What Would Mao Say?

At the height of the hippie culture many of my revolutionary friends carried copies of China's revolutionary leader Mao Tse -Tung's "Little Red Book". (Mostly for shock value I think.).
Referring back to my "You've come a long way Baby" post, I wonder what Mao would think of this story:

"Considered as the "Legend" of Eastern Media Group, Regine Wu, or Li Jing in Chinese, was born on October 25, 1962 in Taiwan. Born as a boy named Wu Zhongming, she underwent surgery and became a girl when she was 22 years old. Differing with other transsexual entertainers, Wu has always denied she had a sex change operation, claiming that she was born as a hermaphrodite with organs of both sexes and the ability to give birth. After working at the Shopping Channel (part of Eastern Media Group) Wu showed her sales talent and broke several sales records, including selling more than 700 laptops in 85 minutes, 250 motor homes within an hour, and 380 one-carat diamonds in 80 minutes. Since 2004, she has hosted TV programs such as the Diamond Club, Super Idol and Gossip Queen. In 2002, Wu married her boyfriend, a man 14 years younger than her."

Somehow I don't think Regine would have been recognized during Mao's reign!  This story came from China.org.cn

You Little Devil...

South Korea's transsexual Lee Si-yeon, born on July 24, 1979, was once widely known as a male model named Lee Dae-hak. With his feminine appearance and slim figure, Lee was the first male model in South Korea to perform for a famous woman's clothing brand. After suffering various pressures in show business, Lee decided to undergo SRS in 2007. In 2002, Lee appeared in the South Korean comedy film "Sex Is Zero", acting an effeminate man. In 2007 after her sex change, she returned to participate in the sequel "Sex Is Zero 2".

Transsexual German Star

Just a couple pictures of how Germany's transsexual singer  Kim Petras has been able to follow her heart in more ways than one!

"Kim as Tim growing up"

You've Come a Long Way Baby!

Some of you "more mature" visitors to Cyrsti's Condo may remember the old Virginia Slims women's cigarette commercials. The brand was introduced in 1968 and marketed to young professional women using the slogan "You've come a long way, baby." Some media watch groups considered this campaign to be responsible for a rapid increase in smoking among teenage girls. Later campaigns have used the slogans, "It's a woman thing," in the 1990s, and "Find your voice."

I only bring it up for the reason the only time I really tried smoking cigarettes in my life was in my early cross dresser years.

Later of course you may remember it was somewhat fashionable for a woman to lite up a cigar. That I never did do. Locked in my memory is a very ugly image of a room full of men in make up and dresses doing their best to still be masculine by smoking cigars. Why?

Well, one way or another I guess I have come a long way baby. As a matter of fact when I noticed the top of the ad above- I tried the housewife gig for awhile too.  Surely if I did all the household chores I would validate myself as a woman? Right? Wrong because all I really validated how much I hated doing housework. It took me years to learn true validation came from inside.

More than a little of my thought pattern began with the trans brides post and feedback. I don't mean actual trans brides but fantasy cross dresser brides (and I am not being negative). My point is at times I'm fascinated by all the feminine fixations we develop as trans persons in our lives. Another example of those in the community who just love to be pregnant.

Maybe all of us have the chance to come a long way baby!

Transgender Bridal Shower

I've really never liked the comment set up in this particular blog platform. I never know if your comments receive the proper coverage they deserve such as this one on Transgender Brides from Eric:

Cyrsti's High Tech Mail Box

"As far as getting married is concerned, there are so few men who have made an honest effort to become educated on transsexuals and transsexualism in order to prepare themselves for the possibility that the woman of his dreams was born a boy. I have read everything I can get my hands on to prepare myself for the possibility that my dream girl would tell me she had been through transition and surgery to become the woman she is now. As a result of my efforts, I've been able to gain some dating experience with mainly pre-op male-to-female transsexuals, but I've also dated a post-op TS. New wedding gowns can start at under U$200, but some of the most elaborate ones can run into thousands of dollars. Many transgender women have made use of the Web, thrift stores and even large bridal chains (such as David's Bridal) to find a low price on a bridal gown. Bridal photo shoots for T-Girls also requires some travel; some of the places that offer such shoots include Fairplay Imaging in New York on Transgender Brides"

4 Trans Brides

Thanks Eric, always nice to hear from any man who has an "educated" idea of trans women!

Also, there is more from Jamiegottagun who always "spices" things up:

"Wedding dresses can actually be found quite inexpensively - Goodwill or the like. There's usually several there, for less than 100 bucks, especially older, out of fashion ones like the one in the video, which with the Sweetheart neckline and puffy sleeves is obviously from the late 1980's or early 90's. Women tend to only keep them for a few years, especially if they get too fat to fit into them anymore, and almost always get rid of them when they get divorced."

Just think Jamie, if the women were larger before they got rid of their wedding dresses, bigger sizes would be easier to find at thrift and consignment shops.

As always, thanks for commenting and reading! Just make sure we all don't forget the "bridesmaids" in the crowd!

I picked up this story and movie trailer from the Advocate.com: The film is called Turning with Antony and the Johnsons and centers around Antony Hegarty and other transgender and androgynous artists:
" It started as part of the 2004 Whitney biennial, when Hegarty joined forces with Charles Atlas, the filmmaker behind The Legend of Leigh Bowery, to make Turning, a stage show that featured Hegarty singing, while various women, many androgynous and transgender, like Hegarty himself, climbed on stage. The women stood on moving platforms as video cameras, guided by Atlas, captured close-ups of their faces and projected them on giant screens. Hegarty describes it as a “hypnotic journey through this panorama of different meditations on feminine presence.” After bringing Turning around Europe and Hegarty’s homebase of New York in 2004 and 2006, a film version debuts Friday night at Manhattan’s IFC Center for a week long run."




 

"In the film, many of the women describe feeling connected through their associations with the nightclub world or other facets of city life that introduced them to like-minded people who allow them to be the women they’ve always desired to be. One transgender woman speaks eloquently of shedding her skin and bravely entering into a new identity. “It’s being asked of us as a species to undergo a radical transformation in the way we see ourselves and our relationship to the world,” Hegarty says. “The stakes have never been higher, we’ve never been more alienated in terms of having a sense of our impact on the natural world.” Both Turning’s director and star believe now couldn’t be a better time to bring Turning to a larger audience. “Charlie was reminding me that Turning was done in 2004 and 2006 which was in the depth of the Bush years. There was a strong sense we were swimming against the tide at the time and there didn’t seem an end in sight,” Hegarty says, pointing out that the stage show opens with a booming speech from Martin Luther King, Jr. Says Atlas,“I’m thrilled we’re releasing it when there’s a glimmer of hope coming back to our society." For more information on Turning, click here.

Uniquely German Gender

In 1972 Liza Minnelli headlined Caberet, a Bob Fosse directed movie about a female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin who romanced two men while the Nazi Party rose to power around them. One of the other main characters was actor Joel Gray who entertained in partial or total drag.  Not drag as we know it in America but a German form of the era.

Recently, Bettina Rheims "Gender Studies" which essentially again presented a German look at androgyny and gender..not drag this time but still unique. Compare the pictures.

Take a look at one of the examples to your left.

For more go here.

Do you know "Art"

The "Art" I'm talking about is the "Art of Purging".
As I write on my book projects (I'm a hoarder of words), I discover aspects of my past that I have totally forgotten. What's that saying "I have forgotten more than most people know?"  In my case I'm pretty sure I've forgotten more because of my age!
For whatever reason all of the sudden I began to think about "purging". If you don't know, the term refers to the disposal of your feminine articles.

Looking back on the process, I came up with about three possibilities of how purging worked:
1.- Private. You took it upon yourself to throw your stuff away.
2.- Semi Private. You tossed a portion of your things out for someone else to see and kept the good.
3.-Total Dispersal. You took all of your feminine belongings and heaved them out of your world for someone else to see.

Regardless of the method one overriding memory came through to me-euphoria! I truthfully never purged much and never totally but the mere act of stuffing some of my girl stuff into trash bags and sending them to the trash was symbolically wonderful. I had finally faced the monster, beat her like a drum and was ready to resume a total masculine existence...Yeah right!

My fondest memory of a purge was when a friend of mine cleared out his storage unit of feminine contraband and gave me the pick of what I wanted which included my first real set of breast forms.

Of course the "tragedy" of purging is it doesn't work in the vast majority of cases. The euphoria and the great resolve to to separate one's self from the gender confusion departs quickly.

Estrogen Intensive Therapy

Today was visit number two to the hair salon to get my hair color "freshened".
A nice way to say-out with the gray roots.
This visit was yet another "first" in that I was totally feminine when I went today.
When I made the appointment last week, the receptionist changed my name from the male version my daughter originally gave them.  As you might remember I was told to come with about three days worth of beard growth to be evaluated for hair removal for my first visit.

This morning I had a relatively early appointment and really didn't know or care how many others I would encounter in what serves as a lobby in this salon. As it turned out, when I opened the door and walked in there were about five or six young women around the front desk.
Now it's been awhile since time has stopped in front of me.  What I mean is during various points in my transition, certain situations seemed to stop all of the life around me. I was moving in slow motion and the world was stopped or looking at me. This morning though,  I again added a couple extra seconds to the day as all the women just stopped at stared at me. I almost said "I come in peace earthling women. May I come in?"

In reality I just smiled and said "Good Morning" and all was fine. For many of them I may have been the only transgender person they ever knew for sure they encountered. They indeed let me in and even got me a cup of coffee.

As I sat and waited for the stylist, I felt I shouldn't have taken my estrogen today. I could have overdosed with all of it in the air in the salon and I loved it.
Overall,  the pampering and the overall effects today were about the same as visit number one. The big exception was I noticed the three or four other women also getting their hair done were more or less resigned to the process. I wondered how many visits will it take before I join that club too?

Finally I wonder how long it will take for the novelty of having a transgender customer to wear off?  Especially one who is like a kid in a candy store?