Wearing Diane von Furstenberg |
The Girls of La Cage aux Folles, Before and After |
Gender confusion arrived early in my life.
I had my own bedroom from the get-go. Eighteen months after my birth, my sister came along and we became roommates.
I am not sure when my parents wall-papered our bedroom because I only remember it having wallpaper depicting various nursery rhyme superstars.
One superstar confused me: Little Boy Blues was wearing girls’ shoes... Mary Janes to be specific. I suppose that at one time, little boys wore Mary Jane style shoes, but not in my lifetime and the wallpaper’s take on Boy Blue did not make sense to me. Why was he wearing girls’ shoes?
Weirdly (or maybe not so weirdly), when I asked AI to generate an image for the blog of “nursery rhyme Little Boy Blue wearing Mary Jane shoes,” it created the accompanying image with Little Boy Blue wearing a dress in addition to the Mary Janes!
Wearing ModCloth |
Ann Nonimus Femulate reader |
Wearing Ronny Kobo |
Joe E. Brown femulating in the 1942 film The Daring Young Man. |
The goal of this blog is to encourage male-to-female crossdressers to get out of the closet and experience the world as females. I believe that the blog has been very successful in that regard.
Lately, it has become more dangerous to go out and about en femme due to the open transphobia encouraged by the republican party. Tuesday’s election will just embolden the haters; they will feel that they now have free rein to attack us and it will no longer be safe to go out en femme anywhere.
So I am loathe to encourage anyone to go out and about en femme. It was fun while it lasted, but now it is scary and I don’t want anyone to get hurt. And since the goal of this blog is something I no longer advocate, I plan to shut it down.
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. |
By J.J. Atwell
Finding the Right Outfit
Looking at yourself in the mirror can be a cruel experience. While I was idly browsing the Internet, I came across an article that I thought was a very good take on the issue of finding the right outfit.
The story is aimed at generic girls, but as CDs, we face the same challenges that they face when picking out an outfit. The big question: is it right for your body? As I think about it, our challenges as CDs might be more difficult. But then again, we can make some changes to our apparent body whereas GGs mostly have to deal with what they have.
I’ve Got Nothing to Wear!
I’m sure we have heard these words from our significant others. I’m also sure that we have repeated those words to ourselves when contemplating our next outing. I have a closet and a half full of clothes for my femme side. Sometimes I’m embarrassed by how much I have. My GG friend, Alicia, commented after one of my recent thrifting excursions that I have more outfits than she normally wears in weeks of day-to-day real life. And JJ only gets out once or twice a month!
But I still have nothing to wear. Our group sometimes has themed evenings which might call for a special type of outfit. Perhaps a beach theme? How about a holiday theme? I just don’t have things that work for those occasions. Yes, JJ needs to shop for more outfits!
I have a lot of everyday outfits like skinny jeans, skirts and tops. Just normal stuff that you see women wearing out all the time. But for meetings, JJ prefers to only wear them once. Once an outfit has been seen by the group it gets consigned to the back of the closet, perhaps to only be worn again at home. Some things can get re-used though. I’ve got a couple of skirts that go well with many different tops. The mix and match strategy can expand your wardrobe.
Does this Match?
I haven’t quite mastered the art of knowing what matches. My sense of color and style seems to abandon me when faced with a flowery top. I might be tempted to pair it with a striped skirt if left to my own devices. Fortunately, I have an SO and some GG friends that I can bounce ideas off of. It is so helpful to get expert advice from a gal pal.
The Happy Mirror
Now that we have taken all that into account, is that mirror still cruel? In my case, I think I’ve moved on to a happy mirror. When I see myself dressed in the right outfit, I also see a smile on my face. Yes, when you look good you feel good.
I love the suggestion in the article referenced above that we should take inventory of our clothes and pick out the ones that most make us feel good. At that point, it’s time to thin out the closet by getting rid of the other stuff. Yes, it is hard to toss things that we spent time and effort and money acquiring in the first place. But sometimes you have to be cruel so that the mirror is happy.
I’ll Be Back
I hope you find the referenced article to be interesting. I’ll be back with more Stuff in the next installment. Comments are welcome either here on the blog or by email to Jenn6nov at-sign gmail dot com. JJ is always looking for more stuff, so let me know what you would like to read about.
Wearing Elàgia |
A womanless beauty! |