Yet Another Photo

Responding to Tuesday’s post, readers asked about the photo I submitted for inclusion in the Hamvention program when I won an award in 2016. So here is the photo and the accompanying blurb about the award.

The Special Achievement Award recognizes WA1LOU as an advocate for cutting edge technologies that are now commonly used in amateur radio. Stan authored five books and wrote over 1,200 pieces for the ARRL and TAPR while evangelizing the use of home computers, packet radio, APRS, Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Software Defined Radio (SDR) in amateur radio. Licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, Stan has sampled almost every entrée on the ham radio menu and served in a slew of roles including Section Manager of Connecticut. Presently, Stan is a director and secretary for TAPR and serves as editor of TAPR’s newsletter (PSR). “LOU” has driven the 735 miles to Hamvention most years since 1978 and looks forward to doing so forever. “My fondest memories of ham radio are rubbing elbows and making friends with the makers and shakers of our hobby who show up at Hamvention every year.”

Back at work after returning home from Hamvention, a woman in my group who works from home e-mailed me to ask about my vacation. I told her I went to Hamvention and took home the Special Achievement Award.

Ten minutes later, she e-mailed me that she had never heard of it, so she looked up the Hamvention website and saw the write-up about the award.

Uh-oh!

If she saw the write-up, she must have seen my photo next to it. But she did not mention the photo, so I assumed she was being polite and did not want to embarrass me.

She is a good friend who I have known for years and I did not want to make her feel uncomfortable, so I e-mailed her back, “I guess the cat is out of the bag.”

Her response was vague, so I asked her if she saw my photo.

“No, I didn’t see your picture. I saw the photos of the other winners and I was looking for yours, but I did not see it,” she replied, “Let me look again.”

Fifteen minutes later, she wrote, “OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t find you. I was staring at this beautiful lady and didn’t see you! Duh! YOU are the beautiful lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! I was staring at your photo for like 10 minutes… Damn, your presentation is amazing!”

And so it goes!

Wearing Elisabetta Franchi

Sven Schelker femulating in the Swiss film The Circle.

Our Photos

As a group, we probably take more photos of ourselves than most (all?) other groups. On the other hand, most of us keep all those photos under wraps for our self-gratification. (Adds a new dimension to the word “selfie.”)

As a blogger writing about crossdressing, I receive emails with photo attachments from other crossdressers. More often than not, the emailers ask me not to share their photos here or anywhere else. Some of these folks are closeted and don’t want any exposure of their feminine persona. While some are not so closeted, but still want to limit their exposure. 

I am sympathetic. I took as many photos of myself as any other crossdresser, but I was loathe to allow someone else to take my photo for their own collection. (Who knew where my photos might show up?) However, the more I got out among the civilians, the less discreet I was about my photographed image. 

I wear eyeglasses in boy mode, but usually chuck the glasses in girl mode. One day, browsing the racks at Macy’s, I encountered a female co-worker and she did not recognize the boy without glasses under the female finery. So I was convinced that I did not have to worry about someone making the connection between my male and female identities.

I often posted my image in the blog. And when I received a Special Achievement Award at the world’s biggest ham radio convention and was asked to submit a photo for the convention program, I did not think twice I did not think twice and sent my en femme photo, which appeared in the program for 30,000 convention attendees to see. It was one thing to post my image here for a handful of sister crossdressers to see, but it was another thing to permit 30,000 civilians to see me en femme. 

The proverbial cat was out of the bag! But it was liberating and one less thing to worry about.

Wearing Ann Taylor

Elijah Wood, drummer (not actor)

A Cover-Up

Wearing Bardot

Danny La Rue, professional femulator, circa 1950

A Monday Mix

Got Velcro?

Velcro to the Rescue

I recently purchased a wrap dress online. It fit fine, but when I sat down, the snap that held the wrap in place would pop open and the portion of the dress under wrap would gradually become loose and the dress would unwrap. The problem is that the snap is tiny and does not have much holding power. And/or when I sat down, my voluptuous figure bulged just enough to open the snap.

A button in place of the snap would solve the problem, but I don’t know how to make a button hole, so that solution is not a solution.

A few years ago, I had a similar situation with a different wrap dress and I fixed the problem with Velcro – the kind with a sticky back that adheres to just about everything. So I cut a quarter inch piece, then attached the Velcro pieces next to the male and female parts of the snap. Then I put the dress on, sat down and the snap and Velcro combination held.

Wrinkles Be Gone

As an Avon Lady, I sample a lot of Avon products. One that I am raving about these days is Anew Clinical Line Eraser with Retinol Treatment. I apply it every morning after cleansing my face, but before I apply moisturizer and I am ecstatic over the results. 

According to the product blurb, “Clinically shown to reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles in just days.” And it’s true. Days after I started using the product, I noticed that the wrinkles around my eyes lessened and now they are for all purposes gone – I have to look real close to find them.

Otokonoko

For years, I’ve heard that crossdressing is popular in Japan. I don’t know how popular, but Mikki and Paula alerted me to a YouTube video that explores some of the Japanese crossdressing culture. The video is interesting and worth watching (it’s only 5 minutes long). Click here to view it.

Wearing StyleWe

Jennifer AKA J.J. Atwell of "Stuff" fame

Too Tall?

Wearing Rue La La

Toby Sawyer femulating in the British film Private Life.

The Hunt

Wearing Stylewe

Hardi Simon, professional femulator, circa 1900

Thursday Tomfoolery

Femboy Barbie; Before and After

King Kong Vs. Femboy

First Time

Monday’s post was about the second time I crossdressed. In reverse order, today’s post is about the first time I crossdressed.

I was 12-years-old in 1963 and became fascinated with female impersonation when I noticed weekly thumbnail-sized ads in the New York Daily News for 82 Club. Each ad depicting  a glamorous showgirl accompanied by the caption “Who’s No Lady?”

The 82 Club showgirls were female impersonators and I was amazed that a male could emulate a glamorous female! I was so impressed that I began clipping the 82 Club ads out of the newspaper each week and hiding them behind the Washington Senators in the box containing my baseball card collection. 

One thing led to another and one afternoon when I was home alone, I went into my parent’s bedroom and opened the drawer of my mother’s bureau where she stored her nylon stockings. (This was in the days before pantyhose and seamless stockings were popular, so her nylons had seams.)

I carefully slipped a stocking up each of my hairless legs (those were the days!) and straightened the seams. When I was done, I opened my mother’s closet door to admire myself in the full-length mirror mounted on the inside of the door.

I liked what I saw: a pair of legs that looked just like a pair of woman’s legs! Then I realized that I could do even better. 

Inside the closet were stacks of shoeboxes containing my mother's shoes. I carefully looked through the boxes for a pair of high heel pumps. When I found a pair (with a three-inch heel), I slipped them on and revisited the full-length mirror.

Not only did I see a pair of woman’s legs in the mirror, but they were now a shapely pair of woman’s legs! I proved to myself that that a male really could emulate a female.

I quickly, but carefully removed the shoes and stockings and returned them to their proper place before my family returned home. And I assure you that would not be the last time I would visit my mother's bureau, closet and full-length mirror.

Wearing Max Mara

Femulating professionally at 82 Club.

Or Sox

Wearing Farm Rio

Richard Lane and Edward Brophy femulating in the 1946 film Girl on the Spot.

Second Time

After donning my mother’s nylon stockings and high heel shoes and discovering that I was able to emulate the shapely legs of a woman, I just had to push the envelope further. The next time I was home free to explore my mother’s wardrobe, I repeated my first time, that is, I slipped on a pair of her nylon stockings and high heel shoes.

I was well aware of the options available to women of the early 1960s to keep their nylons up and their seams straight. In my mother’s case, she used the garters that were attached to a girdle. I found her stash of girdles in a drawer of her bureau and had to choose from a variety of styles: open bottom, panty brief, long leg panty, high-waisted panty and high-waisted long-leg panty. I figured I needed all the help I could get, so I selected a high-waisted long-leg panty model.

I unzipped and unclasped the girdle, stepped into it and tugged it up over my legs, hips and waist. When I was finished squeezing into it, I closed its clasps and zipper with some difficulty. When I was done it felt like half of my torso was in the grips of a rubber vise.

After I attended to the nylons – straightening their seams and attaching them to the garters of the girdle – I swung open the closet door, viewed myself in the full-length mirror and concluded that the picture was incomplete.

The girdle had redistributed my “baby fat.” As a result, my waist was narrower and my hips were wider, but above the waistband of the girdle, a ring of displaced fat encircled my body and ruined the picture.

I was sure I knew how to fix it – it was time for my first bra!

My mother had a small selection of bras to choose from and they were all similar in style and size, so I randomly grabbed one and tried to figure out how to put it on.

I struggled unsuccessfully to close the bra’s clasps while wearing the bra with its cups in front. So, I slipped the straps off my shoulders, twisted the bra around with the clasps in front of me, closed the clasps, twisted the bra back around and slipped the straps over my shoulders – and that’s the way I have been putting on a bra ever since.

After adjusting the straps of the bra, I was astonished that my breasts nearly filled the cups of the bra! My “boy boobs,” which were the object of ridicule by my peers, now had a safe place to call “home.”

And when I revisited the full-length mirror, the picture was now complete; there was the body of a shapely woman in the mirror’s reflection.

By the way, recalling my second time crossdressing, I realized that the event occurred in 1964 – 60 years ago. 

And so time goes.

Wearing Bebe

Frederick Weller femulating in television’s In Plain Sight.