A Musical Transgender Blond

For all you birthday peeps here in Cyrsti's Condo, this is for you!

OMG!

DUDE! Lose the beard!!!
From Odd Stuff Magazine comes the second coming of Conchita Wurst. No not bratwurst or mettwurst...Conchita.

I had to read this a couple of times to figure out where the writer was really coming from-or where Conchita was. She wrote:


"When I saw the picture I said (very politically incorrect) “Yikes“, when I saw a performance I said “Oh… well…” and when I saw more I said “She will go to Eurovision for Austria“. Conchita Wurst is a fictional character and has come to fame through the recent Austrian casting show “Die Große Chance” in which she came 6th, despite having won the second semi-final.

Wurst (German for sausage) is a woman with a beard, which is exotic enough, but when you hear her sing it’s even more surprising. Her real name is Tom Neuwirth, a shop window decorator who made it (as himself) to the final of the 2007 version of Starmania (He had his coming out during the show). In the final he was beat by no other than Nadine Beiler, who represented Austria this year in Düsseldorf. The Kronenzeitung suggests that the Eurovision application as Conchita Wurst may be an attempt of Neuwirth’s at revenge."

So I guess it's really Tom all along?

This is definitely not Eurovision's first encounter with anything which even hints at a man with a beard singing like a woman.  Back in 1998 Israel's transsexual performer Dana International won the competition. Could it be a shake up in the staid and transphobic American Idol show will break the trans barrier next season? OMG what's next-same sex marriage?

Anyhow, here's a 2012 look at Dana on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

The Moving Parts of a Woman

Disclaimer! I shop for two things I use to ship my Etsy and Ebay items from a certain leading big box store which I feel has done more to destroy the inner fabric of America than any other.  I refer to them as the "Nazi's" and I buy regionally produced cardboard boxes at literally pennies on the dollar and Scotch Tape.

This morning as I went to the shipping section at the Nazi's, I had a rare chance to see two women in my town at the same time who made the almost "beautiful" category.  First of all, I am and have been a "student" of women. I have said and written many times on how long it took me to figure out why I didn't have a sexual attraction to genetic females per se' but wanted so badly to be one. To have the hair flowing in the breeze, to be able to fill out a tight pair of jeans or shirt without padding.

This morning I mentally stopped to consider the many moving parts a woman has to contend with and how I was checking them down in my mind- and finally how did all of this relate to me a transgender woman on HRT.

Obviously, I don't live in Hollywood or down in Miami where all the very beautiful people are. Actually, I don't fare too badly with the lot of genetic women around here who do nothing for themselves physically. So I don't know if that is good or bad.

Plus a woman's look is like a poker hand. You hold some good cards like breasts, hair or legs but lose the hand in other areas like face or proportion.  If you care, naturally you try to build up the positives and bluff the opponent into thinking you have the winning hand.

You know I have heard seemingly 16 zillion times from my genetic women friends "welcome to our world".  I know it's all in good fun but sometimes I don't think they realize I'm a "A"  student of their world and loving to finally get some on the job training.

A big part of the training is knowing "parts is not parts" when you are talking about a woman.  Any sort of skill I can acquire in the big picture furthers the success of my "moving parts".

MO Dave MO!

If one Dave Foley in drag video is good on Cyrsti's Condo big screen-then how about one more?

It's Hot in Italy

I have concluded there are probably at least two million videos on YouTube to pass along on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen. A virtual plethora of cross dressers, transgender, transsexuals and drag queens. Here's another.

Hello? Is Anyone in Here?

Over the years of my life various individuals have asked me "are you in there?"
Good question!

I'm sure others have thought there could be more than one of me once they knew about my transgender status.  Truthfully, I have thought long and hard about that very possibility and thought one of me was plenty to deal with.

Of course I also have the well worked "woman trapped in a man's body" deal. Nope, not so true either. I'm still just me. Which brings me to make up day recently.

Alisha, the makeup guru, was good with more than just her art. She already knew how I recoiled at being compared with a drag queen and said I didn't identify with being a cross dresser either. (Nothing wrong with one or the other.) So basically she said "I don't understand, tell me who you are."

Good question!  Without going into a ton of boring detail I just said my inner person identifies female and I am working to present her as effectively I can to the rest of the world. None of the usual jabbering I'm good at.

Then again, maybe I'm just dealing in semantics? Maybe just saying "I'm a man trapped in a woman's body" would have played just as well.

It wouldn't have mattered-I was still facing the dreaded eyebrow tweezers anyhow!

Empowerment?

Alice, thanks so much for your comment on my "makeover" yesterday:

" Cyrsti, you look fantastic ! It must have been an empowering experience, you sound as if you totally enjoyed your makeover." Alice.

First of all thanks for the wonderful compliment! Secondly, I began to think about the "empowerment" experience you mentioned. Of course in the estrogen laden room yesterday, I guess just being allowed to play was cool even if there were sales potentials for the organizers. That's all good too! I love capitalism.

Alice, you are right I do have a healthy dose of empowerment following the day.  The most difficult part of my life right now continues to be the in between place I'm in with the world. Of course nearly a year and half ago, I was able to put the wigs away and wear my own hair. My own hair was  hugely empowering and now I'm faced with an equally big place-body changes. It has taken me awhile due to small dosages and HRT interruptions along the way. But now I feel another stage of changes coming along with my skin and body and how I relate it to the picture.

Along my transition process, I have been able to glimpse my inner girl here and there in the mirror.  Regardless of any value judgement of beauty queen good looks, or glamour shots or whatever- the picture was a straight up picture of me taken from Alisha's phone.  Bottom line was I could see my inner girl more than ever before in my life. Even I was floored.

So Alice, I do like this feminine empowerment.  Future makeup sessions will be much less scary and much more fun and any skill I can development with my public skills will be huge!

Thanks for the comment!

Cross Dressed Over Dressed?

Or should I say "under dressed"? From YouTube on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Attack of the Tweezer Monster!

Saturday was my makeup makeover with the MaryKay makeup Guru Alisha.
First of all before I set off on my usual cynical ramble-she is good.

Today was my chance to put my face where my makeup history used to be.  To prove my point to myself and Alisha and Niki (a newer Mary Kay person) I went out the door for the first time in my life as a girl-with no makeup.  Jeans, top and sun glasses kids- that is it.

As I drove the 30 min trek to the studio, I did have a chance to reflect back to points of my life which got me here. I'm a gender contradiction in terms for more than just the obvious.  Over 50 years of tossing on a dress and heels did very little to prepare me for the last five.  Once again today I had very few ideas of what I was going to expect.  I know what you are thinking Cyrsti, how bad could it be playing with makeup experts for a couple hours?

It was wonderful EXCEPT for Alisha's penchant for the perfect eyebrow...out came the tweezers and OUCH! Sympathy? Hell no girl if you want to play with the real women hitch up your big girl panties! The scary part is she said my brows had a nice shape to them to start and I relaxed.  That's like the dentist saying you only have one cavity...but....two hours later she is still drilling away. The same happened with the tweezers.

OK, I know a little about this big girl panty stuff and I know you have to pay the price for beauty but girls when the "tweezer monster" attacks it's similar to a whole flock of itty bitty crows attacking your brows.

Awwwright- enough of the petty whining and on to the fun stuff such as someone who knows what she's doing tell me what sort of foundation I should really wear and what the hell was up with the black, goth, trampy, slut eye make up I had on in the pictures?  What the hell? Did she have to take the research on me so seriously? Did she make phone calls to several current and past makeup critics of mine whose kindest words were "heavy handed makeup or drag queen inspired" Hey, it's true but did I have to hear it- again. 

Just playing with you kids, that was exactly why I was there...naked faced for the guru to see. I'm very honest and blunt so I checked the ego when I hitched up the big girl panties and took this on. It helped knowing we transgender girls and crossdressers  have to work harder than  genetic women to put our best foot forward. This was a way to do it.

Finally, I have a giant wedgie from hitching my panties up to the girls and posting a picture from this afternoon. I desperately hate my pictures and my hair was totally trashed in this picture but I really think she exceeded my expectations. I loved the look of the foundation and how Alisha brought out blue eyes I didn't know I had after 63 years. She even worked on my Mom's non existent upper lip I inherited. AND look at those BEAUTIFUL eyebrows...dammit!

Happy is a big- mostly unobtainable word for me. Happy was never bred into me. But I'm forcing myself to be satisfied and I am more than satisfied with this makeover...no forcing.

As the immediate future with increased HRT dosages begins to exact more changes, basic skin care will be more and more important to maintain my 30 something looks! Kidding again but seriously if you are in the Dayton, Ohio area and want to get hooked up with Alisha or Niki, just contact me through the blog.

Just one more finally.  The women did an excellent job of using the correct pronoun with me. It meant a lot!