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Self-Feminization

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Recently, I received an e-mail from Miss Z bemoaning the fact that her face is too masculine, so she never presents as a woman in public because she fears being ridiculed as a man in a dress.

Over the years, I have received similar complaints from other readers, for example, Miss K once wrote, "It's easy for you to go out – you are drop-dead gorgeous! But it's not so easy for the rest of us who are not born with gorgeous genes!"

Thank you, but I assure you I was not born with gorgeous genes. In boy mode, no one mistakes me for a woman. Although I don't have a craggy-face like Tommy Lee Jones, I also don't have the beautiful visage of Catherine Zeta-Jones. I just don't slip on a dress and heels and look like Stana – I have to feminize myself before I can approach drop-dead gorgeousness!

In this and near future posts, I plan to write about some of the things I have learned and used to feminize myself.

Day-to-Day Maintenance

I do not present as a female everyday, but I perform maintenance on my body everyday to enhance my female presentation on those days I do.

I shave my face and neck daily with a Philips Norelco rotary electric shaver.

When I am finished with my face and neck, I shave other parts of my body. One day, I do my legs, another day, I do my arms. My breasts, shoulders and back are also part of this daily routine. So over a four- or five-day period, I shave all the parts of my body that may be exposed depending on what I wear as a woman.

I moisturize my face and neck in the morning using Olay Complete All Day Moisturizer. After many, many years of shunning skin care, I began using a moisturizer about 15 years ago and it made a huge difference. My skin is smoother, more supple, healthier-looking and my makeup goes on easier and looks better.

I also moisturize my feet every morning using Avon Foot Works Intensive Moisture Foot Cream. I began moisturizing my feet about 18 months ago and it has made a big difference. Before I began moisturizing, my feet were drop-dead ugly. There was no confusing my feet for a lady's. Eighteen months later, my feet are actually pretty! My thigh highs and pantyhose slip on and off easily; no longer getting hung up (and running) on a callous or other dry skin anomaly. And my high heels feel more comfortable on my silky, smooth feet.

About six months ago, I received a tube of Avon Foot Works Peppermint Reviving Leg Gel which was bundled with a purchase of the Avon foot cream. Since I was already stripped down to my panties when I moisturize my feet, I decided to try the gel on my legs. The gel's function is to refresh and soothe tired, achy legs with a "cooling gel featuring peppermint oil." I liked the way the gel feels and smells and it feel when I massage the gel into my legs, so it is now a part of my morning routine.

Until last year, I maintained my weight. For about 45 years, I kept my weight within a five-pound range. Whenever it edged up five pounds, I would take measures to bring it back down.

About a year ago, I started a diet. It was simple; nothing drastic. I just cut down on my sugar and bread intake and tried not to eat in between meals and by June, I lost 20 pounds.

I don't have to tell you how that missing 20 pounds improved my female presentation. I dropped two dress sizes, lost my back fat, dropped one shoe size, thinned my face, improved my figure and overall, felt better not to mention, more feminine.

Finally, for what it’s worth, I have never smoked in all my 66 years and I seldom drink alcoholic beverages (I probably average less than one glass of beer per month). I am sure that has contributed to my appearance and enhanced my ability to femulate.




Source: HauteLook
Wearing Catherine Catherine Malandrino (Source: HauteLook)




Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis
Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis femulating in the 1959 film Some Like It Hot.

How to Start

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By Paula Gaikowski

As we move into the new year, I remember a resolution I made to write more for Femulate. This also helps justify the luxurious office suite that I occupy here at the sprawling Femulate World Headquarters.

It also compels me to spend less time at the water cooler sharing makeup and fashion tips. Although CEO Stana can be a taskmaster, we keep a close watch on the Dress Barn sales flyers knowing well those days are best for our long lunches.

I am often asked by transgender persons who want to start expressing their femininity, "How do I start?"

Whether you just want to experiment at home or want to go out and about as a woman, being a girl takes work and time and it truly is a lifestyle.

It will take time to find your niche or comfort zone as a woman. It truly is an evolution. It’s important to enjoy the journey, new shoes, a good hair day, perfect eye makeup or your first steps out the door.
I recommend starting with something that interests you, begin small. Maybe you want to get that first wig or start learning makeup skills.

The important part is to start, nothing will happen if you do nothing.

I’ll cover three areas where you can initiate a positive move toward your feminine core.

First is makeup. Back in 2009 I approached the cosmetics counter at Lord and Taylor trembling inside asking for a foundation to provide good coverage. The first woman I spoke with directed me to the NARS counter.

At this point I thought, “Oh no, they are freaking out,” but the young woman I met (Kasey) was polite and helpful. Over the next few months, I would come back to build my needed stock of makeup. Each time, Kasey taught me how to use the cosmetics and also encourage me. We had some in-depth conversations about transgender people and the world. During this time, she would extend the repeated offer of a makeover. I never would have dreamed of going out in public. But over that year I started to get my proverbial transgender wings and started going out regularly.

Kasey worked for NARS and has since moved onto a career in the corporate world. So I became a devoted MAC girl. I cannot recommend them more highly. Other Femulate readers will concur that the policy at MAC is highly inclusive; they have many transgender customers and will treat you with the upmost respect. If you recall, MAC sponsored Caitlyn Jenner’s “Finally Free” lipstick and donated the proceeds to transgender youth.

What you are really looking for as an emerging transgender person is to slowly open yourself up in a positive environment. You will begin to feel good about yourself and in turn, slowly build a collection of makeup and beauty products that will help you with your goals.

The guidance and support you will get from the makeup artists at MAC will surely be worth the added expense of their product.

There is nothing more liberating than telling another woman, "This makeup is for me, I am transgender."

It all flows forward from there.

Next week, we will talk about building a wardrobe.




Source: Edressme
Wearing Jovani (Source: Edressme)





Jan Cina
Jan Cina femulates Madonna on the Czech Republic' version of television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Excuse Me

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Excuse me for not posting on a daily basis this week, but life got in the way.

Last Friday, I woke up to 12 inches of new snow on my 120-foot driveway. Not a big deal except that the temperature was hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. So I bundled up and got the job done in less than two hours.

After I got the snowblower and shovels back in the garage, I closed the garage door and (Bang!) the garage door spring broke. It is a two-car wide garage door and weighs so much that it is impossible to raise it without the spring.

My daughter and I managed to raise the door with the assistance of the electric garage door opener so we could get the cars out of the garage, but that was such an intensive two-person operation that we were resigned to not using the garage door until the spring could be replaced. So instead of using the garage door for the majority of our entrances and exits from the house, we had to use the front door.

Saturday was ever colder than Friday and when we returned home after dining with some friends, I snapped the key off in the dead bolt lock when I tried to unlock the front door. We got into the house with a spare key through the back door and I unlocked the dead bolt lock manually from inside. The front door has two locks, so we could still use it the door, but I needed to get the dead bolt lock fixed.

By end of day Saturday, I had three calls into garage door repairmen and one call into a locksmith.

The locksmith showed up early Tuesday morning and spent 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to remove the broken key from the lock. He figured that it was frozen and suggested that I soak the lock in WD-40, then try to get the key out myself and reassemble the lock. He warned me about being careful if I had to disassemble the lock works in order to get the broken key out because the works might "explode."

Midday Monday, a garage door repairman showed up. He said he had to order a replacement spring and would be back late Tuesday or early Wednesday to install it.

Meanwhile, I had to go out and buy a can of WD-40 because I had used up the last can. About 2 PM, I filled a small cup with WD-40 and began soaking the lock works. At 6 PM, I checked to see how the soaking was going. The lock works still seemed frozen. The broken key did not seem any looser than when I started the soaking.

I figured that the only was to get the key out was to disassemble the works. So I stuck the works in a vise and tried removing the lock works cap with a pair of pliers. It took a few attempts, but I finally got the cap unfrozen. But the key was still not moving, so I slowly removed the cap and the lock works "exploded" with pieces of the works flying all over the garage!

The broken key was now free, but I had to spend the next 90 minutes on my hands and knees in an ice-cold garage gathering up all the pieces of the exploded lock works.

After consulting the Internet, I realized that I could not reassemble the lock works without some sort of jig, so Wednesday morning, I phoned the locksmith and he told me to bring the parts to his shop and he would reassemble the works. I immediately brought the parts to his shop and he reassembled the works. I went home to reassemble the lock in the front door.

Meanwhile, the garage door repairman called and said he would be showing up around noon Wednesday to repair the garage door spring, which he did.

I forgot to mention that our big screen LED TV died a few days earlier!

And so it goes!




Source: JustFab
Wearing JustFab (Source: JustFab)




The Witches
Except for the three women in the foreground, all the women in this scene are femulating actors in the 1990 film The Witches(Thank you, Zoe for this femulation.) 

Someday Funnies

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Whereas the funnies that usually appear here are parodies that I cook up, today I offer a couple that are genuine femulating-related funnies that were published in the near past.


September 21, 2008 installment of the syndicated comic strip The Family Circus


October 4, 1969 issue of The New Yorker




Source: Madeleine
Wearing Madeleine (Source: Madeleine)





Professional femulators in France, circa 1955
Professional femulators in France, circa 1955

Strike a Pose

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How to pose a portrait: 54 creative ideas is an article from Digital Camera Magazine that offers suggestions on how to pose for a portrait.

Below are their suggestions for shooting portraits from high and low camera angles. The article also offers suggestions for full-length portraits, seated portraits and facial expressions.

I know I can certainly add some variety in how I pose for photos and maybe you can use a little variety, too!







Source: Tory Burch
Wearing Tory Burch (Source: Tory Burch)



United Way of Scotland County (North Carolina) womanless beauty pageant.
Contestants in the United Way of Scotland County (North Carolina) womanless beauty pageant.

My Comic Book Life

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My father worked as a printing pressman at Eastern Color Printing, the company that invented the modern comic book.

When I was growing up, the company printed a slew of comic books and the Sunday funnies for about a dozen newspapers in the Northeast.

After work, my father brought home copies of whatever was printed that day.

The comic books were coverless because the glossy covers were printed and stapled to the four-color interior pages at a different plant. Typically, the comic books my father brought home consisted of two sheets of newsprint. Eight pages of the comic book were printed on each side of the two sheets (see photo above of Captain America #101) for a total of 32 pages. The two sheets came off the printing press collated and folded into two-pages flat, ready to be trimmed, covered and bound (stapled) at the other plant. My sister and I quickly learned how to use a table knife to slice open those folded sheets of newsprint so we could read the comic book.

Max Gaines created the modern comic book while working for Eastern Color. About 30 years later, his son, Bill Gaines, co-founded MAD Magazine.

I encountered MAD for the first time when my family piled into the Chevy and drove to Storrs to visit my uncle who was attending UCONN. In his dorm room was the September 1960 issue of MAD, with a cover that suggested that the magazine could be used as a fly swatter.

My 9-year-old mind thought that the idea behind the cover was brilliant and I was hooked. I collected a few back issues that my uncle was ready to discard and I began spending my allowance buying the magazine whenever it appeared on the rack at the Palace News.

(By the way, that trip to UCONN also had a radio angle. In the common area of the dorm building was a radio tuned to the Canadian time signal station, CHU. It piqued my interest that there was a radio station whose "only" purpose was to announce the time every minute.)

Anyway, one day, my father came home from work, handed me a stack of Sunday funny sections and said, "Surprise!"

I was unimpressed. It looked just like the funny sections from the New Haven Register or Hartford Courant that Pop brought home every week. But then I looked closer and realized that this was not your run-of-the-mill Sunday funny section, it was MADMagazine's Sunday Comic Section! It was the insert for the upcoming issue of The Worst of Mad (#4), one of the annuals that the Usual Gang of Idiots churned out.drew

I assumed, but never could confirm that the Bill Gaines-Max Gaines-Eastern Color connection had something to do with MAD hiring Eastern Color to print the insert. And as it turned out, Eastern Color printed all the subsequent MAD inserts of the four-color newsprint variety including Sing Along With MAD (for More Trash From MAD #4), MAD Protest Signs (for Worst #7) and "A Full-Color 'Pop Art-Op Art' Life-Size Picture of Alfred E. Neuman" (for More Trash #8).

From a very early age, I was fascinated with the product my father brought home. I even tried recreating the four-color printing process by drawing the tiny dots that made up the images in the comic books. I quickly realized that trying to create a comic book by drawing those dots would take forever so I dropped that experiment, but I continued drawing humor in a jugular vein and eventually drew about a dozen issues of my own version of MAD, which I called Crazy.

I can go on and on, so let me know if you want to read more. (I wrote this in response to the positive comments I received regarding Saturday's post about my daily non-femulating life.)





Source: Shopstyle
Wearing Self-Portrait (Source: Shopstyle)





Twin Cities' Katie and Hannah

War on Transgenders Continues

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Trump's War on Transgenders continues...

Trump Administration to Shield Workers Who Won’t Treat Transgender Patients

"As part of a proposed rule now under review by the White House, the Trump administration would create a new “division” of the Department of Health and Human Services’ civil-rights office that would enforce protections for health-care workers who refuse to perform abortions or treat transgender patients, Politico reports."

Read the rest of the story here.

Trump Administration Abandons Its Obligations to Trans Students

"Huffington Post reports that it uncovered at least three cases of alleged anti-transgender discrimination that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed over the past few months. In one case in Texas, a transgender student accused his high school of not allowing him to use the bathroom that corresponds to his gender identity or room with his teammates when they traveled overnight. In response to his complaint, the department’s Office for Civil Rights cited the administration’s rescission of the Obama guidance for its dismissal of the teenager’s complaint."

Read the rest of the story here.

And the beat goes on!




Source: Olivia Palermo
Wearing Olivia Palermo. I love her style — She can dress me when I become rich and famous!




Womanless wedding, circa 1935
Womanless wedding, circa 1935
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Friday's Brief Femulations

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In My Dreams Dept.

Dreamed about my first day at work as a woman. It was an office setting and everyone treated me respectfully.

Last thing I remember was a male co-worker asking me if my voice was the result of a physical problem and me making a mental note to work on my femme voice.

Beyond the Tipping Point Dept.

Juan's blog is now showing the Fall 2018 menswear collection from Palomo Spain. My favorite outfits from the collection are in the two photos below.


Wait 'Til Next Year Dept.

I have been an utter failure at keeping my only New Years resolution, that is, to stop using the F word (and all of its derivations).

Man/Woman at Work Dept.

Except for a few freelance writing jobs, I am pretty much retired and still trying to decide what to do for my encore.

It is not like I am twiddling my thumbs all day long. I am busy at home as Mr. Fix-It and Mrs. Housewife, but I need to get out more, preferably as a woman. Volunteer work is attractive, but it would be nice to bring home a little income, too.

Any ideas?



Source: Wholesale 7
Wearing Wholesale 7 (Source: Wholesale 7)




Veit Alex
Veit Alex, male womenswear model

One Year of Bad News

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Trump's War on Transgenders Dept.

45 unconscionable attacks against the LGBTQ community

"GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released research on 45 instances where President Donald Trump has selectivity targeted the LGBTQ community during his first year in office.

"Throughout the year, the Trump administration has issued constant attacks on the health and well-being of the LGBTQ community through the creation of one of the most anti-LGBTQ cabinets in recent history, vehement support for religious exemptions that seek to undermine non-discrimination laws and bigoted polices that target the transgender community including a proposed trans military ban."

Read the rest of the story here.

Someday Funnies

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Source: One Hanes Place
Wearing Hanes (Source: One Hanes Place)




Source: University of California Calisphere
Femulators arrested during a raid on a house in Los Angeles, November 1927.
(Source: University of California Calisphere)

Self-Feminization: Brows

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In this post, I continue to write about some of the things I have learned and used to feminize myself.

Uni to Girly

Brows can either make or break your entire look. I had a unibrow when I started to get serious about femulating. I did not have a solid unibrow, but there were enough hairs above the bridge of my nose that it was not very ladylike. So early on, I took a razor to that patch of hair.

In boy mode, nobody noticed that I now had two distinct eyebrows. (Wearing eyeglasses in boy mode also helped to disguise my eyebrow feminization.)

Emboldened, I bought eyebrow tweezers and an eyebrow trimmer. With the tweezers, I attacked the stray hairs and with the trimmer, I shortened any hairs that had grown to unruly lengths. The result was neater and more feminine brows. And in boy mode, nobody noticed.

Further emboldened, I began using the tweezers to thin my brows. I only thinned along the bottoms, never the tops because I had read in a number of places that you should not pluck along the tops of your brows because if you do, the hair will not grow back!

Still nobody noticed, so I kept on thinning and the result was a perfect feminine sweeping curve along the bottom of my brows, while the top was not so perfect.

I was a little frustrated until I visited our public library and took out a book titled Beautiful Brows: The Ultimate Guide to Styling, Shaping, and Maintaining Your Eyebrows by Nancy Parker and Nancy Kalish. The book deflated the advice about not plucking above your eyebrows and said to go ahead and pluck above, as well as below.

Immediately after reading that passage, I dropped the book, went to the bathroom and plucked all the strays above my eyebrows! Now my eyebrows, both tops and bottoms, looked neat and feminine and since then I continued to pluck and thin above and below. (By the way, the hair does indeed grow back above as well as below.)

This is a very tricky business, so take your time and go back and forth between your left and right brows so that they will look alike.

To color and define my brows, I use an Avon eyebrow pencil. Although my natural eyebrow color is light brown, I use a blonde eyebrow pencil because I found that using a brown pencil resulted in a brow that was too dark. Blonde is just right for me, so you too might want to go one shade lighter than your natural brow color.

Using an eyebrow brush, I comb out my brow hairs so they are lined up horizontally and pointing away from my nose.

Next, I sharpen the pencil to a very fine point and draw a line that defines the upper edge of my eyebrow. I start drawing the line above the inner corner of my eye (point A in the accompanying figure), angling upwards to the peak of the arch which is above the outer edge of the pupil of my eye (point B), then drawing the brow out to a point that lines up with my nose and the outer corner of my eye (point C). All the while I draw the line as close as possible to my existing brow hair.

After I define the tops of my eyebrows, I use the pencil to fill in the area below the line where the hair is thin or missing. Then I use the eyebrow brush to brush and even out the color I just applied.

Women generally have higher brow bones than men, resulting in a greater distance between the bottom of the brow and the eyelid. To compensate, use a highlighter to brighten the area under the arch and lift the brow even more.

Any questions? I will try my best to answer them.




Source: Bebe
Wearing Bebe (Source: Bebe)




Manuel Arte femulates Jane Russell and Frankie Kein femulates Marilyn Monroe in the drag show Faces in Santa Monica, California, 1986 (Source: University of California Calisphere)
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Femulate Wins!

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The results are in and 9 out of 10 voters selected Femulate to be the winner of the 2017 Gender Blogs Awards!

Thank-you!

The 11th anniversary of this blog is February 5. Who would have thought, certainly not me, that the blog would still be going strong after all these years?

After one year, Femulate averaged 500 hits per day. After two years, 1500 hits per day. Then the hit count exploded and since that time, the blog has averaged over 5,000 hits per day, which is saying something!

So, thank-you again!

Nailing It with Your Eyebrows

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Tammy, had this to add to my Self-Feminization: Brows post.

I loved your article on eyebrows. Most girls have no idea how important improving your eyebrows can be. By having my eyebrows waxed once a month, I find I can navigate either world quite easily. By having trimmed eyebrows, you add just enough ambiguity so that others just aren't quite sure if you are a man or woman. It then takes very little extra to help them decide.

I live in the north where we get cold winters and we need to bundle up for shopping. Let me share a couple examples of what happens when I go out with a close shave, trimmed eyebrows, gender neutral winter clothes and a stocking cap.

Last week I went into a shoe store and was asked if they could help me find something. I just said I was looking to see what they had for sale. The saleswoman then asked, for men or women. Without any gender-specific clothing visible, I doubt that without nicely-trimmed eyebrows they would have asked that. They would have just sent me to the area where men's shoes were on sale.

I asked for women's shoes and was directed to that area. Awhile back my wife and I were leaving the grocery store with me dressed the same way. As we left, the cashier said, "Have a nice evening, ladies." Wearing less "gender neutral" clothing, I make it easy for others to put me in the "camp" I desire. When I dress fully feminine, the eyebrows don't give me away.

So how do you go about achieving these results? I started with the person that cuts my hair. She does both men and women's hair as well as eyebrow waxing. She always trims eyebrows of both her men and women clients. All it took was a couple of times saying, "I wish my eyebrows weren't quite so thick because it gets my glasses greasy," for her to say, "Well, we could always wax them." I said, "Sure, I'll give it a try."

I now have it done every month when I have my hair cut. After that, it was just fine-tuning the waxing with comments like "Maybe just a little thinner so they don't rub on my glasses,""How about a little arch at the end so they aren't so close to my glasses,""Maybe a little shorter because they grow so fast." And before you know it, I had eyebrows that work in either world.

If I go to a stylist in an area away from home, I just tell them I want them waxed very femininely. No one waxing my eyebrows has ever complained and not taken my money. Also, no one I know socially has ever asked me about my eyebrows. If someone ever did and I was the least bit concerned about their comments, I could always say, "I have them trimmed so they don't rub on my glasses" or "the woman that cuts my hair trims my eyebrows and got a little carried away." But being retired and not caring so much about what others think, I'd probably say, "Yes, I really like them, what do you think?"

With my eyebrows waxed and this knowledge, I feel comfortable going into any store shopping for clothes, regardless of the gender. If I want to go one step further, I just put on a stocking cap that is a little more feminine, then there's no question in most saleswomen's minds.

The results I shared so far are just wearing mainly gender-neutral clothes. Let me end by telling you about the last time I went out with a nice little black dress, full makeup, wig, etc. I stopped in a shop where the saleslady has helped me in both boy and girl mode (and know it's one person). Her comment was "Wow, you really nailed it!"




Source: Bebe
Ain't that the truth! Wearing Bebe (Source: Bebe)




Billy Budd
Billy Budd, professional femulator in 1932

I think it's Thursday

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Out of the Loop Dept.

Got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head and tried to figure out what day of the week it was. This has happened occasionally since I stopped working for a living and I usually figure it out before I brush my teeth. But this morning, it took me awhile and I still was not sure until I fetched the newspaper and checked the date!

On a similar note, weekends have lost their luster since I stopped working. I much prefer going out on weekdays when the adults are at work, the kids are in school and most of the people I run into are old men and ladies like me!

High Heel on the Other Foot Dept.

“In a parallel universe” is a series of fictional images, recreated from real ads in the mad men era, that question modern day sexism: showing it through a humorous light to spark a conversation through role play. Here is the link to this creative Madison Avenue gender role reversal: http://www.elirezkallah.com/inaparalleluniverse/





Source: Dress Barn
Wearing Dress Barn (Source: Dress Barn)





womanless beauty pageant
Behind the scenes at a womanless beauty pageant

Friday Femulations

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Put Out the Fire Sale Dept.

My favorite clothing store, Dress Barn (aka Roz & Ali) is having a big clearance sale and the prices are to die for! For example, two dresses I bought this fall for about $49 each are now on sale for $14.99 each!

No Neutrality Dept.

Has anyone else noticed that their Internet access is slower since Trump's FCC killed net neutrality? My access via Comcast has slowed down noticeably the last two weeks. I hope it is due to something else, but I suspect the worst.

End of an Era Dept.

Aunty Marlena sent me this bit of anti-femulation news... "The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, an irreverent Harvard theater troupe that has not cast women since it began staging productions in 1844, announced on Thursday that, for the very first time, it would encourage women to audition this year."

I hope they did not make this decision in haste!

Fictional Femulating Dept.

The word "femulate" (which was invented for this blog) is now showing up in crossdressing fiction. The latest appearance of the term is in Amanda Hawkins' recent tale "The Feminization of Geofferson Janeway."




Source: Rent the Runway
Wearing Nicholas (Source: Rent the Runway)




Mariusz Ostrowski
Mariusz Ostrowski femulating on the Polish television version of Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Someday Funnies

Monday

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Like I said, "Monday."

The other "drag"





Source: Rent the Runway
Wearing Hunter Bell (Source: Rent the Runway)




Sven Schelker
Sven Schelker femulates in the German film The Circle.

Resources for LGBTQ Students

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Emily Sorenson and her tram at the Center for School, College, and Career Resources have just started a project to help LGBTQ students succeed in school. They compiled a series of resources to help these students succeed in school.

The first is a comprehensive guide created for LGBTQ students, allies, and other community members. It offers tips for knowing if a college is LGBTQ friendly and highlights the schools going above and beyond to welcome these students. It also explains the Campus Pride Index and includes an interview with Gary Howell, a staff member at Argosy University who works with AU Tampa’s Campus Pride group.

Resources and Expert Advice for LGBTQ College Students - https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/college/lgbtq-student-resources/

The second guide focuses on transgender students. It includes scholarships specific to the trans community, describes how to find a transgender-friendly college and provides a directory for additional resources to help with academic and extracurricular success. You can check out the entire guide here:

Resources for Transgender College Students - https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/transgender-student-support/

The last guide in the series focuses on scholarships and financial aid available to LGBTQ college students. It's not only a list of funding opportunities -- there are tips on, for example, how to navigate applying to financial aid before coming out to family or if family is not supportive.

College Scholarships for LGBTQ Students - https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/lgbtq-scholarships-financial-aid/




Campus tour wear
Campus tour wear



Oberlin College drag ball
Boys will be girls and girls will be boys at the Oberlin College drag ball

I Love Films

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The New Girlfriend
Romain Duris and Anaïs Demoustier in The New Girlfriend

I am a big movie fan. As I type this, I am watching one of my favorite movies, the original King Kong.

Always liked monster flicks. The first film I ever saw in a theater was Godzilla, King of the Monsters. That film gave me nightmares for years. I like Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein, too.

I like good and bad science fiction films. The good: The Martian, the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, both versions of The War of the Worlds, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Time Machine, The Man from Planet X. The bad: any 1950's or 1960's film with a flying saucer, dinosaur or a giant whatever.

I never saw a Hitchcock film I didn't like. North by Northwest is my favorite Hitch flick and it is probably my favorite film of all time. It also stars my favorite actor, Cary Grant.

I also like Tarantino films, especially Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. Other crime films I like include Godfather, Godfather II, Casino, Goodfellas, The French Connection, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Seven-Ups and The Departed.

Comedies are among my faves, too. Any Marx Brothers film works for me and a lot of Woody Allen films are good for me, too. (Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, Annie Hall and Manhattan are probably my favorite Woodman flicks.)

Humphrey Bogart is probably my second favorite actor and I like a lot of his films. His wife, Lauren Bacall, is probably my favorite female actor. Myrna Loy is right on her heels.

My father was in the Marines during World War II and carried home two Purple Hearts and shrapnel in his upper arm. Pop watched a lot of World War II flicks and I became a war film fan, too. The Great Escape, Apocalypse Now, Stalag 17, The Caine Mutiny, The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan,The Deer Hunter and Mister Roberts are films I will watch anytime. The Sands of Iwo Jima gets an honorable mention; my Pop liked the film because he fought on Iwo and I like it, too.

I love John Ford westerns: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, etc.

I like chick flicks, too.

I don't care much for trans films. Most of them don't ring true, but there is one that I consider much better than the rest, The New Girlfriend. I recommend it highly.




Source: Lulus
Wearing Lulus (Source: Lulus)




Romain Duris
Romain Duris femulates in The New Girlfriend, a 2014 French film

First Time

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What was your first encounter with a crossdresser out and about among the civilians?

My wife and I were in New Orleans in 1984 for a speaking engagement at a ham radio convention. While in the Crescent City, we took in the World's Fair and visited the other sites that the city had to offer.

After walking around the French Quarter for an hour or so, we parked ourselves on a park bench in Jackson Square to rest and cool down. While seated there, I noticed a couple of crossdressers walking side-by-side through the Square. They were dressed as civilians not drag queens and tried to blend in with the other civilians.

Their height, flat posteriors and the fact that they were clearly wearing wigs gave them away to me. Not to mention that I was not the only person to notice them; there were a few gawkers, smirks and giggles as they passed by.

I was impressed with their courage to go out in public and to put up with the ridicule they encountered.

Doing the same myself a decade or so later, I realized it was not courage. Rather, it was the need to be authentic and damn the torpedoes of ridicule.




Source: HauteLook
Wearing Gracia (Source: HauteLook)




Christopher Hewett
Christopher Hewett dresses pretty for the Choreographer's Ball in the 1967 film The Producers. (I watched the film in ultra-high-definition on a 55-inch LED TV last night and for the first time, I noticed the other pretty frocks in his closet.) 
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