The Week in Crossdressing #4

It's not been the best of weeks. Crossdressing was in the news this week due to author J.K Rowling's new detective novel Troubled Blood (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith). I won't go heavily into this as Ms Rowling and her comments on trans people are quite well known and this has stirred everything up again. Also, I've not read the source material myself. The story can be found below.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/jk-rowling-new-book-troubled-blood-transphobic-strike-tweet-b444955.html

I find it a shame that transvestite killers are still a trope in this day and age. Silence of the Lambs has been mentioned however I think it goes back at least to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho although there was at least a reason why Norman Bates dressed up and it wasn't anything to do with a fetish. It's still seen as something very seedy and something to be scared of. Hopefully programmes like Ru Paul's Drag Race and more public figures embracing crossdressing along with ongoing discussions about different gender identities will at least help it become more acceptable and less like a seedy, perverted activity performed by lonely men in run down bedsits.

One more thing I wanted to mention is something I meant to last week and that's a TV programme Hayley Goes...Gender Curious. It's one in a series in which Hayley Pearce, former star of The Call Centre documentary, tries out various things for a month including going sober and going vegan. It was a pleasing grab bag of various gender related talking points including pronouns, crossdressing, male make-up, gender identity and trans issues. Hayley is a bubbly, likeable, down to earth presenter which I think helps with the issues presented. There's also a particularly good explanation of the 'they' pronoun through the use of a jacket on a chair.

One final mention is for a company I've just come across, Bettertights. I can't vouch for the quality of the product though. So why am I mentioning it? Well they're another company who have championed diversity and inclusivity which is always nice to hear because we all need less judgment in our choice of clothing.

Check-Up #2.5

So I was thinking about my last post a bit today and it made me think of something a friend said to me a few years ago.

At times like this when a lot of people are cooped up, the news is rather bleak and even a simple walk outside or a trip to the shops can cause anxiety to sky rocket (as you know, normally I enjoy a shop but the present situation has ramped up my anxiety in the last few weeks) then dressing is probably the last thing on your mind. While I do it in some form most nights there are some times I just don't feel like it although at this time of year it's more to do with how damn cold it is. I remember I had just been to a party and the next day bemoaned that while most folks suffering with a hangover would doubtless be dressed in tracksuit bottoms and comfy jumpers, I appeared to be dressed like a preppie schoolgirl (white top, black cardie, grey skirt and black tights) when my friend told me that this was the most important time to do it when you don't feel like it. I've never forgotten that and its bucked me up when I've been feeling a bit down because times like these are when when need to bring the brightness and sparkles and girliness the most and there are a lot of times wearing a great outfit really cheers me up. So if you're in any doubt about whether this is the right time for you then please give it a try if you are able.

While I'm here I would also like to end off with a quote I've been meaning to put up for a while. I initially encountered it on Madonna's song What It Feels Like for a Girl (2000) but I now know that it came from the 1993 film The Cement Garden which was written and directed by Andrew Birkin and based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. In the film the line is spoken by the character Julie played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. I'm afraid I don't know much else about it as I've neither read the book or seen the film but the quote has always stuck in my mind. I've taken the below from a lyric search on Google.

"Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots 'cause it's okay to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading
But secretly you'd love to know what it's like wouldn't you
What it feels like for a girl"

Fiction

One of my resolutions this year is to do more fiction writing.

I have some friends who regularly write short stories and even publish novels online and ever since then I've been considering doing the same. Hopefully one of my stories will be published with a group of others next year too. I also hope to submit something to Rachel's Haven's own anthology series "A Little Bit of Girl Time" which is reaching its third volume soon. The first two are available now as e-books from Amazon along with the individual stories. I have meant to submit something before but time and other work has previously been an issue.

Amazon link for A Little Bit of Girl Time

When I was writing the first story I mentioned (apologies if I'm sounding a bit cagey about this, by the way) I found it a little hard to get back into the groove since I have been writing non-fiction things like blog posts, and reviews for various websites. It's funny that I never even considered all the captions (at least 200+ now) I wrote as fiction when of course they are. Not long enough to be short stories they are kind of micro-stories I guess and although they are on a similar theme, there are still many, many, many things you can do with it and I'm very proud of all the work I've done.

When I was younger I used to write fan fiction mainly. Now, most people think that fan fiction is just writing about various characters hooking up and to be honest that's what a lot of it is but I've read many wonderful stories by people wanting to write about adventures set in their favourite universes. I would recommend fan fiction to anyone as a good way to get into writing. Straight away you have a set-up and characters right in front of you. The hardest thing to do can be to stare at a blank sheet, or screen, in front of you without the foggiest about how to start. With fan fiction, you get to play in someone else's sandbox for a bit with their ready-made characters. You get to make up your own stories involving them, dialogue and bring in your own characters. There are various websites you can publish these on such as fanfiction.net. It's a good way of building confidence and once you have that then you can go on to cultivate your own ideas and characters.

Of course, this is not for everyone. I've spoken to people about this before and they've just not been able to do it. Indeed, it can feel odd writing in someone else's universe with familiar characters. It can make you feel a bit like a charlatan and not a proper writer. I know, I've felt all these things but yet I would still recommend it to writers starting out to sharpen up their confidence.

Many years ago I also had an idea for a series of books. Sadly, although I had the concept I didn't have any solid plot ideas so I've remained stuck ever since and I've further been soured on it by finding that a similar idea has already been used. However though it could still happen. I've always wanted to write a novel and in this this shiny new digital ago of e-books that is more of a possibility than it was 10 years ago.

Hopefully, this will be something good for me this year.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice...

Well, at this time of year all the Christmas annuals have come out. When I was younger I used to get the Beano Annual, the Transformers Annual and a few others I can't remember the name of right now but one of them ignited transformation desires within me (and no, it wasn't Transformers, oddly enough. I have no desire to turn into an automobile). This was (as far as memory serves) the Beetlejuice Annual for 1991.

I was a bit too young for the original film when it came out and to be honest it scared the shit out of me. There's one bit in which one of the ghosts begins to crumble and it was just...urgh. For anyone who hasn't the faintest what I'm talking about, Beetlejuice is a 1988 film by director Tim Burton and starring future Batman, Michael Keaton. To be honest, I always associate Keaton with the role of Batman and I have a strong memory of Batmania back in 1989 but I'm getting offtopic. The plot of Beetlejuice revolved a newly married couple who die and begin haunting their house until a new family, The Deetzes, move in. The couple then hire another spirit, Beetlejuice, to scare them away. In 1990 they made an animated series involving Beetlejuice's adventures in the afterlife with the Lydia, The Deetzes' goth daughter who became his best friend. I used to watch this series every Saturday and really enjoyed it. I also remember bugging my parents for the Gameboy game.

Anyway, I was walking around a market one day when I came across the annual on sale and a picture of Lydia dressed in Beetlejuice's trademark stripey suit (remade into a skirt suit) after having been given his powers for some reason. In full disclosure, I have no idea whether this was the 1991 annual and if the picture was on the front cover or inside the book with the story. I just have this image in my mind. I've tried to find an image of it but I haven't been able to, which is really suprising as the internet holds every picture of everything ever ever (probably). I saw the cover of the 1992 annual though so it definitely isn't that but in any case it's given me a lovely nostalgia trip looking through the old pictures.

Promo picture for the 1990 Beetlejuice animated series

I think it was just the idea of one character switching clothes and attributes with another that intrigued me so much but yet I also shy away from bodyswap stories in film and TV for some reason. I never bought that annual for some reason I can't remember but the image and idea stayed with and really excited me. It was around the same time I remember drawing a series of pictures of fictional characters swapping clothes. I have to wonder whether it was this picture that started it for me or just drew out a desire.

By the way, apologies if i have blogged about this before. It was something I always meant to but I can't remember if I did. Doesn't look like it though.

Picture Source: Beetlejuice Wiki

Bill's New Frock

In the way that memory often does, I suddenly began thinking about something that I hadn't thought about for years over Christmas. I found a book, quite by chance, in a box that my mum had acquired from somewhere. Bill's New Frock by Anne Fine is the story of Bill Simpson who wakes up one day as a girl and is forced to school in a pretty pink frock. He then experiences the day from a female perspective. The book was first published in 1989 and is heralded as children's classic and a fine comment on gender issues.

So how did I come into contact with it? Well I was sitting at home one morning, ill from school or college I think, turned on the TV and there was a drama playing on the channel. A scruffy looking boy was wearing a pretty pink frock and being treated just like a girl. This was portrayed in the Quantum Leap way where we see the male actor in drag as opposed to an actress pretending to be a boy. The pink frock seemed to be the only article of clothing in his wardrobe that day and I recall scenes where he's told he's not allowed to paint pictures of war and when he kicks a ball through someone's window the boys get the blame. I can't recall how old I was at the time but looking it up on the net, the film was made in 1998 so I would have been at least in my late teens and in college.

Shortly after that I remember searching the local library database for the book and finding it in another town. I went there specifically to read it and learn more about the story.  Bill's New Frock was something that chimed with me at the time and gave me a taste for the type of stories I would come to seek out in years to come while coming to terms with my own feelings and gender issues. At least it's good to know that something like this is out there for kids to read and for some to feel that they are not alone as they battle their own gender issues.