A Departmentalized Monday

A femulator at Casa Susanna, circa 1964

Herstory Dept.

Read a great article by Alicia Winokur about the history of Tiffany Club, a support group for crossdressers and transexuals during the Dark Ages of the last century. I came out in the middle of that history, so it was nice to backfill what I missed. The story is New England-centric and I actually knew some of the people involved, so it is a story that is near and dear to me, but I think anyone who was a member of a support  group during the late 20th Century will find the article interesting.

(Thank you Stephanie for alerting me to the article.)

She Gets My Vote Dept.

Heather wrote, “I've voted in person today. The lady who checked me in didn‘t realize that the name on the ballot and ID didn‘t match the image of the lady standing before her. She said I looked great. I had many positive comments.”

I often considered voting in person en femme, but worried that when I showed my male photo ID, all hell would break loose. But Heather’s story inspired me to do it next time I vote in person, so wait ’til next year as I already voted by absentee ballot this year. 

Can’t Get Too Much Wetter Dept.

Aunty emailed, “For my Guys to Gurls on Stage and Screen flickr group, I dug a little more into Mr./Ms. Wetter's background and came across him femulating Sissy Spacek in a video artist's homage to Brian DePalma's masterwork, Carrie. Brice Dellsperger has done 40 separate videos where he or other men assume female roles, such as in his first Body Double video that was based on DePalma's Dressed to Kill, and in that one he plays the Angie Dickinson role amazingly well.

Click here to view Brice Dellsperger’s videos (Alexandre Wetter as Carrie is “Body Double 32” and Brice Dellsperger as Angie Dickinson is “Body Double 1”).

Rocking a Stand coat and Intermix dress

Lil Nas X femulated Nicki Minaj for Halloween, 2020

Don’t Miss Miss

Miss is a new French film with the following plot (according to IMDb): “A young man seeking his sexual identity decides to take part in the Miss France beauty pageant.”

Sounds interesting from a femulator’s perspective, but to sweeten the pot, Alexandre Wetter plays the young man in question and he is absolutely gorgeous. So gorgeous that he is a male womenswear model, who I have featured in the Femulator slot about a half-dozen times.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so take a look at the images I captured from the film and I think you will agree that Alexandre’s femulation is not to be missed.

You can be a superhero when you wear this cape dress from Venus.

Alexandre Wetter femulating in the 2020 French film Miss.
You can view the trailer for the film on YouTube.

Someday Funnies

Alex Wetter, male womanswear model

My First Emulation-Worthy Femulator

As a young femulator back in the 1960s, I did not have any femulators to emulate.

On the big screen, there were Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, but they dressed in 1920s flapper styles ― an attractive style, but difficult for this young girl to emulate during the Jackie era.

On the small screen, Milton Berle made an occasional appearance en femme, but his femulations were strictly for laughs; they were clownish and often ugly ― nothing this girl wanted to copy.

The New York newspapers occasionally had ads displaying professional femulators at Club 82 and I so wanted to dress in showgirl drag like the girls at 82, but let's be practical.

There were no femulators that dressed like women dressed in the mid-1960s... no one I could look up to for inspiration.

Finally, one evening watching television in 1964, I saw a great femulation of a mid-1960s woman on a new episode of The Munsters of all places! In that episode, character actor Cliff Norton played a cop who disguised himself as a woman (see photo) in order to trap a guy who was accosting women in the park at night.

Norton's femulation left an impression on me for a very long time. He was not a beautiful woman, but he passed and more importantly, he was dressed like a mid-1960s woman in the styles I knew and loved and wanted to wear.

(The title of The Munsters episode is "A Walk on the Mild Side" and you can view it online in a number of locations; just search on "'The Munsters' 'A Walk on the Mild Side'" and you will find it. The femulation occurs about 19 minutes into the episode in case you want to fast-forward to it.)

(Caveat Emptor: This is a repurposed post from the past.)

Wearing Intermix.

Alex Wetter, male womenswear model

Go Vote!

This year was the first time that early in-person voting was an option in Connecticut, so I decided to try it out. My guess was that in our town with a population of 16,000 that there would  not be many people early voting and that I would be in and out of the town hall quickly. 

Wrong!

The parking lot was full, but I lucked out as another car was just leaving when I showed up. There was a very short line at the check-in desk, but after checking-in, I found a longer line of  winding  through the hallway to the voting room. So it took about 30 minutes to get in and out of the town hall.

A word about checking in… I did not recognize the woman staffing the check-in desk. I handed her my driver’s license and when she examined it, she looked up and said, “Stanley! How are you?” She was a family acquaintance who I had not seen in years. She asked about my family and then she sent me on my  way to end of the long line.

She never said anything about how I was dressed. I was wearing skinny jeans, a long sleeve tee, sneakers and minimal jewelry and minimal makeup (how unlike me!) so that I matched the boy photo on my driver’s license. I guess I was so androgynous that my old friend did not notice or she was so nice that she did not want to say anything to embarrass me.

Go figure!

And go vote!

By the way, I voted for Harris and Walz and I hope you will, too.

Wearing Alice + Olivia

Alexandre Wetter femulaing in the 2020 French film Miss.

Transgender Lives is Live

Attending the Transgender Lives Conference, April 2017

Everything you wanted to know about the upcoming Transgender Lives Conference is now online.

"The Thirteenth Annual Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Health and Law Conference being held on Saturday, April 27th at the UConn Health Center from 8:00 AM till 5 PM. This all day conference is geared towards Service Providers, Medical and Legal Professionals, Trans and Gender non-conforming community, allies and all those interested in the Health and Law issues facing the Trans and gender non-conforming communities.

"General Registration price is $25 per person (including lunch), $50 for anyone seeking CEC credits from the National Association of Social Workers of CT (NASW/CT). Can't afford it? We will have scholarships available the day of the event. The first 25 walk-ins will receive a free lunch."

👠 Online registration is available here.

👠 General information about the conference is available here.

👠 A list of workshops and presentations is available here and the workshop/presentation schedule is here.

👠 And the bios of each presenter is available here.

I will be presenting "Crossdressing Successfully in the Real World" to encourage male-to-female crossdressers to escape from fantasyland and experience the real world as females.

The Conference is strategically located at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut, halfway between Boston and New York City — an easy 2-hour/120-mile ride from either city. As a result, it is well-attended, but there is always room for you and I hope to see you there!

Wearing Rachel Zoe (Source: Rachel Zoe)

Alex Wetter, male womenswear model

December Surprise

Thank you all for the condolences regarding my mother-in-law’s death that you sent me in comments and e-mails. The past ten days were very stressful and tiring; your kind words brightened some very dark days.

My mother-in-law was a kind-hearted person and made a lot of sacrifices during her life to help strangers and relatives alike. She was very fashion-conscious and had a wardrobe that rivaled my own.

She was also very old school and did not approve of Stana. I never dressed en femme in her presence, so I don’t know what she thought I was doing when I crossdressed, but I learned through another relative that her son, my brother-in-law, convinced her that I was “mentally unstable.”

As a result, my feelings for my in-laws cooled after that. For my wife’s sake, I went along and acted as if I did not know anything, but it upset me. To alleviate the hurt, I hatched a plot where I would show at my in-law’s Christmas family get-together dressed to the nines.

I never carried out my plan in deference to my wife, but it made me smile whenever I thought about it.

Wearing Ann Taylor.

Alexandre Wetter, male womenswear model

Did this ever happen to you?

From the January 28, 2015 issue of The New Yorker. 

Wearing ABS by Allen Schwartz.

Model Alex Wetter

If a flat has a heel, is it still a flat?

What is it with women and shoes? I dunno, but I am a fan and own about 100 pairs. A few flats, a few boots, and the rest heels.

High heels were the second women’s garment that I ever tried on. Nylon stockings were the first. One thing led to another and after trying on a pair of Mommy’s nylons, I had to try on a pair of her high heel pumps to see how my nylon-clad legs looked in heels. (They looked spectacular!)

Although I am not Italian and no longer a girl, I enjoyed reading Sara Porro’s “The Italian Girl’s Guide to Walking in Heels.” I think you will enjoy it, too.

Girls occasionally ask me where to buy large size women’s shoes. I compiled a list a few years ago, however, it may be out of date today (if I could find it).To the rescue comes Alexzander of House of Alexzander fame with a current list of large size women’s shoe sources.

Regarding Alexzander’s list, I only have experience with one source on the list: Payless. I concur with Alexzander’s take on that shoe, but wish to add that Payless does have shoes from fashion designers (like Christian Siriano), whose shoe designs are not always “basic.”

And by the way, when does a flat become a heel? If a flat has a heel, is it still a flat?

 

 

 

Wearing Red Valentino.

 

 

 

Male model Alex Wetter.

Any Womanless Veterans?

Occasionally, I have brought your attention to various events in which civilian (non-trans) males dress as females to participate in womanless beauty pageants, womanless fashion shows, womanless weddings, and womanless etceteras.

In almost every womanless event, there are one or two "girls" participating who are outstanding... so outstanding that you wonder if it was their first time... rather than being a civilian, are they actually one of us. Or they may be first timers, but their experience releases their inner girl and they so enjoy being a girl that they become one of us.

Those thoughts have become urban legends around here and I wonder if there is any truth to them. So are any of you readers past participants of a civilian non-trans womanless event?

If you were a beauty queen or a fashion model or a bridesmaid in a civilian womanless event I would love to hear and share your story and photos (I just know that you have photos.)

Or is there really nothing to our urban legends?

Wearing Versace.

Model Alex Wetter.