New York Dolls at Club 82

In last Wednesday’s post, I mentioned that newspaper ads for the New York City female impersonator  nightclub Club 82 sparked my fascination with female impersonation – so much so that I began experimenting with female impersonation myself. In response to that post, Paula sent me links to two recent articles (links One and Two) that recount the history of the venue.

From the articles, I learned that the nightclub became a rock venue in the 1970s. Both articles include links to a live performance by the New York Dolls at the nightclub.

The New York Dolls were one of the first glam rock bands. They sported femininely-styled hair, makeup and costumes. You wouldn’t give them a second look today, but back in their heyday, they caught the attention of this young femulator. I expected them to don skirts and dresses at any moment, but they never did.

But it turns out they did!

The video of the group performing at Club 82 shows the group’s singer, David Johansen, wearing a cocktail dress and heels. I don’t know if David donned a dress and heels on a regular basis or if it was a one-time thing in honor of Club 82, but there you have it!

(The quality of the video is poor. So I refer you to a better quality video of the group performing a different song during that same appearance at Club 82.)

Wearing Bebe

M is for this Marvelous Miss from Mount Enterprise High School in Texas, who is certainly “Not a Civilian?”

Frequent film and television femulators Fred Armisen and Bill Hader play sisters in the 2015 mockumentary Sandy Passage. You can view an excerpt on YouTube.

The Photoshop Challenge

In my Mothers and Sons post, I wished I had a photo of my mother with me en femme. Meg threw down the gauntlet, “You're pretty good at photoshop. You should be able to make that picture.”

I accepted her challenge.

I had plenty of photos of moi, but I had no idea how many photos I had of Mom. After going through the family photo albums, it turned out not many.

I chose two photos for the effort. One, which I believe was her high school graduation photo taken in a photo studio, was from around 1940. The second, taken atop the Empire State Building, was from 1949.

The challenge was trying to make my relatively current photos look like photos from the mid-20th Century.

Turned out that the 1940 photo was easier to match than the 1949 photo. It took about an hour to achieve the results that appear in the previous Femulator slot. The Empire State Building photo accompanying this post took over three times as

long and I am still not satisfied with the results, but the effort taught me some more about using Photoshop.

Wearing Venus

L is for this Lovely Lass from Lee High School in Columbus, Mississippi. Her perfect hairdo, makeup, figure and accessories gave her away as “Not a Civilian?”

Four of a Kind

Women with their Gurls

I started a new board on Pinterest called “Women with their Gurls.” It is a collection of pins demonstrating that femulating is becoming so mainstream that women now freely socialize with with femulators (“their gurls”). The pins on that board show cisgender women socializing with their femulating husbands, male wives, boyfriends, sons, male daughters, etc.

The creation of this board is a follow-up to a February post (“Guilt-Free Guilty Pleasure”) where I wrote, “Never before have so many males been so open about crossdressing... especially young males. They crossdress with great abandon and don’t care who knows it. And that encourages other males who may have been on the cusp, to try it themselves.”

And what’s more encouraging than your spouse or significant other being so supportive of your femulating that she is willing to socialize and be seen in public with her gurl! Works for me.

(By the way, there may be some bad pins among the pins I collected. By “bad pin” I mean pins that are not cisgender women with their gurls. Rather, they may be two women or two gurls and not a woman and a gurl. I tried to eliminate all the bad pins, but I might have missed a few.)

Wearing Venus

Our K gurl hails from Kingswood High in Missouri. Everything about her screams “Not a civilian” to me because I so identify with her. Like Miss Jones, I was overweight in high school, but it did not stop me from raiding my mother’s and sister’s closets, feminizing my male haircut, wearing Mom’s makeup and clip-on earrings and becoming the girl I so wanted to be. 

Mom and Me (Stana and her Mother)

Mothers and Sons

According to the Daily Mail, the son of British poet Amanda Eliasch is taking the London social scene by storm – as a femulating singer. Charles Eliasch transforms into fabulous Evie Lake by night and has appeared as his flamboyant alter-ego at various cabaret nights.

Charles is Amanda’s eldest son by Swedish billionaire ex-husband Johan Eliasch, and his act is so convincing it has everyone fooled but his mother. That is Evie and his admiring mother in the photo above – note the family resemblance.

I wish I had a photo of my mother with me en femme. Mom was so pretty and I resemble her in many ways. We would make a stunning pair just like the mother and son in the photo above.

Thinking about all of the missed opportunities in my life saddens me.

Wearing Venus

J is for Junction City High School, Arkansas, where today’s “Not a Civilian?” beauty queen reigned in 1979. 

Coffee, tea or me? During my May 6th fashion photoshoot, I also modeled the stewardess uniform that I have been assembling. I thought Trans World Airlines was the most appropriate airline for a girl like me, so I searched eBay for TWA accessories and obtained a TWA wing pin and TWA travel bag. I also obtained the generic stewardess cap via eBay.

Weekend Women

How many of us are “weekend women?” Stuck in boy mode 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and then the weekend arrives and we can let our girl out.

I guess we all start out as “weekend women,” but discover that weekends aren’t enough, so we squeeze weekday evenings into our femulating schedules.

But that is not enough either, so we take vacation days and sick days off from work so we can experience womanhood more fully out among the civilians.

That’s not enough either and “full-time” beckons.

Some of us take that great leap and live as women 24/7, but most of us have to be satisfied sampling womanhood when we can on a part-time basis.

And so it goes.

As I wrote in my previous post, I participated in a Zoom videoconference on Friday, so I dressed pretty for the event.

Since only the upper third of me would be visible, I could have gotten away with just doing my hair and makeup and wearing a top and some jewelry, but I dressed up from head to toe as ca be seen in the photo above. The conference was scheduled to last for 7 hours with two breaks, so I figured it was a good opportunity to break in my new Nine West pumps, which I wore for the duration of the conference even though no one could see them!

Wearing Mimemoi

Friday is for Femulating

What’s Good for the Goose Dept.

Woman are shaving their faces (and men are shaving their legs).

According to this Good Housekeeping article, “Face-shaving is totally normal for all genders.” The article proceeds to list the 10 best facial razors for women and girls like us, but says nothing about the best leg razors for men.

He’s a Lady Dept.

The directors and officers of my ham radio group, which I serve as a board member, newsletter editor and leggy secretary, usually meets in Dayton on Hamvention Thursday. Although Hamvention was cancelled, we are still going to meet via a videoconference, so I will be dressed pretty for my premier appearance on Zoom today.

The directors and officers of my group can be divided into two groups – six fellows who knew me as a guy (and now know me as a girl) and three fellows who know me only as a girl. The former treat me the same as they always did, while the latter treat me as a lady. The difference is so obvious – the latter group is very polite and conduct themselves as gentlemen when dealing with me. I love it!

Wearing Boston Proper

Our I, as in I’m “Not a Civilian?” is a Louisiana Lass, who attended Istrouma High School in Baton Rouge in 1968.

Wearing Dress Barn tunic and JustFab Sophie peep toe pumps for my May 6th photoshoot.

Woman Within

We regularly receive women’s clothing catalogs from various online merchants. Whether we purchase women’s clothing for me or my spouse, we charge the purchase on my credit card. As a result, all the women’s clothing catalogs, not to mention all the wig catalogs, are addressed to me. It doesn’t bother me, but I wonder if the mailman notices? Especially the aptly named “Woman Within” catalog, a name that always makes me smile when I pluck it from our mailbox.

Don’t know why, but that reminds me of our niece who worked summers at Victoria’s Secret. She mentioned once that the store averaged at least one male customer per day who was purchasing bras and/or panties for himself and how their bra fitter frequently had to fit males for bras.

I was not out to our niece, otherwise I would have asked her for details. But it does indicate that our trans sisters have enough confidence to shop for themselves at “Vickie’s” and they are not alone. (I’ve often shopped at Vickie’s for myself and was fitted for a bra at the store our niece worked at, but not while she was on the staff.)

And so it goes.

Wearing Venus

H is for Hard to choose between these two “Not a Civilian?” beauties. “Corinna” hails from Hooks High School in Texas, while Miss Jim is from Harrison High in Evansville, Indiana. 

Wearing Venus pleated sweater dress and Payless Janine pointy toe pumps for my May 6th photoshoot.

My Start

I received an e-mail that posed the following question: How did you get drawn into the crossdressing world?

Here is my story.

When I was a kid, I was intrigued with disguises. Being a creative sort, I assembled my own original costumes for Halloween rather than wear something off the rack. However, I would never be caught dead in a dress; all my costumes were male-themed, for example, monsters, pirates, ghouls, but not girls.

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, one of the newspapers my Dad bought (the Daily News) began carrying weekly thumbnail-sized ads for 82 Club, a New York City nightclub that featured female impersonators. Each advertisement exclaimed, “[insert name here] is no lady!” (like the ad above) and contained a photo of a beautiful female impersonator.

Up until then, I was only familiar with the Milton Berlesque variety of female impersonation, so the advertisements fascinated me. The beauty and authenticity of  the impersonators amazed me.

Every week, I anxiously awaited the appearance of a new 82 Club advertisement and I was seldom disappointed as male after male was shown transformed into a beautiful female.

I was so intrigued that a male could transform himself into a gorgeous female that I decided to experiment with female impersonation myself and soon I was slipping on my first pair of nylons and heels. Using my mother's and sister's wardrobes and cosmetics, I tried to transform myself into a young lady.

I enjoyed every minute of it, but I started feeling very guilty. None of the guys I knew did what I did. I wondered if something was wrong with me. (Sound familiar?)

But, I did not stop and I continued experimenting, while fine-tuning my femulating skills in the process.

And that’s my story.

(Caveat Emptor: This post is a re-post of a post from the past.)

Wearing Carolina Herrera

The letter G stands for Gobs of Good-looking Girls – so many potential “Not a Civilians?” that I could not select just one! Our leggy beauty (top left) hails from Galena (TX) High School, while our fashionable lass (top right) comes from Graham (NC) High School. The formally outfitted gal (bottom left) is from Guymon (OK) High School and our pretty Erik (bottom right) is out of Granite Hills High in El Cajun, CA. 

What do these girls have in common that gives them away as not necessarily civilians: thinned and shaped eyebrows, just like the avowed femulator below.

Wearing Calvin Klein dress and Nine West Tomalah Ombre pumps for my May 6th photoshoot.