transported to that video.

Not a big deal, but I think it is "neat" to quote Annie Hall.

Over the years, some of the blog's improvements were the results of suggestions from readers, so if you have an idea to improve the blog, please e-mail me with your suggestion.

And so it goes.

UPDATE: Statcounter hit 15,000,000 on Sunday at 10:24 EDT.

Wearing Unique Vintage (Source: Unique Vintage)

📺 Dan Quagmire en femme in a 2010 episode of Family Guy.

A Moot Point

Almost nobody gives a damn about your life but you and there's a good chance you don't give as much of a damn as you think. If you did, you'd already have done the hard work necessary to change yourself to match your idealized image. Most people aren't capable of that. It's too hard, we're too lazy as a species, and life is just too long and too filled with problems that need immediate solving. And then, at some point, you're not in the picture anymore, and it's all a moot point, for you anyway. — Matt Zoller Seitz & Alan Sepinwall, The Sopranos Sessions

Wearing Michelle Maso top, Ganni skirt and Alexandre Birman sandals (Source: Intermix)

Femulator, circa 1930

Never Gets Old

Staffing our booth at Hamvention 2018

Velma wrote, "Your comments on having two days out en femme in one week brought a recollection from one of our recent support group meetings. Several of us had concluded that they feel satisfied, grounded, calmed and focused after about two days out femulating per week. More time out than that did nothing to increase the changed feelings, but additional femulation almost became burdensome.

Burdensome?

Hardly.

Sure, it feels good to kick off my heels and take off my girdle after a day out as a woman, but I am always ready to do it over again the next day and the day after that.

Why?

Despite my body parts, I am a feminine being and femulating fulfills the need to express that femininity that I had hidden in a closet for most of my life.

And I disagree with the statement that "More time out than that [2 days] did nothing to increase the changed feelings."

Quite the contrary, every additional minute that I am out en femme just confirms my being as feminine. My feminine reaction to every little thing that occurs when I am out just adds to the pile of confirmations that indicate that I am indeed a woman.

Velma also wrote, "I am aware you have mentioned that you would dress full time if possible. Did you always feel this way or did this desire grow and evolve through time? How many days have you gone dressed en femme on a continuous basis?"

Once I discovered that it was possible to live full time as a woman, I had a strong desire to do so. My commitment to my wife is the only thing holding me back, so I try to fulfill that desire as best as I can  by living full time as much as possible in those chunks of time that do not involve my wife.

My longest continuous chunk of time en femme was seven days the four times I attended Fantasia Fair for the full week. But in my opinion, that does not count because it is not a real life experience. Most of the civilians you encounter in Provincetown are aware that the Fair is in progress and assume every tall woman is a femulator.

So I feel that my longest real life experiences en femme were my five days attending a workshop in New York City and my annual five-day trips to Ohio to attend Hamvention. There most of the civilians are unaware of my origins and I can genuinely experience life as a woman.

Wearing Unique Vintage (Source: Unique Vintage)

British soldier P.R. Morgan femulating in the Timbertown Follies during World War I.

Living Lives

Saturday, I spent the day at the UConn Health Center attending the Transgender Lives Conference. (That's me in the photo above at the conclusion of the conference hanging out to catch friends for final goodbyes.)

Fashionista Atención 👉 The weather was unseasonably cold and the rooms at the Health Center run hot and cold, so I wore a long-sleeved shift dress (JB by Julie Brown) and topped it off with a shrug (Avon). Accessories were silver earrings (Napier), scarf, white watch and charm bracelet (Avon), nude high heel pumps (Payless) and a Coach bag. (I received a whole bunch of positive comments about my outfit at the conference.)

I was up at 6 AM to get ready to arrive at the Health Center between 8 and 9 AM. I was out the door at 8:15 and arrived at the conference 20 minutes later.

I checked in, got my presentation packet and walked one flight up where coffee was available. Problem was that the conference opened in the auditorium on the first floor, so I had to walk downstairs in heels with a cup of coffee in one hand (there were no tops for the cups) and my bag and presentation packet in the other hand with no hands left to hold onto the railing on the staircase. I climbed downstairs as gingerly as possible, but I still spilled some coffee on myself along the way!

There were four time slots for workshops. My presentation was in the third slot (at 1 PM) and I attended workshops in other three slots.

"Meet the Publisher and Contributors to Connecticut Voice" was a pitch to contribute articles to Voice, a new slick magazine for the Connecticut LGBT community.

"Title Withheld to Protect the Clueless" — I was clueless going into this workshop and I exited this workshop just as clueless. The folks conducting this workshop seemed to know what they were talking about, but I didn't get it. Afterwords, I asked a friend who also attended this workshop and she exited just as clueless as I was.

"The History of Transgender History" was presented by Dallas Denny, famed author and editor of transgender writings and someone I consider a friend. Dallas talked about how transgender history was basically forgotten in earlier days and how it has grown in importance with various people and organizations archiving everything they can get their hands on today.

Lunch was served at the halfway point. While in the lunch line, I met up with Dana, a Femulate reader who drove up from Philadelphia Saturday morning (216 miles) to attend the conference and in particular, see my presentation. We ate lunch together, where we discussed a variety of transgender topics and previewed my presentation.

My presentation, "Crossdressing Successfully in the Real World," was lightly attended, but the folks in attendance got an earful. We only ended the presentation when the folks attending the next presentation kicked us out of the room!

I met up with other friends, acquaintances and celebrities, most notably, Ariadne Kane, a transgender pioneer who is most famous for being one of the founders of Fantasia Fair*. Ari attended my presentation and we exchanged phone numbers so that we can continue our discussion in the near future.

Attendance seemed down from previous Transgender Lives Conferences I have attended, but those in attendance yesterday were very interested and enthusiastic, which made up for the lower attendance numbers.

It was a very eclectic crowd and all ages were in attendance. In particular, I noticed more people who appeared older than me than I had noticed in the past. Don't know what that means, but there you have it!

It was a great conference and I am already planning my presentation for next year.

* I just noticed that my book, Fantasia Fair Diaries, is referenced in Wikipedia's entry for "Fantasia Fair."

Wearing BCBGMAXAZRIA (Source: Rue La La)

📺 Eugeniusz Bodo femulates Mae West in the 1937 Polish film Piętro Wyżej.