Age, Appearance, and Skin Care

By Cathy Peterson

Stana’s post got me thinking about how we look when we’re out in public presenting as women. I understand we’re all different in age, body type, home situation, make-up, clothing and style. I have processed this with my counseling therapist the last 12 years. When I adjusted my mind’s image of me as a woman away from trying to present like a young model and started presenting as a middle-age professional woman, that’s when being out in public really got better and much more relaxed. 

I’m 6 feet 2. I was over 240 poundsin my mid-50s (12 years ago). Then I got serious about taking care of myself, getting into shape and losing weight. 

Treating pre-cancerous growths with an intense homeopathic regimen that included two all-natural plant-based phytoestrogens kick-started a wild hormone imbalance. My T dropped below the 5th percentile for my age, while I had significantly elevated levels of estradiol, estrone, estriol, progesterone and eventually prolactin. My nails grew faster and stronger. My hair thickened and grew faster. My skin softened and what little fair body hair I had all but disappeared. And my cancer issues shrunk and were no longer a problem

In October 2016, I started experiencing early breast development and 18 months later I had B-cup breasts. At three years (Fall 2019) I was a full 36C (where I’m still at today). My endocrinologist joked those three stages are a very natural process of “buds, bumps, boobs.” During that time, I went from 228 pounds down to 192. 

I’m now 183 pounds and measure 39-31-35. Turns out, my body did a natural response to the homeopath capsules and topical lotion and started producing its own estrogens. Blood tests for my annual physical showed my female hormone levels all in the normal range for pre-menopausal woman, even now as I just turned 66. 

Loving these physical changes, I also started a daily skincare plan for my softer skin. I also grew my hair out to my shoulders and since age 55, I color it every four weeks. Friends, neighbors, colleagues and especially immediate and extended family have watched my physical changes gradually over the years. When I present as husband, father, grandfather, I get a lot of nice compliments about my skin, “love your hair” and I easily pass for early 50s. 

I was at lunch with my 40-year-old daughter and her two sons (all blonde with blue eyes like me) and the server smiled and said what a nice family I had. My daughter laughed, smiled and told the woman, “This is my dad, these are his grandsons.” (I loved it.)

When I present as Cathy, my image is mature average women in her mid-60s. I now have skinny arms and thin legs, do my own hair in an age-appropriate style and with good daily skincare and basic make-up (liner, shadow, mascara, lipstick), I can present very well in public. Of course, I have some mid-60s facial wrinkles, little crows’ feet, but most of my skin is clear and smooth – all looks very natural. Aspiring to everyday ladies out and about is my main focus; skincare, haircare and weight managment made it all happen!

Wearing Bebe

Youth is wasted on the young (femulator)

Not a Freak

Sadly, I will not be attending Hamvention this year. My wife’s health has improved a lot, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone for the six days a roundtrip to Hamvention entails. To remind me of what I will be missing, I have been reading my old Hamvention posts and after reading one from 2019, I thought it deserved repeating, so here it is.

2019 Hamvention Booth Babe

As a ham radio operator, you usually have no idea about the people you contact over the air.

For years, Bill and I were key operators in a ham radio network spanning Connecticut and we worked together to make the network function efficiently. I never met Bill in person until I ran into him at Hamvention. (Yes, we traveled over 750 miles to meet each other even though we lived about 40 miles apart.)

After that first encounter, we usually met up at Hamvention each year, until I began showing up as a woman. I was shy those first few years attending as a woman, so I did not go out of my way to find Bill. Then about 10 years ago, I saw Bill sitting in the audience of a forum I was attending and when the forum was over, I made a beeline to Bill to reintroduce myself.

Bill was surprised, but seemed OK with the revised me and said that I had to be true to myself. Since then, Bill and I usually meet up at Hamvention as if nothing changed.

At Hamvention in 2019, I was returning to our booth after making my presentation and I heard someone call out my name. I turned around to find Bill waiting in line to buy lunch from a food truck. He informed me that he retired as a state police officer (I had no idea he was a state cop) and had moved to South Carolina. And then he said he wanted to introduce me to his wife, who was also waiting in line.

It does my heart good when a friend or acquaintance wants to introduce me to their spouse. It is so meaningful to me because they have accepted me as a real person, not a freak, but a woman.

Wearing Boston Proper

Womanless beauty pageant contestant in Guymon, Oklahoma, 1966

Nuns with Rulers

Wearing 70/21

Femulating at Duluth, Minnesota Central High School in 1973

And Fabulous is for Both Girls and Boys

Wearing Ann Taylor

A femulating sailor aboard the R.M.S. Caronia, circa 1955

Another Trump Presidency Would Be A Nightmare For Trans People

The reality unfolding in Florida today is just a microcosm of what the United States could look like if Donald Trump were to be elected president this November.

By Lil Kalish

The reality unfolding in Florida today is just a microcosm of what the United States could look like if Donald Trump were to be elected president this November, according to a nearly 1,000-page document that lays out goals and recommendations for a conservative president. The “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” better known as Project 2025, draws upon many of the current state-level anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies and expands them to the national stage by any means necessary.

Authored by former Trump officials and dozens of right-wing organizations including the Heritage Foundation, nearly every page of Project 2025 details policies that would impact LGBTQ+ people — and there’s a particular focus on transgender people. On the very first page of the manifesto, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts laments the “corruption” of the country “under the ruling and cultural elite” whose children “suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries.”

Many of the document’s suggestions are things that advocates say Trump could enact on his first day through a series of executive orders, like barring trans people from the military, and removing gender-affirming care and abortion from veteran health care policies. The document also calls for policies to redefine sex as “biological sex,” which not only effectively erases the legal recognition and protection of transgender people but goes against modern science.

Project 2025 also recommends rolling back Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court decision that protects LGBTQ+ people from employment discrimination; eliminating the promotion of gender-affirming care for minors nationwide; reinterpreting Title IX to permit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; and abolishing the Department of Education and returning “control of education to the states.”

Click here to read the whole story on Huffington Post.

Wearing Venus

Sture Lagerwall femulating in the 1934 Swedish film Adventures At The Hotel (Äventyr på hotell)

Suits Him

Wearing Cynthia Rowley

Jorge Chacón, womenswear model

Stuff 26: Some times you feel like a nut…

…Sometimes you don’t

By J.J. Atwell

Remember that commercial for Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars? Well, that applies to writing my Stuff too. Sometimes I feel like writing. Sometimes I don’t. After a fairly dry creative period, the urge to write has returned. And yes, sometimes I do feel like a nut. 

I find it amazing how much Stuff there is in my life. I get inspirations at the oddest of times. Like in the shower. OK, so it is not a pretty sight. We better move on to writing.

Why I Write

Some of you might wonder what prompts me to spend time writing these blog posts. I have a few reasons. First I should explain that writing was very important in my working days. Although I was a bean counter, I had to be good at writing in order to explain what the numbers meant to non bean counters. That meant paying attention to the more technical parts of writing such as proper grammar as well as how to structure sentences and paragraphs to make a persuasive point. Although I’ve been retired for some years, those habits are still with me. So I hope that you understand the points I’m making with my Stuff.

Perhaps a more significant reason I write is on a personal level. Writing about crossdressing gives me a sense of accomplishment and validity. It is actually a form of therapy for me. I get to take all my random thoughts, organize them, and put them down on paper in a logical fashion. It makes that part of my life more real.

I also probably should have become a teacher since I enjoy helping others learn about many things, not just about dressing as a woman. Being old, I’ve had a lot of crossdressing experience and have seen many changes or trends over the years. Some things that were old are new again. So I write about crossdressing experiences to pass along what I’ve learned or observed over the years. I hope reading my Stuff opens your eyes to new crossdressing opportunities. And the courage to pursue them. That’s what Stuff is all about.

I’ll be back

I’m not sure just what kind of schedule I’ll be keeping but I do plan on finding more Stuff to write about. Until then, I’d welcome comments here on Stana’s page or by email at Jenn6nov at-sign gmail dot com.

Wearing Lilla P

WRS and Emilian femulating the “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago on Romanian television’s Te Cunosc De Undeva (Your Face Sound Familiar).

Click here to view this femulation on YouTube.

Thanks to Dee Kaye for the information about this femulation.

That's What Friends are For

 

Wearing Boston Proper

Rebecca Howe, femulating and winning at the casino

Working Woman

If you have been following along, you know that I crossdressed at work for Halloween seven times. The first two times, the company had a costume contest and encouraged employees to come to work in costume. The last five times, the company was not sponsoring any Halloween events, but that did not stop me and I dressed in “office girl drag” five more Halloweens in a row. And I would have continued the tradition if the company had not offered me an excellent early retirement package in 2017.

Or would I?

During the last few years that I was employed, I was hemming and hawing about working en femme full-time. I had already come out to Human Resources and they were ready to support me whenever I decided to show up dressed as an office girl for real. My manager and her boss were on my side, too and I discovered later that almost everyone in the building was waiting for the other high heel shoe to drop. But I never pulled the trigger.

The main reason was that I thought that I could not sell the idea to my wife. In retrospect, I don’t think it would have come as a surprise to her. I already went out just about everywhere (except work) en femme. And the last few Halloweens, she wondered out loud if my co-workers suspected anything. I told her I had no idea what they thought only to learn later that that ship had already sailed.

If I had not taken early retirement and worked until I was 70, maybe I would have finally pulled the trigger and my Halloween dress-ups would only be quaint memories. Who knows! But I do regret not pulling the trigger when I could have.

(By the way, I was inspired to write this piece by the lady in today's Femulator slot below.)

Wearing Ann Taylor

April Flowers runs her own business en femme with nine people reporting to her and nary a word about her gender from her clients.

He's Just My Style

Wearing Venus

Alex Saxon femulating for television’s Ray Donovan.

He's a “Perfect Size 12”

I am so old that when I was just starting to get my feet wet in heels, a “perfect size 12” was a goal for many woman. Today, I don’t know what size stylish women hope to achieve, but it sure isn't size 12. Today’s size 12 is larger than size 12 of yesteryear. (I even managed to fit into some of today's size 12 dresses!)

Wearing Boston Proper

Vesna Prague, Czech Republic femulator