A Dahl’s House

Channel surfing I ran across a rather interesting show on the BBC America channel.

Is the real you hiding beneath dreary clothes? In A Week of Dressing Dangerously, U.K. fashion journalist, Angela Buttolph, commandeers women’s closets for one week, challenging them to play dress-up in order to develop an aspect they feel is lacking in their personalities.

A housewife may be asked to dress like a punk rocker on one day and a glam movie star the next. Or, Angela might assign a 40-year-old divorcee to dress like an Amazonian cave woman for the day in order to learn how to stop caring so much about what people think.

In the end, the women are surprised to find how they behave when their regular clothes are off and people start taking notice. They also learn to have lots of fun with their new personas, and the confidence they inspire. A Week of Dressing Dangerously is a makeover show from the outside-in.

And they do mean dress-up. In the episode I saw an introverted singleton was told to wear a Spanish flamenco dress one day (to become more “passionate”) and another day to wear a fake fur coat over nothing but lingerie (to be more “sexy”).

What was interesting were the parallels to some of the more fantasy-style dressing/personas that some crossdressers—including myself—sometimes do. For myself, there is a sense how “playing dress-up” can help explore parts of my personality. I was also interesting watching the show’s participant interacting with people in the park in her flamenco dress, which almost felt like I was watching her doing drag as she loosened up and got into it.

More details (click on “programs”) about each episode, with photos and each participants’ thoughts about how they felt wearing the outfits).

Rolling Stone profiles “Matrix” creator Larry/Lana Wachowski apparent transsexual evolution after running off with a famous Los Angeles dominatrix. For what it’s worth (having lived in LA for many years), there’s more than a few celebs who go off into their own private fantasyland. When you’ve got lots of money and lots of sycophants, it’s not that hard to do. The other dynamic is often these folks are often really neurotic because they don’t feel they “deserve” their fame and fortune and can’t just accept they won the lottery. Which definitely would dovetail into Larry’s reported BDSM submissive interests.

The writer quotes the infamous J. Michael Bailey—who does refuse to comment specifically about Wachowski, but who tends to unhinge a bunch transpeople with his autogynephilia theories. Personally, I think that Bailey is deserving of the condemnation he gets given his shoddy research, but the fact is there are post-op transsexuals who think it describes them—and there’s definitely who seem to fit the description of “love of oneself as a woman.”

So against that backdrop—and from what’s described Larry sure sounds like a autogynephilic transsexual—I can see the following scenario: The writer feels like the standard “women in a men’s body” narrative doesn’t seem like it’s really describing Larry’s behavior, does a little research for other explanations, runs across AGP which does seem like a closer match.

The problem with Bailey, Blanchard, Lawrence, etc. is their insist that there’s only two types of motivations for transsexuals and you’re lying (or repressing) if you deny being in one of those two types.

Jose Merel, Michael Magidson, and Jason Cazares were sentenced today for the murder of Gwen Araujo. Merel and Magidson both received sentences of 15 years to life on second degree murder convictions. Cazares received a sentence of six years for voluntary manslaughter after pleading no contest.
May they rot in hell…

What the article does not say is that Cazares was granted a stay on his sentence until March 31, 2006, so that he can be present at the birth of his child. The DA and Gwen’s family asked that the stay not be granted, but the judge granted the stay without giving any comment. Cazares remains free on bail until March 31.

Yesterday’s Gwen mother wrote an op-ed piece in the Chronicle on “Life after Gwen.”

I just saw Transamerica last night and Huffman did a brilliant performance, definitely outshining the movie, which is the cliched sort of indie “road movie” that’s been done to death (apparently in a world where no one’s ever heard of interstate highways). But as the director has said in interviews, it’s really not a movie about transsexualism. It’s about an individual finding herself and learning to connect to others.

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I attended my first Transgender San Francisco Cotillion and decided to splurge and make a weekend out of it.

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It was fun getting glammed up for the TGSF Cotillion.

You can’t really see it (since black velvet hides any detail in photos), but there’s a bow at the bustline. That’s because it’s really a dress with a black velvet stole I found, which does a good job of hiding my shoulders. Not bad for $60 total—eBay is a crossdresser’s best friend.

From Fecility Huffman’s Golden Globes acceptance speech for her “Transamerica” performance:

I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are, and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are.

On a forum I belong to someone was looking for clever ways of dressing to conceal the fact that you’re a man in dress. Here’s some of my thoughts on how to do this.

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Took advantage of a break in the rain to take some photos.

I look quite demure in this one, although Helen later pointed out the angle isn’t particularly flattering, since it makes my shoulders look huge (well they are huge…)

It’s funny, I didn’t particuarly like this shot (flash photography and I aren’t great friends), but since people have liked it, I’m adding it. My eyes do look really blue in it.

Finding a glue that’s temporary yet will hold nails on securely has been a challenge, but I discovered Aleene’s Tack-It Over & Over seems to work great. It’s a pressure-sensitive glue intended let you reposition stuff (similar to the way Post-It notes work). You can find at craft stores. Since the instructions say to blot it on the back of your hand before applying it to a surface I’m reasonably sure it’s non-toxic.

Here’s what I did.

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