Losing an Earring and Finding Something Better

By Michelle Wright

Recently, I was one of the speakers at a Transgender Identity Awareness training session for National Health Service (NHS) psychologists in Scotland’s Fife region. My role was to speak from my own life about the lived experience of trans people. 

At the end of the session, the hall became empty rather quickly and I found myself one of the last to put on their coat. As I pulled my scarf around my neck I felt it – a small tug to my right earlobe and then a release. One of my earrings had departed for its own kind of freedom. My hand felt for where it should be but only confirmed that it had gone. It was one of a lovely pair of half moon hoops. As an automatic reaction to this small crisis, my eyes started to scan the floor. 

Just then one of the hosts of the event, I'll call her Eveline, and another lady were leaving together. At the exit door they shouted their goodbyes: “Bye Michelle.” 

Our eyes met and in reply all that came out was, “I have lost an earring.” 

I recall the sound of my voice – the mixture of desperation and disappointment wrapped into a cry for help, a kind of strangled feminine panic. Both ladies turned on their heels and came towards me. They started scanning the floor as I was. Without further communication we fanned out as group and covered the whole area. 

“What color is it?” 

“Is it valuable?” 

“Have you checked if it’s stuck to your clothes?” 

“Leave your name at reception in case it’s found later.”

Eventually I had to admit that it was not going to be found. It was probably lodged in some hidden spot laughing at our search efforts. For sure it was going to remain free. I said my thanks and we all made our way out of the hall. Small hand waves and we were all gone. 

Back in my car, it struck me just what had happened. I had just experienced that elusive thing that all in the trans community look for. My unexpected earring loss had brought me together with my gender peers in a common feminine mission; something all cis women will have lived through at some point or other – the loss of a treasured piece of jewelry and three women bonding together at a higher level of understanding. 

I lost an earring, and found something priceless – acceptance.

Wearing Madeleine

2019 Miss Engineering womanless beauty pageant contestant

Someday Funnies

Wearing Lemoniade

Michael Andrews femulating in the 1987 film Surrender.

Lovely Today

Tuesday, I had an appointment at the vein clinic. It was a six-month follow-up to check for blood clots. Actually, it was more like 11 months because I had to cancel two previous appointments.

I awoke to heavy rain Tuesday morning with more to pore throughout the day. With that forecast, I thought about going to the appointment in boy mode rather than as a woman. But for consistency, I decided to put on my big girl panties and go en femme because I had gone to my previous appointment as a woman.

My appointment was at 1 PM, so I had plenty of time to get ready. I decided to wear the new dress from Venus that failed me in October when a loose button fell to the floor just as I was getting ready to go out. I accessorized with earrings, necklace, watch, black bag and black patent pumps (see photo).

I left home at 12:15 PM and arrived 10 minutes early for my 1 PM appointment accompanied by heavy rain during the entire trip. I was able to park in the spot closest to the door of the doctor’s office and the rain let up a bit, so with an umbrella in hand, I did not get wet.

I checked in with the receptionist and she greeted me with a big smile and, “Hi, Ms. . Please be seated.” 

I did not have to say a word – I guess my previous visit made an impression.

My visit was basically identical to my previous visit. The only difference was that they performed an ultrasound on both legs instead of just the leg that had vein removal. As a result, the appointment was twice as long. And just like my previous appointment, the doctor was his usual pleasant self and did not show any reaction to my feminine presentation.

I checked out with the woman who handles appointments and she said I was done – no further appointments unless there was a problem.

I exited with “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

She replied, “Same to you. And by the way, you look lovely today.”

Wearing Saks

Fred Armisen femulating on an episode of television’s Portlandia.

Ouch!

The latest addition to Stana’s wardrobe

“A study conducted by The College of Podiatry revealed that it takes an average of 1 hour, 6 minutes and 48 seconds for high heel wearers to start feeling foot pain.

“And one in five women (20%) say they start feeling pain within just 10 minutes.”

Abby at Vivian Lou passed along that painful news, but she also offered some assistance.

Strengthen and stretch feet with a few simple exercises

Make sure you are wearing the right size shoe (88% of women routinely wear shoes that are too small)

Use Vivian Lou Insolia weight-shifting insoles

Problem with the second suggestion is that shoe sizes are all over the map. You may think you are buying the right size shoe only to learn that the shoe manufacturer had something else in mind. I personally own shoes in five different sizes that fit!

Regarding the last suggestion, I use Insolia insoles. They are different from other inserts I have tried (and discarded). Instead of adding padding to the shoe, which is basically what many other shoe inserts do, “Insolia Inserts shift weight off of the ball of the foot back to the heel by placing the foot in the optimal position for high heels.”

As a result, high heels are comfortable longer than they would be sans the inserts. They really work and since that time, I automatically buy a new pair of Insolia inserts whenever I buy a new pair of high heels.

Wearing New York & Company

Zakes Mokae (second from right) femulating in the 1991 film A Rage in Harlem

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)

For years, this blog consistently received 5,000 hits per day. But for the past month, there have been many days when the blog received nearly twice that number. And yesterday, the blog broke the 10,000 hit barrier for the first time!

I reviewed the content of the blog on those big hit days, but in general, nothing stands out. Except for the day I wrote about Aaron Hernandez, the topics on the other big hit days were the usual trans thoughts of yours truly.

I am at a loss to explain the random big hit days, but I’ll gladly take them.

Wearing Venus

Professional femulator Win Wells, circa 1965

Grocery Shopping

As a housewife, there are some chores I enjoy doing, some I am ambivalent about and some that I do not enjoy. At the top of my list of chores I dislike is grocery shopping, mainly because it is time-consuming – it basically kills a whole morning.

The only times I did not mind grocery shopping is when I shopped en femme. On those occasions, I was doing something else en femme and had to make a side trip for groceries.

For example, on one occasion, after attending a conference, I promised to pick up a few things on the way home.

During 15 minutes of going up and down the aisles of Stop & Shop, I noticed three or four guys checking me out, but no one else paid much attention to me until I queued up to check out. After I emptied my shopping cart onto the conveyor belt, I noticed the woman ahead of me look down at my shoes, a pair of nude pumps with 4-inch heels. Then she looked at me and remarked, “You are a brave woman to wear those heels to go grocery shopping!”

An episode like that puts grocery shopping in a new light! Perhaps, I should always go grocery shopping en femme.

Wearing JustFab

Patriotic chorus girl femulators in the 1943 film This Is the Army.
View the film here.

My First Emulation-Worthy Femulator

As a young femulator back in the mid-1960s, I did not have any femulators to emulate.

On the big screen, there were Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, but they dressed in 1920s flapper styles – an attractive style, but difficult for this young girl to emulate during the Jackie era. 

On the small screen, Milton Berle made an occasional appearance en femme, but his femulations were strictly for laughs; they were clownish and often ugly – nothing this girl wanted to copy.

The New York newspapers occasionally had ads displaying professional femulators at Club 82 and I so wanted to dress in showgirl drag like the girls at 82, but let's be practical.

There were no femulators that dressed like women dressed in the mid-1960s... no one I could look up to for inspiration.

Finally, one evening watching television in 1964, I saw a great femulation of a mid-1960s woman on a new episode of The Munsters – of all places! In that episode, character actor Cliff Norton played a cop who disguised himself as a woman (see photo) in order to trap a guy who was accosting women in the park at night.

Norton's femulation left an impression on me for a very long time. He was not a beautiful woman, but he passed and more importantly, he was dressed like a mid-1960s woman in the styles I knew and loved and wanted to wear.

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

Wearing St. John

Wilson Cruz femulating on a 1997 episode of television’s Ally McBeal

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.