On the Road

By Brenda

For many of us. crossdressing or femulating offers us a chance to express ourselves. Unless you have outed yourself to your spouse or family, it can be very difficult to get better at it by practicing your makeup and presentation skills.

Business travel offers an ideal environment to enjoy the art of crossdressing without the fear of getting caught by those who know you personally.

Airlines have made it more problematic with bag fees to accommodate “her luggage.” With careful packing, you can get away with just a carry-on, but that would entail a TSA pass through that could  pose a problem. Car travel offers a trunk full of shoes to choose from, but departing en femme could be risky. Hotel desk agents typically don’t really care how you check in, so a driveway to check in adventure is very possible. [Stana adds, on countless occasions, I have checked-in in male mode and checked-out in girl mode (or vice versa) and it has never been an issue.]

If you plan ahead, there are local crossdresser groups that have outings that might coincide with your stay to allow you to venture out with others limiting any anxiety of where to go or what to do.

Even if you cannot go fully dressed, the hotel offers a chance after a day of business meetings to practice your makeup skills, which is crucial to proper presentation. I find that even civilians can get the foundation color wrong, but they can get help from the cosmetics counter. I am still not confident with trying that in either gender mode, so I have used my colors when I had a proper makeover done and have experimented when that base color was discontinued. I was able to try a few wig styles and makeup ideas to arrive at a look I felt good about.

Many large cities offer makeover services and I urge you to try them because you will have a very safe environment to learn from a master in the art, offer proper color choices and have a better wig collection to choose from. You must have an agenda of where to go afterwards. ATM machines are popular and shopping malls are safe. You will cruise right by the front desk when you get back to your hotel and sashaying up to your room is easy and will bring great confidence.

I took the plunge for a proper makeover after being disappointed so many times by my lack of skills in makeup application. This is key to femulating well. So pay attention when getting this done and even take notes on the actual products being used.

I was so thrilled with how I looked and felt, I ventured out in the world with my held up high. However, I was very scared about getting caught in my neighbourhood. Doing this in a far off city would have been ideal. The makeover process really turned things around for me because I was able to really really see how well I could look giving me a lot of confidence to venture out as truly myself.

Some Tips

Makeup is key and takes practice. Press-on nails are your friend

TSA has not been an issue... not even asking me why I have four pairs of heels in my carry on. But for makeup, the checked bag will have to be planned.

Dressing your age or your chosen persona is also important to blending in. I feel comfortable as a middle-aged business woman in a two-piece dress suit with suitable heels. Leave the stripper heels and shiny PVC dress in your room, as it will attract unwanted attention.

I enjoy cooler weather when my foundation doesn’t run and wearing more layers makes me too hot. I don’t know how woman really do it in hot muggy weather.

Explore the local thrift shops in both modes to find things to wear. I have found the staff to be helpful and even complimentary. And shopping malls are so busy these days, no one will be on the lookout for crossdressers, so you can enjoy your time without fear.

Local support groups are also wonderful. I did enjoy a night out for dinner at a trans-friendly restaurant and wasn’t worried about trying to fake my voice. I had a great time and really felt myself.

Of course, in-room femulations don't require much in the way of makeup, but at least have nails and lipstick to complete your look.

I have ventured out and felt so good that I rode the subway around the city and realized that no one took particular interest of a woman making her way home from work after a bit of shopping.

On one trip, I was able to a experience a rainbow and not only did I feel sexy, but also felt truly as myself – not as a crossdresser, but as someone that could live life this way full-time. My goal is to live my life as Brenda for several days as a start.

Bon voyage en femme!

Wearing New York & Company

Bill Kaulitz

Trump’s War on Transgenders Marches On

“We are being systematically erased from the government websites… one page at a time.” 

Read all about it on Diana’s blog.

All men will wear dresses

Palomo menswear collection, Fall-Winter 2019

The British edition of GQ magazine published an article titled “What will men wear in 2048?” by Teo Van den Broeke. What follows is an interesting excerpt from the article.

Having called your wardrobe moves since 1988, GQ dons its mystic robes to predict what the fashion of the future looks like...

...

7. All men will wear dresses

In 30 years time, the gender-fluidity movement will have progressed to the point that men are not only allowed but encouraged to wear dresses and skirts. And I’m not just talking about “manly” kilts and tabards, either. Rather, massive, flouncy Molly Goddard-style party frocks that make the best of our legs, feel light on the shoulder and are brilliantly breezy around our bits.

I rarely encounter males in skirts or dresses in my neck of the woods. More often, I see males in female garb that is not skirted, like the male sales associates I have seen working in retail around here, one in a grocery store and two in women’s clothing stores.

On the other hand, femulating males in skirts and dresses is a more common occurrence.

And so it goes.

Wearing New York & Company

Łukasz Zagrobelny femulates Shirley Bassey on Polish television’s Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo.

Someday Funnies

Wearing Ann Taylor

Audrey from New Jersey circa 1960, a Transvestia Magazine girl

Femulating Friday

What’s New Dept.

A week ago, a new computer arrived at Femulate headquarters and I have been busy setting it up. That is the reason there have been no new posts here since Sunday.

The old computer was literally falling apart. Part of the lid broke off and a couple of keys were intermittent. IT (I) replaced the battery in the spring, but it did not improve battery life much. So the Femulate board of directors approved the purchase of a new computer.

I hemmed and hawed over what to buy for over a month. I finally decided to purchase a new 15-inch MacBook Pro to replace my 7-year-old 15-inch MacBook Pro. 

Just as I was about to order a new computer, news arrived that Apple was introducing a new 16-inch MacBook Pro on Thursday. I did not hesitate. I placed an order on Wednesday and FedEx delivered the new computer on Friday.

I’m so glad that I hemmed and hawed!

Brothers Will Be Sisters Dept.

YouTube knows that I am a femulator, so whenever I visit YouTube, it offers me a bunch of femulator-oriented videos to view.

I could not help noticing the proliferation of videos in which a female makes over her brother. Some of the makeover results are amazing. Due to family resemblance, the brother may end up resembling his sister, which is likely to occur because the sister is making her brother up using the same techniques she uses to makeup her self. And in some cases, the sister’s goal is to makeover her brother to look just like her.

The brothers are very cooperative. Some try to hang onto their masculinity by joking about their transformation, but in the end, they permit their sisters to complete the job and seem to enjoy the results.

There are variations of the brother makeover theme: girlfriends making over their boyfriends, mothers making overs their sons and wives making over their husbands. 

Beware! There are some fakes out there in YouTube Land, but after you separate the wheat from the chaff, there are hundreds of genuine transformations.

Wearing Wholesale7

Another variation: femulating brother transforms her brother. See for yourself here!

Someday Funnies

Wearing Ann Taylor

Gloria from Pennsylvania circa 1961: a Transvestia Magazine Girl

My Magic Skirt

By Penny from Edinburgh

I have a magic skirt.

I found her in the wonderfully named Mary’s Living and Giving Shop, a boutique charity shop, a sort of thrift, in Stockbridge on the edge of Edinburgh’s historic New Town. As soon as I tried her on, I just knew that she was meant for me.

She’s a lined tartan pencil skirt in a pattern of shocking pink and mid-green on a black background. She sits perfectly just below the knee at the narrow point of my legs.

Part of her secret is that her three main colours: pink, green and black mean that she goes well with a wide variety of tops. I have had her on with, for example, a black crew neck cardigan, a green long sleeved T and a pink sleeveless polo neck top. She can be dressed up or down according to my mood or the occasion.

I don’t normally wear pencil skirts. Other profiles usually work better for me: A-line skirts give the illusion of a smaller waist, while mermaid or trumpet midi skirts give the impression of curves. However, my magic skirt makes my hips look bigger. I think that this is because being a tartan skirt, she is made with much thicker material, so she has body and doesn’t just hang limply.

Also, her style is smart and conservative, but is colourful, and suits Penny, my femme self, perfectly.

But her real magic is not in the fit, the style or the colours; it is that when I put her on she gives me that extra confidence. Wearing my magic skirt, whatever I do, wherever I go, I simply am Penny.

Wearing Boston Proper

Zack Powell and Rick Hammerly femulating on stage in The Legend of Georgia McBride.

Josephine, Daphne and Me

At the end of my previous post about my first crossdressing sightings on TV, I wrote, “Then there was the first television broadcast of Some Like It Hot and all hell broke loose in my little world!”

I’m not sure which came first, my viewing of the first television broadcast of Some Like It Hot or the revelation that the glamorous women appearing in nightclub advertisements in the Daily News were no ladies.

The Daily News was one of the newspapers that showed up in our house on a routine basis. In the mid-60’s, a New York City nightclub called Club 82 began advertising in the News with thumbnail-sized ads displaying glamorous showgirls with an intriguing caption that revealed that the showgirl “Is No Lady!” Rather, the showgirl was “a femme impersonator.”

My previous crossdressing sightings were all of the men-in-dresses variety. They were not trying to convince anyone that they were real women.

On the other hand, viewing the Club 82 ads and the Some Like It Hot femulations of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon showed me that some of the men in dresses were in fact trying to be convincing women!

If they could do it, maybe I could do it, too!

Wearing Venus

Professional femulators performing at Club 82 circa 1965.

TV TV

My previous post about Jerry Seinfeld’s fear of trying on a dress got me thinking about TV on TV and me. Whereas crossdressing is very common on TV these days, during my formative years, TV on TV was rare and I tried to recall my first encounter with crossdressing on the boob tube.

I came up with three suspects. I viewed these TV on TV encounters when I still measured my age with a single digit, so forgive me for not remembering which came first. 

📺 📺 📺

The People’s Choice was a situation comedy starring Jackie Cooper and a basset hound named Cleo. The show ran from 1955 through 1958.

As a youngster, I saw many episodes in rerun, but only recall one. In that episode, titled “The Male Ego,” Sock, a realtor, played by Jackie Cooper, loses the sale of a house because the prospective buyer's wife dislikes a minor detail.

Convinced that women are beginning to take over the world, Sock goes to sleep and dreams about a future in which the women are taking over and are in the process of acclimating men to their rule. All the women wear pantsuits and are shown forcing reluctant men to enter a transformation booth, which “refines” their personalities and attire. When they exit the booth, the men act in a feminine manner and wear miniskirts.

As Sock enters the booth, he seeks help from Cleo, but she refuses to help him because Cleo is female and loyal to the distaff side of civilization rather than her owner. The dream ends as Sock exits the booth as a girly-guy in a girly outfit.

That is all I remember, but it left an indelible impression on my impressionable mind back then.

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I was a big fan of the Our Gang comedies. One silent Our Gang film, titled Crazy House, left a big impression on me.

In that film, Jean Darling is a rich girl who invites the gang to her elegant home for a party. The gang is allowed to go anywhere in the mansion since her parents and servants are not home and things get a little out of hand.

One of those little things is when the little rich girl convinces one of the male gang members, played by Harry Spear, to switch places with her. After they switch clothes, the girl became aggressive and fights with the boy in the dress and tries to start a fight with other gang members to prove her masculinity.

Needless to say, seeing the boy in the little girl's dress is something I will never forget.

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Our Miss Brooks was a situation comedy about high school teachers. Eve Arden played English teacher Miss Brooks and in one episode, she volunteered to help her boyfriend/biology teacher Mr. Boynton (played by Robert Rockwell) to dress as a woman for Halloween or some other costumed affair.

There was no actual crossdressing shown on TV, but just the discussion of dressing a man as a woman stuck in my memory. 

📺 📺 📺

Then there was the first television broadcast of Some Like It Hot and all hell broke loose in my little world!

And so it went.

Wearing Brahmin

Harry Spear switched clothes with Jean Darling in the Our Gang film Crazy House.

yadda yadda yadda

I use "yadda yadda yadda” as a placeholder for the blog’s text when I am putting the blog together, but I am still lacking the text.

When I start a new blog post, I often have images already in mind for the Femulate Her and Femulator slots before I have written the text of the blog. So I slip in a “yadda yadda yadda” for the text, insert the images and then I work out the blog’s text in my head and on my keyboard.

And oftentimes, the title of a blog post is the last thing I compose, so I insert a “yadda yadda yadda” in the title slot until I come up with something.

Big time Seinfeld fan that I am, I often recall the episode where Jerry is in a dress department of a clothing store and he remarks how he gets a little nervous being surrounded by so many dresses because he fears he might want to try one on. (Been there, done that!)

By the way, isn’t that a great image in the Femulate Her slot below? I love the composition of the photo, as well as the model’s outfit.

Regarding the Femulator image, I am still amazed at all the female impersonation that occurred in prisoner of war camps during the two World Wars.

One thing I learned after researching and reading articles and books related to the POW environment, some of the soldiers who femulated on stage to entertain their fellow POWs were not civilians, if you know what I mean. A few even femulated when they were not performing on stage, not that there is anything wrong with that.

Wearing Venus

Pinky Smith, World War II French prisoner of war, femulating to entertain his fellow POWs

Worn-Out Workshops

2013 True Colors Conference presenter

A friend returned from Fantasia Fair and reported that her workshop had only two attendees. Been there, done that.

Over the years, I’ve conducted about 25 workshops and a few times, only a couple of people showed up. On the other hand, a few times the attendance was standing room only.

Usually, the attendance is somewhere in between. Oddly, the topics of my workshops don’t vary much, so attendance (or lack thereof) must be due to other factors. 

I am sure that the description of the workshop appearing in the event’s program makes a difference.

One time, the description I provided was something like “how to femulate successfully.” The intended audience were students and attendance was poor. After all, how many kids read a blog written by an old white lady – so they were clueless as to what “femulate” meant? Next time, the description I provided was something like “how to crossdress successfully.” Same intended audience, but attendance was SRO. 

Another factor is the competition.

Are there a lot of workshops in your time slot, thus your potential audience has too many to choose from. Or are the workshops in your time slot sexier than your workshop and likely to attract a bigger crowd than yours?

I think my friend at Fantasia Fair had too much competition. There was a potential audience of about 100 attendees, while there were four workshops scheduled in her time slot. In addition to the competition from three other workshops, her workshop had to compete with all the extracurricular activities that Cape Cod has to offer. Unless you are Caitlyn Jenner, you have to work hard to attract a crowd in that situation.

My best showing at Fantasia Fair was when I had the “Femulate Blog Party.” I advertised it here in the blog everyday for weeks beforehand and as a result, about 15 people showed up. (My other Fantasia Fair presentations were less successful attendance-wise.) 

My friend added, “I don't think workshops are that important now. Not sure what is.”

She has a point. You can find lots of the topics covered by workshops on the Internet for free, so who needs to slog to a trans convention.

Are events like Fantasia Fair, First Event, Keystone Conference, Southern Comfort, etc. becoming more social events and less venues where you can learn something. Who needs another “how to crossdress successfully” workshop?

I guess I have been around the block a few times too many and I don’t need no stinkin’ workshops. But I still attend workshops – more to socialize than to learn. Afterall, I am at a trans conference, so I might as well fill the time by attending a few workshops.

On the other hand, novices will probably get more by attending live workshops than by viewing the same on the Internet. It is one thing to view “how to crossdress successfully” from the safety of your closet. It is another thing to get all dressed up and attend the same workshop in person en femme.

Until I attended my first convention, I was pretty much closeted only going out en femme to attend my support group’s bi-monthly meetings. By attending conventions in hotels filled with civilians, I slowly built up my confidence and eventually I was able to go anywhere I desired without a net. Not sure how much the workshops helped, but attending conventions sure made a difference.

By the way, it is that time of year when I can submit workshop proposals for two local conferences that occur early next year: True Colors and Transgender Lives. Not sure I want to do “how to crossdress successfully” again. Not sure there is even a need for “how to crossdress successfully.”

Let me ask you: If you were attending a conference, what would you like to hear me workshop about?

Wearing Veronica Beard

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka femulate the Olsen twins at Heidi Klum's 2019 Halloween party

Someday Funnies

Wearing ModCloth

Benito Skinner and Terrence O'Connor femulate Kylie and Kendell Jenner at Heid Klum’s 2019 Halloween party.