Sunday Funnies 1/31

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 The funnies were my favorite section of the Sunday paper when I was growing up. I will make an effort to make this a regular Sunday feature.  Enjoy and have a super week!

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It Is Time....

When it comes to the fight for social justice, non-profit organizations play a special role in advancing progressive causes.  The LGBT community is a collection of many organizations all working to eliminate discrimination and spread understanding.  All of the individuals represented in the letters in “LGBT” are different but recognize that by working together we are a formidable group.  The term network is grossly overused but does apply when diverse individual come together to amplify the message that discrimination and prejudice are wrong!  

Working together has not always been the goal in transgender community.  The Society of Second Self or Tri-Ess as it became with its founder, Virginia Prince made efforts to estrange the support group from the gay, lesbian, and the transsexual community.  They established layers of rules in the form of bi-laws actually preventing full membership to any one not defining themselves to be a “heterosexual crossdresser”. 

It is important to note that Tri-Ess does not represent the total spectrum of the transgender community and never did.  Many do not realize that ideas about being a crossdresser stem from the myths that arose out of the 1950’s rigid prejudices.  The first myth is that crossdressers are never homosexual.  The second is that sexuality has nothing to do with crossdressing, and the third is that crossdressers never transition.  These myths help create the abyss that kept crossdressers from connecting with other support communities. 

Tri-Ess first attempt at educating the public, was to clarify that crossdressers were not homosexual and homosexuality had nothing to do with crossdressing.  It was an unfortunate choice.  In its attempt to define crossdressing by putting down homosexuality, Tri-Ess spread homophobic ideas.  

I would like to credit the Book “My Husband Betty” written by Helen Boyd for much of this historical reference into Tri-Ess.  It is wonderful and informative.

Truth be told now, it was at gay and lesbian establishments where I first found acceptance as a transgender person.  There I receive encouragement, help and a no-guilt attitude.  One of the first places I was ever referred to as “a lady” was at a lesbian bar. Deserved or not, I was elated for the recognition of my efforts.  The gay and lesbian community may not always understand us, but they do welcome us.

Also both of the support groups I established were and still are "all inclusive". 

My personal goal through life has been to find acceptance.  I wanted my parents to appreciate my efforts to be good, my family to understand and peers to have empathy.  How could I ever expect to receive these, if I was not willing to give in-kind?
It is time to put aside prejudices and all work together.   

Television Talk Show - Friend's Friday

On set - Eye On Tampa Bay  

While traveling I joined two support groups in California; Neutral Corner in San Diego, and Powder Puffs of California in Los Angeles (PPOC).  These were instrumental in helping me to develop confidence and become part of a community of diverse, intelligent, and interesting friends.   Upon returning to Florida, I founded two support groups - Gender Society of the Palm Beaches and Starburst, Clearwater FL.  Both of which I believe still exist.  At my insistence, these were open groups allowing all transgender individual to attend and fully participate.

This was a time when support groups were important, providing a safe place to meet and discuss life’s issues.  Remember, this was a time per-internet, and little or no information was available mainstream. Our discussion points ranged from accepting wig shops and makeup artist, to spouses who wanted additional information. 

It was during this time I appeared on a local Tampa Florida daytime talk show “Eye on Tampa Bay”.  The host Kathy Fountain, somewhat of a local celebrity allowed me to pull together a panel from my support group and the Orlando group.  The show was telecast live and presented before a studio audience.  In the tried and proven talk show format,  questions were asked by Kathy, questions were taken from the live audience and telephone call-in.  It went very well.  At the conclusion, I was allowed to promote the local support group and provide a post office box address for questions/comments.  In a future post, I will print some of those.  I had over a 100 letters of which 99% were supportive;  some very touching. 

If by chance I am able to get an electronic copy of this show or a two night news piece on "The Cross Dresser Next Door" I will post them.  

This exposure helped do much to expand the Tampa support group and helped attendance at the Orlando support group as well.  Orlando was within the Tampa television viewing coverage area.   


A wonderful outreach opportunity.     

 

Pursuing Happiness

I saw this yesterday and love the part about living life on our terms.  Make your life's goal to pursue happiness.

I Represent The Queen

Wikipedia:


Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (28 November 1661 – 31 March 1723), styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was Governor of New York and New Jersey between 1701 and 1708, and is reputed to have had a predilection for cross-dressing while in Crown office.

Viscount Cornbury came to be fabled in historical literature as a moral profligate, sunk in corruption: possibly the worst governor Britain ever appointed to an American colony. The early accounts claim he took bribes and plundered the public treasury. Nineteenth century historian George Bancroft said that Cornbury illustrated the worst form of the English aristocracy's "arrogance, joined to intellectual imbecility". Later historians characterize him as a "degenerate and pervert who is said to have spent half of his time dressed in women's clothes", a "fop and a wastrel". He is said to have delivered a "flowery panegyric on his wife's ears" after which he invited every gentleman present to feel precisely how shell-like they were; to have misappropriated £1,500 meant for the defense of New York Harbor, and, scandalously, to have dressed in women's clothing and lurked "behind trees to pounce, shrieking with laughter, on his victims".

Cornbury is reported to have opened the 1702 New York Assembly clad in a hooped gown and an elaborate headdress and carrying a fan, imitative of the style of Queen Anne. When his choice of clothing was questioned, he replied, "You are all very stupid people not to see the propriety of it all. In this place and occasion, I represent a woman (The Queen), and in all respects I ought to represent her as faithfully as I can." It is also said that in August 1707, when his wife Lady Cornbury died, His High Mightiness (as he preferred to be called) attended the funeral dressed as a woman. It was shortly after this that mounting complaints from colonists prompted The Queen to remove Cornbury from office.

In 2000 Patricia U. Bonomi re-examined these assertions and found them to be questionable and based on very little evidence. Three colonials, all members of a faction opposed to Cornbury, wrote four letters between 1707 and 1709 discussing a rumor that Lord Cornbury wore women's clothes. There are also some early documents that might be cited to support charges of having taken bribes or misappropriated government funds, but there the contemporary evidence ends.

A portrait possibly of Lord Cornbury dressed in women's clothes which hangs at the New York Historical Society. Philip Davenport-Hines, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, thinks the portrait accurately depicts Cornbury and pronounced Bonomi's findings inconclusive.

Why ask Why?

About 1990


So the question “Why?”  There appears to be no a satisfactory answer. There are theories that make sense especially the one that discusses prenatal medical treatments  resulting in hormone imbalances.  There are theories that point to pleasurable triggers.  But I have finally come to the conclusion that I may be asking myself the wrong question.

If I wanted to find a cure for my transgender activities, finding the cause would be an important first step.  However, there is no cure and this is not an illness.  Why ask why?  If I were to say that my transgender activities caused by psycho sexual stimuli which were eventually supplanted by a complex of secondary stimuli, would I feel any difference?   Would I sleep better at night?  Or - would I still have trouble finding lipstick and nail polish which go with a my dusty rose knee length knit dress?

The idea that I am driving at is: My transgender activity is something, which defines who I am.  It is a deeply ingrained part of my personality and it is not going to go away.  It gives me a more complete sense of self; I feel more like me.

I no longer ask myself why.  However, here are some alternative questions I occasionally ask myself:
Early on why did I feel so guilty and so cautious going out in public?  Why did I hide it, especially from the ones I love?  Why didn't I find solace sooner?  When is Bloomingdale’s going to have another sale on women's dress pumps?

Nautical Look

Yesterday's Shopping - I love the nautical look for spring although it seem to come around every year so can qualify as investment dressing.  These are all Ralph Lauren.  Jeans and t-shiirt from Macys in the Lauren department and the purse from the Lauren Polo Store in Palm Beach.  I love the retro wide leg jeans.  Although many of us know them as "Bell Bottom".

I am sure you can find these items or many like then in most spring collections - Enjoy.    

Audrey Hepburn Quote

Everyone have a super week!

Mona Geezer

Similarities: Italian art historian Silvano Vinceti believes that the model for both the Mona Lisa and St John the Baptist (right) was Gian Giacomo Caprotti

Mona Geezer: Was da Vinci's young male apprentice the model for that famous enigmatic smile?

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By Paul Bentley for the Daily Mail


Art lovers have for centuries debated the reason for her enigmatic smile.

Now it appears Mona Lisa may have been hiding a remarkable secret – she was a he.

An art historian claims the model in Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece was one of his male muses, a young man called Gian Giacomo Caprotti, whose nose and mouth bear striking similarities to those of Mona Lisa.

Caprotti, who was also known as Salai, worked as an apprentice with the artist for more than two decades from 1490 and they were rumored to have been lovers.

Some experts had already suggested Leonardo could have based his masterpiece on a self portrait.

But Silvano Vinceti, a researcher who has been analyzing the painting using state-of-the-art high-magnification techniques, also claims to have found the letter ‘S’ in the model’s eyes, which may be a reference to Salai.

Several of Leonardo’s works, including St John the Baptist and a drawing called Angel Incarnate, are said to have been based on Salai.

Mr Vinceti, president of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage, said these paintings depict a slender, effeminate young man with long auburn curls and almost identical facial features to the Mona Lisa.

‘Salai was a favorite model for Leonardo,’ he said. ‘Leonardo certainly inserted characteristics of Salai in the last version of the Mona Lisa.’

Most experts believe the model for the Mona Lisa, which hangs at the Louvre in Paris, was Lisa Gherardini, the 24-year-old wife of a rich Florentine silk merchant.

They say Leonardo started painting her in 1503. But Mr Vinceti claims he may have started in the late 1490s in Milan, coinciding with the time he built up a relationship with Salai.

His claims have caused a stir in the art world, with many dismissing the idea that Mona Lisa was a man. Da Vinci expert Pietro Marani said the theory was ‘groundless’.

The art professor at Milan’s Politecnico university said: ‘All Leonardo subjects look like each other because he represents an abstract ideal of beauty.

They all have this dual characteristic of masculine and feminine.

‘The work began as the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, but over the years it slowly turned into something else; an idealized portrait, not a specific one.

‘That’s also why you have this fascinating face that transcends time and transcends a specific person, and why all these theories keep piling up.’

Interesting Study

A 1990 article and study in the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, that discussed shoplifting, may have turned up more than what they set out to establish.  Their study based on a survey of 4,000 shoplifters described what men most often took.  You interpret the results.  One very interesting study.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Son

Jean Renoir Sewing

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir, was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. Wikipedia  What is most interesting to us is that Renoir used his sons in several of this paining dressed a a girl.  Although they may not have been a willing participants.  I found this several years ago and I apologize the source is no longer available.  I did save several paragraphs of interest.  If more is available, I will include it later, but for now this is very interesting. 

Why my father had insisted on showing me in this outfit that I hated I don’t know. My father loved to paint my hair, and his fondness for the golden ringlets which came down to my shoulders filled me with despair. At the age of six, and in spite of my trousers, many people mistook me for a girl. Street urchins ran jeering after me, calling me 'Mademoiselle' and asking me what I had done with my skirt. I impatiently awaited the day when I was to enter the College de Sainte-Croix, where regulations required a hairstyle more suited to middle-class ideals. To my great disappointment my father constantly postponed the date of my entry, which for me signified the blissful shedding of those locks. 

Jean Renoir

As his two youngest sons grew older, Renoir’s cross-dressing of them becomes even more distinct and more shocking. . In a painting titled Jean Renoir Sewing Jean truly is unmistakable from a girl. He is wearing a red dress, and his long blonde hair is tied up with another pinkish ribbon. Later, in Claude Playing, Renoir painted his youngest son in yet another red dress with another ribbon.

This pattern for cross-dressing his sons is nearly as odd as Renoir’s obsession with not cutting their hair. Although it represented a less permanent change - as he only crossed dressed them when he painted them, not all the time, it still indicates a strong desire to feminize his sons and transform them into something they were not.

Don't Run Out of Time

Glenn Frey 1948 - 2016

 So get your things together now
I'll be getting mine
I've finally got the feeling girl
The sun is gonna shine
You know people don't run out of dreams
People just run out of time

Glenn Frey - River Of Dreams

Spring Dreaming

I know it is winter but why not dream a little.  Even Florida is cool this morning but you have got to love this combination. 
 

Can we be this bold?  Why Not! 

Item are all here on POLYVORE - but shop around.  

March 1962

This post first appeared on Stana's Femulate back in June of 2015.   I receive questions about the whole article that Virginia Prince wrote, so below are links to all of the pages.  This article was important to my growing up.  It was a step in understanding myself and moving on to what lie ahead.  The overall article is very dated, but for 1962 this was groundbreaking.  I hope you younger guys and girls enjoy this blast of transgender history.  Things have not always been so open or clear. 
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March 1962, was a time when an important awakening occurred for me. Although born a boy and a very normal 14 year-old acting boy, I knew that deep inside me I was different. I loved my mother’s beautiful shoes. I preferred the company of girls at a time when most boys called them icky. I would go to bed at night thinking how wonderful it would be to wake up the next morning a girl. I loved the woman’s section of the Sears’ catalog and studied it at every opportunity. I remember, oh so well, the beautiful red dress my cousin wore one Sunday singing in the church choir. Oh, what I would have given to look like she did – maybe be her. Yes, different, but I did not know the depth or that my feeling had a name.

Why March 1962?

I ran with a little older group of boys from my neighborhood and they knew about a magazine called Sexology. It pretended to be scientific with doctors contributing scholarly articles about sex. Remember these were the dark ages of sex education so this addressed notions not talked about in polite company or any company.

As we passed Sexology around the car and read it, I had my life-informing moment. In an article Dr. Virginia Prince wrote entitled “166 Men in Dresses,” she wrote about her Transvestia magazine and transvestism, a term I had never heard of, much less associate myself. I was not even sure how to pronounce it, but saw myself there. A great weight was lifted. I was not the only one – there was this man called Virginia and me! I felt this inclination was so odd that I had to be the only person on the planet that felt this way.

There was no internet, no on-line bulletin boards, no AOL and sex was barely mentioned. Certainly, the concept of a boy/man wanting to present as a woman could not be discussed or even hinted. The magazine Sexology was sold from under the counter and how my friends knew about it, I do not know. But, wow! And double Wow!

I went about the process of growing up knowing that transvestism or as we know it now, being transgender, would need to be dealt with, but, that came later.

So we have come a long way, baby. Caitlyn Jenner is on the front cover of the mainstream publication, Vanity Fair.

Thank you Virginia for opening the door of enlightenment for me. We are yet to see how the Caitlyn Jenner reality circus will play out, but I hope this will be an awakening for many, as was my 1962 moment.

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Note:  This is included for historical reference not to be viewed as current scholarly thinking.  Much has changed since 1962 and the term transgender is more widely accepted to include all in our community not just crossdressers (transvestites). 

Sexology March 1962 Page 1-2

Sexology March 1962 Page 3-4

Sexology March 1962 Page 5-6

Sunday Funnies 1/17

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 The funnies were my favorite section of the Sunday paper when I was growing up. I will make an effort to make this a regular Sunday feature.  Enjoy and have a super week!

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Sexology 1962 Page 1-2

Rhonda's Escape 1962

Sexology March 1962 Page 3-4 (next)

Sexology March 1962 Page 5-6