Male Woman

73 today and counting

Today is International Women’s Day. 

As we prepare to celebrate International Women’s Day, our resolve to keep pushing for gender equality is stronger than ever. And we won’t stop until girls and women are equal everywhere.

That’s because equality is her birthright, enshrined in the UN Charter, but it isn’t her reality. Despite some progress, there is no place or part of life where a girl or woman has the equal rights or opportunities as a boy or man.

As a male woman, I am very sympathetic to these goals. Though some would say that I have “male privilege,” I would argue that male women are treated worse than cisgender women and I yearn to achieve the same equality sought by women.

Even living much of my life disguised as a male, my natural femininity marked me as less than a man and I was treated accordingly by both males and females. 

Living as a male woman is an improvement. Living as my true self, females seem to embrace me as someone who had joined their team. On the other hand, some males treat me even more poorly than they did when I was in my male disguise. I am sure that all male women have had similar experiences and also long for gender equality.

Wearing Ann Taylor

Bud Flanagan femulating in the 1946 British film Here Comes The Sun.

One Thing Leads to Another

Recently, Pinterest sends me emails featuring Pinterest images that it thinks I might be of interest. So hot on the high heels of yesterday’s Prom Time post, Pinterest's email included an image of two young fellows, Thayne and Tristan, wearing gowns that could be considered as prom dresses (image right). What a coincidence!

I was curious about Thayne and Tristan and Googled them to see if there were any other signs of them femulating. Nothing was discovered, but there was a Google reference to another “Tristan,” a transwoman in Kansas City (MO) who was voted as homecoming queen at her high school.

Thayne and Tristan (left), Tristan Young and Landon Patterson (right)

I Googled her (Tristan Young) story and not only was she selected homecoming queen, but her and a previous transwoman homecoming queen at the same high school, Landon Patterson, were honored by the Kansas City Council, which issued a resolution dedicating LGBTQ History Month to both women (click here to read all about it on the GLAAD website).

This is old news from last fall, but with all the transphobia closing in on us these days, it did my heart good to read about the support our trans sisters received from their community – especially in an area of the country that is not known for trans friendliness. Hurray for our side!

And in case you missed it, please visit my Saturday post all about taking action against the anti-trans legislation now in the works across the good ol’ USA.  

Wearing Paige

New Zealand soldiers Ralph Dyer, Douglas Morison and Harold Robinson (boy photo) performed as female impersonators in Kiwi concert parties in the Pacific and Egypt during World War II. (The two on the right, Morison and Robinson, switch positions in the girl photo.)

Prom Time

Wearing StyleWe

Lena, a long-time (85-year-old) femulator from Australia

A Boutique for Men-Only

Wearing Boston Proper

I'll have what she's having!
Julian Eltinge, world famous professional femulator of stage and screen

The Women

When I first started going to Hamvention back in the late 1970’s, there were very few female attendees. But since then, I have seen more and more women attending Hamvention each year (and I have done my part by attending as a woman since 2010).

The women I have encountered at Hamvention have embraced me as a member of their gender even those who are familiar with my roots.

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A woman I had never met before and who is the wife of a prominent ham, came up to me after the awards dinner ceremonies when I was awarded the Special Achievement Award. She introduced herself and then asked me if I prefer being called “Stan” or “Stana.”

Once that was settled, she went on and on praising me profusely saying what an inspiration I was and how brave I was to do what I do. Then she added that the women at her table were very impressed with my makeup and wanted to know if I gave lessons. And then she invited me to her home. She lives 20 minutes from me, so I accepted the invitation and wait for her to get back to me to confirm a date.

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One female ham I have known for many years and who is very familiar with my roots, lives in Connecticut, but I usually only see her in Ohio at Hamvention. She staffs a booth near my booth and we always meet up at one booth or the other to chat and catch up, as was the case one Friday morning at Hamvention, when she stopped by my booth. After talking for about ten minutes, she had to go, but before she left, she said, “By the way, you look beautiful!”

I was speechless, but managed to squeak out a “thank you.”

Then she added, “I really mean that!Ú

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Now that I had been accepted as a member of the women’s club, I decided to join the Young Ladies Radio League (YLRL), which bills itself as “an organization for women with amateur radio licenses and like radio itself, extends to women all over the world.”

So I moseyed over to the YLRL booth, where I was greeted as an old girlfriend and encouraged to complete their membership application. The three women staffing the booth couldn’t have been nicer and willingly accepted me as a member of their organization ― even one of the women who must have been familiar with my roots because she congratulated me for my award having seen my photo and bio in the Hamvention program.

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With all the recent malarkey about bathrooms, I was a little nervous about using the women’s restrooms during my trip, but I threw caution to the wind and used the facilities that corresponded with my presentation. No one called me on it and some of the women I encountered in the restrooms, smiled and/or greeted me with a “Hello,” so I guess they felt I belonged.

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The booth across the aisle from my booth always hires two or three 20-something women (classic “booth babes”) to hand out stickers and literature during the convention. They always seem surprised that my booth has a 60/70-something booth babe (me), but they seem to accept me into their club. They were very friendly and were willing to chat about the biggest booth babe pitfall ― wearing high heels. For what it's worth, I was still wearing my heels long after those young whippersnappers switched to flats!

And so it goes..

I Believe Dept.

In my youth, I purchased a bunch of paperback collections of Ripley's Believe it Or Not! comic strip. As a budding trans youth, I was fascinated by a particular Ripley strip about a crossdressing pool shark named Frances Anderson. I had long forgotten about her until an article about her appeared in a recent Them. Click here to read all about her.

Where the Action Is Dept.

In case you missed it, please visit my Saturday post all about taking action against the anti-trans legislation now in the works across the good ol’ USA.

Wearing Ann Taylor

Frances Anderson

Tucked or Untucked?

Wearing JustFab

Jonny Beauchamp femulating on television's Katy Keene.

Take Action Now!

In the past few years, we’ve seen an alarming increase in anti-trans legislation. Already, we’ve seen hundreds of bills in 2024 that attack our community, from our access to healthcare to our safety in schools.  

That’s why we’ve revamped our State Action Center, in partnership with the Transformations Project, so that everyone who cares about the trans community can make their voice heard! At the Action Center, you can find the bills that are moving through the legislature in your state, learn about their impacts, and contact your legislators. Your voice matters so much - and we have to tell these legislators that their actions are unacceptable. 

TAKE ACTION NOW

Find your state on the Action Center now and tell your legislators that bills which attack our community are flat-out wrong. And share these action alerts far and wide! 

Thank you so much for speaking out. The more we raise our voices and build trans power, the more we’ll fight back against these anti-trans extremists. No matter what, we won’t back down – because our trans community deserves safety, joy, and the brightest possible future. 

Sincerely,

The National Center for Transgender Equality

As the Tables Turn

Wearing Venus

Michael Andrews femulating in the 1987 film Hard Ticket to Hawaii.
Click here to view this film on YouTube.

Meet the Civilians

This post recounts one of the first times I staffed a booth and interacted with civilians.

I attended True Colors Conference, a day long conference for school-aged GLBT youth at Central Connecticut State University. My support group had a table at the conference to distribute literature and to interact with the attendees. I volunteered to staff the booth from 9AM to 4 PM, which meant getting up at 5 AM to get dressed and drive to the university before the conference actually began.

I wore my new wig, black knot front dress and mid-heel pumps. I thought I looked rather lovely and felt wonderful especially since according to the morning weigh-in, I was down to my “playing weight.” I drove to the university and arrived at our table at 8:50 AM. I set up the table and had everything up and running as the on-rush of people began.

This was a potentially tough crowd – mostly high-school aged kids. There were also adults – teachers, guidance counselors, social workers, etc. The adults were very respectful. Many that passed our table without stopping smiled and some said “Hello.” Those who visited our table were pleasant and interacted with me without any issues. Some even complimented me.

The teenagers acted in a similar manner while I staffed the table, but when I walked around, I attracted more attention. I assume that while I was seated, attendees took me as just another middle-aged woman staffing a table, but when I stood up and walked around, my six-foot two-inch stature alerted some that I was not what I seemed to be while I was seated. Nobody did anything disrespectful (after all, this was a GLBT crowd), but I could not help noticing the extra attention.

I could try and convince myself that I am just so ravishing beautiful that people dropped everything to watch me pass by, but who would I be kidding. I was dressed more over the top than the average woman in attendance. Most of the women wore slacks, trousers or jeans. There was only a handful in skirts or dresses. So maybe my outfit was what attracted some of the attention.

I had a long talk with a 28-year-old woman, who was trying to convince me that I could wear women’s slacks and still crossdress. I don’t know if she was hinting that I might blend in better wearing slacks or whether she was just discussing women’s fashions. She could not understand why I had no interest in crossdressing in women’s slacks (my point being that I might as well dress in boy mode if I wear slacks). She also hinted that I was wearing too much jewelry.

At the table next to me were two 20-something women – recent college graduates named Jeanette and Jen, who were asking folks to sign a petition advocating the separation of church and state (where do I sign?). They were very friendly and we talked a lot during lulls in the crowd. Jeanette had some questions about crossdressing and I gave her a mini-education, while telling her my life story. She was very sympathetic. They were sad when they learned that I would not be staffing our table on Saturday.

I had lunch with two girls from my support group, and Namoli Brennet, a Tucson-based trans/genderqueer songwriter, who has been touring the country since 2002 when she released her first CD, “Boy in a Dress.” Namoli performed at the conference and also conducted a workshop. She is a very nice person in person! Funny thing is that I am familiar with the song Boy in a Dress, but I did not connect the song with her, the person with whom I was breaking bread. It was the first time I ever rubbed elbows with a rock star, so I guess I wasn’t used to associating a singer on my iPod with a real live person!

I received a lot of compliments at the conference, which just made the day so much nicer. Two were very memorable: One middle-aged woman, who I thought was one of the best looking attendees I saw all day, came by our table, smiled and said I looked very nice, I blushed. Later, a couple of high school girls came by our table and when I spoke (using my boy voice), they both were startled and looked up from the literature on our table. One of them then said, “Oh, my God, you’re beautiful!”

And so it goes.

Wearing Paige

Buster Keaton femulating in the 1921 film The Playhouse.

Old Lady is Better than No Lady

When I turned 50 years old, I wondered if I would still be femulating when I retired. I assumed that when I reached retirement age, I would look so old and unattractive that I would not want anyone (including myself) to see me en femme.

This June, I will have been retired seven years and I am still femulating no matter how old and unattractive I have become. Old lady is better than no lady and I look forward to continue femulating just like the gentle men in the image above.

Back in the 1960s, my grandparents were all spending their seventh decade on the planet Earth. My grandmothers dressed like most of the other women their age, that is, they dressed like “old ladies.” Fashion-wise, they made no attempt to compete with the younger generations. Their fashion sense reminded me of a line from the Saturday Night Live advertisement parody for Mom Jeans, “Get her something that says, ’I'm not a woman anymore, I’m a Mom!’”

Things changed and by the time my mother reached her seventh decade in the late 1970s, 60-year-old women were dressing more stylishly than their mothers had in their seventh decade... stylish enough that this girl was still borrowing stuff from Mom’s wardrobe when her Social Security checks began showing up.

Things kept changing and today, 60 is the new 40, 70 the new 50. People are living healthier and thus, longer lives. Reaching retirement age today does not have the same connotations as it did in the 1960s. I recall that  American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) commercial about a woman of a certain age who knows her way around miniskirts and can run in high heels.

Admittedly, not everyone my age fits that description... not even me. I seldom run even in flats, but I typically walk wearing heels, my hemlines seldom gets acquainted with my knees and I plan to dress my “age” for the rest of my life.

Wearing Ann Taylor

Harvey Korman femulating on television’s The Carol Burnett Show.

A Perfect Match

 

Wearing Piazza Sempione

Stas Fedyanin