Someday Funnies

Source: Macy's

Jonny Beauchamp femulates in the 2016 biopic Thirsty, which was partially filmed in Provincetown.
View the trailer here.

Katy’s Roommate

During a recent Googling, I learned about a new television series, Katy Keene, premiering tonight on The CW television network.

When I was a youngster, one of my favorite comic book characters was Katy Keene. She was a long-legged fashion queen with jet black hair and I was fascinated by her glamorous image. And I loved cutting out the Katy Keene paper dolls and outfits that appeared in the pages of her comic books.

No one ever discouraged my interest in Katy Keene. In fact, Mom abetted it by helping me cut out the more difficult outfits. (Sometimes I think Mom wanted me to be a girl or maybe she knew I was a girl at heart. Anyway, she always encouraged me in all of my interests including those on the feminine side of the street.)

I don't recall any crossdressing in the pages of Katy Keene, but the new Katy Keene television series has a crossdressing character, Katy’s roommate, named Jorge/Ginger. Jonny Beauchamp plays the character and it is not his first acting stint in a dress – he played transwoman Angelique in the 2014-15 television series Penny Dreadful (you can view a clip from that series here.)

Lucy Hale, the actress playing Katy Keene, is not a long-legged fashion queen. She is only 5 foot 2, but  I will give the new series a chance and tune in tonight.

Wearing Madeleine

Jonny Beauchamp (far right) femulates in television’s Katy Keene.
View a clip from the show here.

13

February 5, 2007, I kicked things off with “Welcome to my new blog!”

Thirteen years later, after 4,688 posts, the blog is as popular as ever. It averages about 5,000 hits per day and I receive lots of blog-related e-mails.

The blog consumes a lot of time and effort. The pay stinks and about once a week, I feel like pulling the plug. But then I receive an e-mail from someone saying that the blog motivated her to get out of the closet and experience the world as the woman she really is.

E-mails like that make it all worthwhile and motivate me to keep on blogging... at least for another week.

Wearing Madeleine

A Femulator (February 2007)

Just Answering

These are my answers to the questions I posed here yesterday.

Does anyone really get jazzed about the Super Bowl commercials?

Watching the run-up to the Super Bowl every year, the media purports that there is more interest in the commercials than the game. I don't get it – in my opinion, to get jazzed about the commercials seems preposterous to me.

I watched the game Sunday while working on a website that I am rebuilding. I had the volume turned off because I don’t care for the announcers and only looked up at the TV while a play was executed. So I did not even hear the commercials.

However, I will admit to watching and enjoying two commercials on YouTube after a I was alerted to them: the Boston smaht pahk commercial and the Bill Murray Groundhog Day parody.

I cannot leave this topic without mentioning the iconic 1997 Holiday Inn Super Bowl commercial. So there, I mentioned it.

When en femme, do you sit or stand to pee?

I sit like a lady.

Heels or flats?

What are flats?

Sephora or Ulta?

Sephora

Why aren’t Jan & Dean in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

Surf music is my favorite music genre and Jan & Dean was one of my favorite rock groups. “In the early 1960s, Jan & Dean were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music styles popularized by the Beach Boys,” so says Wikipedia, and in my humble opinion, deserve to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Why isn’t Luis Tiant in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Luis Tiant was the most amazing pitcher I ever saw. I was lucky enough once to see him pitch while I sat in the stands right behind home plate at Fenway Park and he put on a show I will never forget. El Tiante's stats are comparable to other pitchers in the Hall of Fame and he deserves a plaque in Cooperstown, too.

Do you visit this blog just for the photos?

I am not a visitor – I am the blog!

Has a guy ever chat you up?

Yes – by trans chasers and skirt chasers alike.

Ever discover that a male friend, relative or acquaintance is also a gurl?

So far, one friend, one relative and three acquaintances.

Ben Stone or Jack McCoy?

Ben Stone

(I am a big fan of television’s original Law & Order. Ben Stone, played by Michael Moriarty, was the Executive Assistant District Attorney on the show from 1990 to 1994. Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, was E.A.D.A. from 1994 to 2010.)

Josephine or Daphne?

Daphne

(Josephine and Daphne were the female names adopted by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon when they femulated in the film Some Like It Hot.)

Wearing Ted Baker

Bryan Cranston femulates in a 2020 Super Bowl commercial parodying the film The Shining.
You can view it here.

Just Asking

Does anyone really get jazzed about the Super Bowl commercials?

When en femme, do you sit or stand to pee?

Heels or flats?

Sephora or Ulta?

Why aren’t Jan & Dean in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

Why isn’t Luis Tiant in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Do you visit this blog just for the photos?

Has a guy ever chat you up?

Ever discover that a male friend, relative or acquaintance is also a gurl?

Ben Stone or Jack McCoy?

Josephine or Daphne?

Wearing Boston Proper

Christian Clavier (right) femulating in the 1982 French television movie Le Père Noël est une ordure.
View a clip from the movie here.

Someday Funnies

Wearing Bebe

A Frenchman femulating in Paris, circa 1962

Got T-Dar?

Do you have T-Dar? I do and if you are reading this blog, you probably have T-Dar, too.

T-Dar, short for trans-radar, is the ability to detect a trans-person when they are presenting in their non-birth gender. For example, you see a tall woman walking through the mall. Suddenly, your T-Dar kicks in and you begin looking for clues that the woman is actually a natal male presenting as a female.

No matter how good you think your T-Dar may be, you seldom have an opportunity to determine whether your T-Dar is working correctly.

You can confront a suspected trans-person, but that can be disastrous, especially if you are wrong. Recently, I read about a transwoman who encountered two tall women while shopping. Her T-Dar told her that the two women were trans and she confronted them by introducing herself as trans and saying something to the effect, "You're trans, too, aren't you?"

The two women reacted as if the trans-woman had just gotten off a spaceship from Uranus. They had no idea what she was talking about and when it became apparent to the transwoman that she had erred, she wished that she was on Uranus.

And even if your T-Dar is correct confronting a suspected trans-person can be a sensitive matter.

One time when I was attending First Event, I arrived at the hotel in boy mode and took the elevator to the floor where I could register for the event. The elevator stopped before reaching my destination and a transwoman got on. I was 101% positive that she was trans and without thinking, I asked her if she was enjoying First Event.

She was taken aback by my query and seemed very uncomfortable. I immediately realized the error of my ways and explained to her that I was trans, but having just arrived at the hotel, had not changed into girl mode yet. She seemed a little relieved, but I learned a lesson and would never do that again.

So it is probably best to use your T-Dar in a solitary manner. Keep your T-Dar findings to yourself unless, of course, you write a trans-blog, then you can publicize your T-Dar results. (“Yesterday, I saw a trans-woman in ladies' shoes at Macy’s.”)

I believe that most trans-people have T-Dar. It almost comes naturally because trans-people look for affirmation that there are other trans-people out there. What better way to affirm that then to actually see another trans-person in person? Seeking that affirmation, trans-people check out potential suspects wherever they go (at least, I do).

Even when my T-Dar determines that the six-foot woman walking through the mall is, in fact, a genetic female, it provides a different kind of affirmation. It affirms that there are genuine tall women out there and as a six-foot-plus transwoman, it gives me encouragement to go out en femme and join the other tall women out there because I am not alone.

(Danger, Danger, Will Robinson! This post is a rerun!)

Wearing Bebe

Enrico Lo Verso femulating in the 1997 Italian film As You Want Me (Come Mi Vuoi). See the trailer here.

Throwback Thursday

Femulate was not my first blog. Before Femulate, there was A Passing Interest and before that, NFem.

Those blogs had nowhere near the following that Femulate has. In my opinion, some of the posts on those earlier blogs deserved wider readership. So occasionally I will dig up a worthy post from A Passing Interest or NFem and repost it here, which is exactly what I am doing today.

I hope you enjoy this post from November 2003 all about the second time I went to work on Halloween en femme.

At Work En Femme Again

Two weeks before Halloween, Human Resources announced that there would be Halloween festivities at work including a costume contest. Naturally, I was overjoyed at the opportunity to dress at work as my gender of choice again.

I say “again” because three years ago, the company-sponsored Halloween festivities included a costume contest. I dressed in fairly convincing office-girl drag and won the contest hands down.

After this year’s announcement, a few people who were familiar with my award-winning costume asked me if I was getting dressed again this Halloween. The women who asked actually were encouraging me to do so.

I played coy saying that it didn’t seem that anyone else in our building was dressing; I didn’t want to be the only one in costume. In reality, I did not care if I was the only one in the state in costume; if the company said it was ok to appear in costume, then I was not going to miss the opportunity to do so.

I started shopping for a new outfit and found something darling on the Jessica London web site. It was described as a “Helen Blake mock two-piece dress. White collar, long sleeves and three rhinestone buttons. Polyester. Dry clean. Made in USA from imported fabric.” It had no waist, so I thought I would be able to wear it without foundation garments and not have folks wondering if I was wearing foundation garments. The dress was on clearance, so I ordered it and it arrived four days before Halloween.

The Mrs. said it looked like “a schoolmarm dress.” I didn’t mind that, but when I tried it on, it was too big. Not only did I look like a schoolmarm, but I looked like a schoolmarm in a muumuu.

I should have ordered it one size smaller, but it was too late to send it back and get a smaller size in time for Halloween. So, three nights before Halloween, I had to find an outfit to wear that would fit the office girl drag category. Note that in addition to spending the day at work en femme, I planned to go to the mall during lunch, so I did not want something too outrageous and that would eliminate my real short skirt outfits.

After trying on a half-dozen outfits, I decided to wear my navy blue pinstriped suit. I always looked good in it and even though its skirt is short, the outfit is so office girl drag that I could get away with it. With the suit, I planned to wear a black lace blouse, black 3.5-inch stiletto pumps, black pantyhose, and my blue faux pearl necklace, earrings, and bracelet set.

Halloween eve, I Naired my legs, arms, and chest, packed my purse, and organized everything I needed Halloween morning so that I could get ready as fast as possible and get to work between 7:30 and 8 AM.

Halloween morning, I was up at 4:45 AM. I showered and shaved with a brand new razor blade and then began doing my makeup. It takes me about an hour to do my makeup and Halloween was typical.

I was dressed by 6:30 AM. I took the dog out to do her morning duty and retrieved the newspaper. Back in the house, I fed the cats and the puppy and did my nails. I used Revlon’s self-adhesive nails. They are pricey, but they are great. No glue, no sticky tabs, and they stay on tight. I have never lost one.

I was just about ready to go, when a minor disaster occurred. As I was adjusting the pantyhose on my left leg, I caught a point of my faux gem ring on the pantyhose on my right leg and it started to run. The run was on my upper inner thigh, so I figured it would not be noticeable and I used the old trick of applying some clear nail polish to the run to make it stop running.

I grabbed my purse, got in my car, and drove to work with Shania singing Man, I Feel Like A Woman blasting on the CD player (to put me in the mood). Thirty minutes later, I parked my car in my usual parking spot at work and got ready to exit my car. I noticed that a fellow who sits three cubicles from me was just getting out of his car and heading my way to get inside the building (my car was parked near the entrance).

I said to myself, “Well, here goes,” and I got out of my car just as he was passing. I said hello in my normal voice and he returned a hello without any sign of recognition.

I know he knows my car. We are usually among the first people at work and just the day before, he mentioned something about my car, but he had no clue who I was. I thought, “This was going to be good” and it was.

People who saw my costume three years earlier, recognized me right away, but the folks who had not seen me en femme before had no clue. It was very humorous when they learned who I was. The majority had to be told who I was; very few figured out whom I was.

The costume contest was a flop. Only three other people showed up in costume. Morale has been poor for a while. We have had some lay-offs and the folks in the factory were working three- and four-day weeks for a while, so there are not a lot of happy campers around that felt like participating in a company-sponsored costume contest.

Despite the low participation, the contest went on. We each received numbers to wear and we were escorted around the company for all to view. After folks saw us, they were supposed to vote using the numbers we wore. The categories were scariest, funniest, and most original, so there were four contestants vying for three prizes.

After we began our tour, one of the other contestants suggested that I say “hello” in a butch voice as we walked around because she thought the folks might think I was just another girl from HR escorting the contestants. And so I did.

When the votes were totaled, I received the most votes, but HR decided to give all four of us prizes, which was real nice of them to do. One of the women who encouraged me to dress joked that I probably won the “scariest” category. I asked why and she said that although the women thought it was great that I dressed like a woman, a lot of guys probably thought it was scary because they found me attractive. I never thought of it that way!

I had a great experience. I got a few “you look too good” comments, but I just took them in stride. The most attractive woman in our company, a tall “to die for” blond, visited my cubicle and wanted to check out my makeup job. She was surprised that I did my own makeup.

For some reason, I mentioned the run in my stocking and how I stopped it with the nail polish trick. She asked me how I knew to do that and I told her the truth, that is, I had read it somewhere. As soon as I said that I realized she would wonder what I was reading, obviously not Mechanics Illustrated! She just said, “Uh huh,” and then she said I looked “hot!” I think she suspects I do this a lot. A couple of other women mentioned that I had “great legs.”

During lunch, I drove to the mall. As I sat in the car fixing my makeup, I noticed all the women entering and exiting Filene’s. What a bunch of slobs! Most of them looked liked they were doing the laundry at home and suddenly discovered that they had to go to Filene’s and buy some detergent! I could not believe how poorly most of them were dressed. I did not see one skirt or dress. I did see some women dressed nicely in slacks or pants, but they were in the minority.

I was way overdressed, but I said, “what the heck” and entered Filene’s. By now, the balls of my feet were screaming because of the high heels I had worn all morning, so I switched to a different pair of shoes with a lower chunky heel. They were a lot more comfortable, but were actually a little loose and the right shoe slipped off my foot a couple of times while I walked around Filene’s. That sure made it difficult to walk gracefully!

A lot of people read me, but no one confronted me. I ended up at the M·A·C makeup counter. The saleswoman was very helpful and I bought two items that I needed. Then, I left the store and went back to work.

It was an interesting day, but I don’t think I will do it again. One of the female contestants suggested we attend next year as bride and groom (her the groom and me the bride), but I think I will pass. If I showed up in drag again, I think people will really start to wonder about how I dress on weekends, so next year, I think I will attend dressed in a male costume. Something macho like a hairdresser or fashion designer!

Wearing Venus

Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey femulating in the 1969 British film Carry On Constable. See the video here.

A Crossdresser’s Best Friend

“Confidence: A Crossdresser’s Best Friend” is the title of the workshop I will present at two local conferences this spring, the True Colors Conference and the Transgender Lives Conference.

When I started going out among the civilians, I was confident that I would be read by everyone because of my size (6 foot 5 in heels and 200 pounds plus). In fact, I was so confident that I would not pass that it preventing me from even trying. I lost count how many times I drove to the mall en femme, then drove home without ever getting out of the car.

But I was determined and after making another drive to the mall en femme and sitting in my car for 20 minutes, I finally got up the courage to get out of the car and enter the mall.

Talk about anti-climatic! Instead of all hell breaking loose, I hardly garnered any attention at all. A few women smiled at me, a few even said “hello” and one or two smirked, but most of the time I was as invisible as a cisgender middle-aged woman.

My confidence performed an about-face that day and each time I went out thereafter, my confidence just increased to the point that today, I don’t think about it.

Wearing Rebecca Taylor

Patrick Walshe McBride femulating for a 2018 episode of
UK television’s Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators

Chivalry Lives Again

The day my car battery died!

Velma’s story, posted here on Monday, reminded me of one of my encounters with chivalry.

On my way home after doing outreach at a Human Sexuality class at Southern Connecticut State University, I stopped at Dress Barn. After shopping, I returned to my car and it won't start! The dashboard lit up, the radio played, but when I turn the key, all I get is a loud ticking noise.

I had AAA, but I was a little concerned about dealing with AAA en femme.

As I sat in my car contemplating my next move and occasionally turning the ignition key to no avail, a small red pickup truck parked next to me just as I am cranked the ignition for the umpteenth time.

Two young fellows got out of the truck. They do not ask me if I needed help. Instead the driver walked to the front of my car and signaled to me to pop open the hood.

I gladly did so and the two of them poked around the engine compartment, but did not find anything amiss.

I had a set of jumper cables, so we tried jump starting the car, but that did not work.

Since my car had a manual transmission, they suggested rolling the car and popping the clutch to start it. (I had not done that in years and had completely forgotten that trick.)

So they gave my car a little push. The car started rolling across the parking lot and I am trying to pop the clutch, but I am not getting the job done.

Just as I am about to run out of parking lot, I remembered that I have to pop it into second gear, not first gear, and as soon as I did, the car started.

I waved my hand out the window to my two "good Samaritans" and headed straight home with my fingers crossed that nothing else would go wrong with my car.

I made it home without issue. Next morning, I popped the clutch again to start the car and drove it to my dealer to get it fixed (my car needed a new battery).

I always worried about having car problems when en femme. I thought it could be the worst thing that could happen. Now I am not so sure.

Maybe it is better to be a woman than a man when car problems strike. Would those two fellows be so quick to come to the rescue of a tall middle-aged guy as they were to come to the rescue of a leggy middle-aged blond?

I don't know and I am not anxious to find out again.

Wearing Unique Vintage

Chris Rock femulating on a 1995 episode of television’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. See the video here.