A Little Herstory

Darrell G. Raynor

A Year Among the Girls by Darrell G. Raynor was the first book about transvestism that I ever encountered. 

One day in the summer of 1968, I was perusing the paperback racks at Bradlees when I spotted the book in the non-fiction section. Holy Moley – a book about my secret hobby! I had to buy it and read it, but I was too embarrassed to do take the book to the cashier and returned home without the book.

For the next 24 hours, all I did was think about the book and the next day, I returned to Bradlees determined to purchase the book and damn the torpedoes. I got the book from the rack and handed it to the cashier to ring it up. She glanced at the book, smirked and asked me for my money to complete the purchase.

I returned home, read the book from cover to cover and received an education about transvestism in the USA in the 1960’s. The book did not help me figure things out, but it did make me aware that there were more guys dressing as girls than I had originally suspected.

The book was such an eye-opener. Back then, there was next to no information available on the subject unless you frequented the right (wrong) bookstores or received mail wrapped in plain brown paper. So I was amazed that there were adult males dressing up and socializing as women!

Much of the book revolves around a resort in the Poconos where transvestites met to do their thing. The owner later sold that resort and purchased a large house in the Catskills that became the famous Casa Susanna.

The history of the book, its author and those getaway places in the Poconos and Catskills always fascinated me. So I was very happy to discover that Zagria recently covered the subject in detail in two installments of her blog, A Gender Variance Who’s Who. Click here and here to read parts I and II. 

Enjoy!

Wearing Boston Proper

Modern Grandfather

Someday Funnies: So True

Wearing Chicwish

Primpin’ in the boys’ room

Visiting Friday on Monday

The mystery photo in Friday’s Femulator slot garnered one clue: the portrait in the image is King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands. The cis-gender woman and alleged femulator remained unidentified. 

Researching the matter, I discovered that King Willem-Alexander and his Queen Maxima are supporters of LGBT folks. In fact, the Queen attended a transgender symposium in Amsterdam in 2016. So that lends some credence that the taller woman the photo is a femulator.

Regarding Friday’s post, “Gender on My Mind,” Paula commented that if a person constantly questions their gender, thinks about gender, crossdresses, fantasizes about being a girl, a secretary, or wife, spends their whole life just contemplating this conundrum then you can conclude that that person is transgender. That fits me to a T!

Last week was stressful. A number of things went wrong topped off by a Friday night visit to the ER (for my wife, not me). Looking at a half full glass, my wife is OK now, the ER is only four miles from my home and we were back home by midnight.

And so it goes.

Wearing Joie

Who wore it better?

Someday Funnies

Wearing New York & Company

Cecil Beaton

Someday Funnies

Wearing Cult Gaia

Femulating X 4

Gender on My Mind

Most people do not think much about their gender. They go about their lives, day-to-day, interacting with their world without considering their gender. They are acclimated to the role that meets society’s expectations for their gender and their lives go on with few, if any any issues related to gender.

On the other hand, some people think about their gender all the time. Thoughts about their gender fill their waking hours. They are not acclimated to the gender role that meets society’s expectations. Everywhere they turn, issues arise that cause conflicts in their mind related to gender.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably are in the latter group of people rather than the former. I know I am. 

Gender is on my mind most of the time. When I get dressed in the morning, I often think about how I would prefer donning a female wardrobe rather than a male wardrobe. When I interact with society during my day, I often ask myself, “what would ‘she’ do?” in certain situations and how would society react to “her,” rather than “him.” Even when I am asleep, I cannot get away from it because most of my dreams concern gender issues. 

Sometimes, when I find myself thinking about gender, I berate myself because I feel I should be doing something more constructive than thinking about gender. And I wonder how my life would be if I resolved my gender issues, that is, if I lived as a woman 24/7, would all my thoughts and concerns about gender go away? Then would I be able to accomplish more than I am accomplishing now?

I fear that the answer is “no.” Gender would still be on my mind. Some new gender issues would occupy my time and some old gender issues would haunt me.

Such is the lot of a transgender.  

Wearing Bailey44 suit and Salvator Ferragamo bag

I found this image on Pinterest allegedly a photo of a cisgender female and a femulator. There was no other information about this image on Pinterest and I was unable to find anything about it anywhere on the Internet. If anyone has any further info about the image, please speak up. Anyway, I was so impressed by the femulator that I had to post the image here.

Someday Funnies: Sashay Instead

Wearing Boston Proper

Billy Gray femulates in a 1960 episode of television’s Father Knows Best. 

Click here to view this episode. Thank you Zoe for the info about this femulation.

Got Boobs, Need Buns

Goddess blessed me with womanly breasts. Since puberty, I could fill a bra – a femulator’s dream come true. On the other hand, I have no rear end to speak of – a femulator’s nightmare.

Over the years, as I tried to perfect my femulation, I thought about doing something about my caboose, but was turned off by an acquaintance who overdid it. I did not want to look ridiculous like she did, so I went without.

On yet another hand, years later I met a lady who had a great figure – not over-the-top like my earlier acquaintance. Her figure was just right and very convincing. That got me thinking about revisiting my rear end (or lack thereof).

I wear a girdle, so I sampled a few that had built-in padding to enhance the derriere. But I rejected them – although they added to my back end, they were lacking in the girdle department losing my narrower waist and wider hips in the process. So I was back to square one.

Perusing the Rago website one day, I noticed that they sold a panty with rear end padding. Known as Rago model 915, I thought that I could wear the 915 over my Rago girdle and have it all – narrower waist, wider hips and bigger buns!

I ordered a Rago 915 and as soon as I got it, I wore it over my girdle and it did the trick! I was very happy and have been wearing the girdle and padded panty combo ever since. 

The only thing that the 915 lacks is the “split crotch” that my Rago girdle includes. That is not a big problem because the panty slips on and off easily when it is time to pee.

And so I go. 

And by the way, the folks at Rago are aware of girls like us who favor their shapewear and as a result, Rago is now offering a 15% sitewide discount to Femulate fans and readers. Just use the stana15 discount code when you shop at the Rago website. How cool is that!

Wearing Tory Burch

Perfectly attired femulator out and about

Someday Funnies: Spring Forward

Wearing Nine West

Phillipe Blond

More Ask Me Anything Answers

In response to my request to ask me anything, Christina Cross asked three questions.

1) How often/frequency do you femulate?

Never often enough! 

Normally I get out and about en femme a couple of times each month as well as dress at home even more often than that. But my “normal” schedule was disrupted the last ten months or so by my bad knee. It has been four months since my total knee replacement surgery and I’d say that I’m about 95% recovered, so I am hoping to get out more often now that I am approaching normality.

 

2) When you are not femulating, in your mind do you still see yourself as Stana? Or is that only during your femulating times?

I am the same en femme or en homme. I do not switch between personalities – my normal personality is definitely on the feminine side of the street and I do not man up when en homme. So I guess I am Stana most of the time.

3) When you are not femulating do you dress in stealth, aka wearing androgynous women's clothes such as pants and shirts?

My “male” wardrobe is a mix of traditional male and female clothing. For example, my underwear bottoms are woman’s panties and most of my jeans are woman’s. I probably could use a bra, but that is a bridge too far, so I go bra-less in boy mode.

Ask me something else.

Wearing New York & Company

Eric