Check-Up #35

Ok so I wanted to do a brief section on some television I've been watching recently so this may be a bit reality show heavy. 

RuPaul's Drag Race

This year's Drag Race is reaching its finale and this year I've been quite taken with transwoman Lexi Love. I'm not sure that she'll go ahead and win the actual title as there are a few strong contenders this year (although one has just been given the boot which was quite the surprise). I've loved her Werk Room outfits as well and she managed to beat Snatch Game! Notice I didn't say 'win' but she managed to lose in such a funny way that Ru saved her anyway which, after all these years, is surely a game changer. You can be bad but as long as you somehow manage to be funny with it then you'll scrape through. I didn't think her impression of Gilbert Gottfried was all that bad though but as ever it's just that she didn't do much with it. I'm not sure I could either, truth be told, never one much for improv. She has been very funny in other challenges though and had a lovely tender moment when her mum came on during the Drag Families challenge and used her pronouns correctly for the first time. Good luck Lexi!

Lexi Love in a promo shot for RuPaul's Drag Race season 17

The Apprentice

The Apprentice is also entering its finale week and I've already expressed my sadness that Aoibheann Walsh didn't continue (I mean even the coat she left in was fab) and since then there has been some notable fashion from contestants Mia, Anisa (who made it to the finale) and Amber-Rose. In fact I did see Anisa wearing one of Aoibheann's dresses a couple of time throughout? Did she leave it behind? Did they both have the same dress? I've thought about this more than I should have done. One challenge that she would have slayed though is the fashion challenge and in this one I was pleased to see Mia making a passionate argument for skirts and dresses for men as forward fashion. Unfortunately this didn't quite work out for her and, despite being a very strong candidate, she was fired. Despite the crop top, jacket and skirt she designed looking quite high fashion perhaps it was the fact it was made out of parachutes didn't work. The other team had very basic outfits but sailed through on their commercial viability and introduced the concept of a scrunch bum (nope, I didn't either) to a grateful public. It's hard to know if skirts would have been a winner anyway with most of the male populous understandably turning their noses up at the very concept anyway.  Then again whenever the idea of male skirts comes up they usually turn out to be a bit grey and utilitarian.  Perhaps if they had been designed differently, which brings me on to my last section...

Screenshot from The Apprentice Series 19 ep 10: Fashion
(left to right: candidates Mia, Anisa and Jordan alongside a 
model wearing their parachute skirt) 

Doctor Who

Yes, it's back! Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor is no stranger to fashion and indeed in his first full story (The Giggle aside) The Church on Ruby Road he was wearing a kilt which also represented Gatwa's Scottish roots. In the first episode of the new series (and in the promos) The Robot Revolution he wears a long blue pinstripe skirt which looks quite nice. It's this kind of garment that does look more like a male skirt (at least as a concept) should be, made of a hard wearing material, with pockets and worn with trousers but at least with a pattern. It will be interesting to see if the Doctor wears anything similar during the upcoming series. 

Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu in
a publicity shot for Doctor Who

Also, I previously mentioned sitcom Smoggie Queens on here which I really enjoyed and am now pleased that it's been renewed for a second series.  

Check-Up #24

 Ok, I've been meaning to update this for quite a while. Nothing earth shattering has happened but I would still like to add a few things. Some bullet points, I think:

• Back to the wedding I attended a couple of months ago and I forgot to add that I was asked the immortal question by a teenager, namely 'why are you wearing a dress?' I just said that it was a wedding and left it at that. I did get serious dress envy at that wedding though, there were some gorgeous dresses I saw that day. Oh and on the flip side the groom thanked me for wearing a dress because it confused an elderly relative of his wife's that he didn't like. Glad to be of service, I guess.
• Went out to an event after work and this involves my aforementioned habit of deciding to change at work and despite the fact that I work in a large building I've come close to running into members of my firm on a couple of occasions. This time (striped top and blue skirt as you ask so nicely. Bare legs too so I was feeling bold but it was still summer) I saw a colleague waiting at a bus stop and so snuck down the road to cross over and make it safely into the tube station. Thinking he must have gone I made it into the station and onto the down escalator...only to see him going up the opposite one. How that happened I don't know but he never said anything so I think I got away with it. I swear it's like a Whitehall farce at times
• Went on holiday for a week and saw a dress in a charity shop. Nearly bought it but, as I was staying with my parents, I resisted. I did think of going back and had many visions of how to get it back into the house through maybe some system of hiding it in a bush or a bin or something and going back. In the end I did go back but it had gone. Always the rule of second hand shops, never leave it more than a day as it will almost always have gone. I did buy a nice dress before I went away though plus a nice necklace. 
• In addition, I am trying to resist buying everything I see and sometimes it's hard but I must try to consider what I really, really want. Which is the true lesson of the Spice Girls. Maybe. Today however ever I did some some great stuff round the shops but if only it had been one of two sizes bigger. Shame really.
• Brad Pitt wore a skirt so...that was that. The debate was reopened in the papers for a bit but that was about it. Not sure if it will change anything but it was nice to see such a high profile male celebrity choosing to dress differently.
• Saw Ed Wood recently. This is a 1994 film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Martin Landau which is based on the life of the famous B-movie director who was also a crossdresser. Perhaps best known as director of Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) he also directed early cross dressing film Glen or Glenda (1953) which I may give a look if I can find it. There's definitely something I like about the RP way Depp says "I like to wear women's clothes. I just feel more comfortable in them." I did think about doing a full review of this but I think the time has passed but I may do in the future
• I still watch most iterations of Ru Paul's Drag Race and the UK version has just started. Dakota Schiffer is the first trans queen on the show (the UK version anyway) and I must say her confessional outfit makes my little preppy girl heart jump. I always love the vintage queens especially if they go all 1960s and already I'm loving her outfits. 
• On a similar tack, I've been watching She-Hulk recently and the character of her paralegal Nikki Ramos (Played by Ginger Gonzaga) is also giving me severe outfit envy. Business wear seems to be a thing of mine and also makes my preppy girl heart sing. 

Saying and Not Saying

I do have a couple of posts planned over the next few days but I didn't expect to be siting down and writing anything tonight but something happened at work. It regarded someone who worked for a different company on the same floor as us and the way he was dressed (pink shorts and a t-shirt basically) and a colleague of mine mentioned, partially using another colleague as a random example, "Well he could wear a skirt and you couldn't say anything."

Sorry for the vagueness by the way but I'm sure you'll understand why. Anyway, this made me think about my own situation and how I've at times thought of asking if I can wear more feminine clothes in the office. I'm not really trans or at least I don't think so so there's not really much of an excuse. People still look at crossdressers as perverts in some respects but hopefully with the younger generation embracing gender fluidity there may be hope yet. A friend of mine who does dress a little different themselves works in an office where it isn't an issue but then I work in a much stricter profession. 

It's those words that stuck in my craw a bit though "you couldn't say anything" with the implication being that it would be wrong for a man to wear a skirt and the next sentence out would most likely be about 'woke liberal snowflakes' or other such culture war rubbish. Why should something need to be said though? Why can't it just be? The conclusion ended up being that as long it was appropriate office wear it would be within company rules and to be fair to the colleague who had the comment randomly directed at him did say he had no issue with anyone if that's what they wanted to do but just not him. In fact it reminded me a little of something I saw on a train once with a late middle aged couple commenting on one of the people sitting opposite me (I think anyway. I wasn't dressed femme but probably had my nails painted). Both were sitting on opposite seats and stretched a newspaper across them to whisper. It was like a scene from a sitcom, both hiding behind a big newspaper. I recall the man saying something like "probably get done for even asking."

So did I say anything? No. It was hard to know quite what to say especially without outing yourself plus these moments pass by so quickly they can be hard to process. I don't want to think ill of my colleague though as I do like them and they never struck me as that sort. I've also been painting my nails for a while now. I only used to on the weekends and then I became the sole occupant of the office during lockdown so I never stopped. Most people like it but now I wonder if it's just being tolerated because "you can't say anything". I might try and bring it up in a humourous way with them at some point and see how things go. I may be overthinking things and of course I've spoken before about how I'm conflicted about asking my superiors about dressing and how it's something I never even considered would ever come up in my lifetime. I never thought I would go outside fully dressed let alone to pubs with friends. 

People are stuck in their ways and sometimes they just need their eyes opening. I've had experiences like that. I'm not sure if I'm the person to do that though. In cases like this you're either the rabble rouser who wants to make things better for people like you or you just want to get on with your life and live it how you want to. I should be grateful at how many people are so accepting of me. I don't know if I'm the sort of person to change things but then visibility even in small ways is important. This year Ru Paul's Drag Race had its first heterosexual queen - Maddy Morphosis - and she was wonderful to see for someone like me but Maddy also spoke about not wanting to be a role model or trendsetter for cis guys in drag.  

I'm sure I'll think about it a lot in the next few days but things like this never truly affect me or if they do it's only for a little while. I may think I've reached the end of my tether but then I see the next outfit I really want to wear and I feel no shame about it. It's just the way I am. 

Christmas 2020

We all knew this year would be a bit different in terms of Christmas but thanks to new Government announcements about the tier system here in the UK, it looks like I may not see my family at all and so I'll be stuck on my own without even my housemate for company as he's since left (well, still in the process really). I knew that sooner or later the dark day would come when I would spend the festivities by myself but I never thought it would come this soon. It's one day of the year I really look forward too and I don't know what it will do to my mental health but at least it looks like I'll have some time off work which is always nice. 

Anyway, enough doom and gloom and onto things of a more frilly nature. Recently I have bought a couple of new things. Another Clara dress (red and black with a black collar) I really wanted (despite the fact I probably have enough already) and a pair of blue ankle boots. I still need a replacement pair of black ankle boots and I would really love a pair of white ones and possible a pair of white knee high boots as well to fully go for that 1960s look. Now all I need is a place to wear them and it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon due to the pandemic and unfortunately since the cold weather started I've been dressing for work less and less.  

One further thing I would recommend is Sarah Keyworth's short radio series Are You a Boy or a Girl which explores her own gender fluidity and sexuality. There are four episodes, about 15 minutes each, and I really enjoyed it. The series can be found here (apologies if this may not be available in all regions): Sarah Keyworth: Are You A Boy or A Girl?

Still, there's a new Doctor Who special coming up and both UK and US versions of Drag Race are coming back in January. From looking at the intro videos online, long pointy nails seem to be in this year. 

So anyway, I'll wish everyone out there a merry Christmas for the coming week and I'll leave you with a caption. This was created for my 25 Caps of Christmas thread on Rachel's Haven back in 2016 using an old Christmas card. 

One of the Family (2016)

Check-Up #10

Things are still getting back to normal around here so there's not been a lot going on recently. I do want to get back to more captioning too but I'm still having some laptop issues so I'm a bit hamstrung at the moment with the amount of time I can spend on it. There's also some cosplay stuff I need to sort out plus another blog I want to start but I'm having trouble coming up with a name which is really frustrating when you want to get going on something. As you can tell by the name of this blog, I'm not the best at doing so. 

I'm also doing the Doctor Who pilgrimage which means watching every single episode from the very first back in 1963. In addition, along with season 5 of Drag Race All Stars I'm also watching yet another iteration - Canada's Drag Race which is quite good so far.

I also bought a dress recently from a local charity shop as well. It has a black, ribbed top leading into a patterned skirt. I would have preferred perhaps a houndstooth skirt but it still works well. Trouble is at the moment it feels like even more eyes are on you when you go into a shop and look around plus you have to trust your size even more than usual as there are no changing rooms. 

Just to update on my Ask Me Anything offer I put up a few weeks back on here and Rachel's Haven and unfortunately I haven't had any takers so there won't be a follow up post.

Finally, I've been going back to a story I've mentioned before on here in my Pink Library strand - With The Blink of an Eye by Brittany Montgomery which has six parts to it and is the charming story of a man who suddenly becomes a teenage girl after encountering a car of them on his way to work. It's well written and very enjoyable.

The author's page on Fictionmania is here: Brittany Montgomery

Wig

Despite the title this isn't a blog about how I've bought a new wig but this is about a documentary I saw earlier this week that I very much enjoyed.

Wig is a documentary made in 2019 and directed by Chris Moukarbel regarding the Wigstock festival regularly held in New York by drag queens. It was a fascinating watch and a delve into the flip side of the culture which has now become somewhat mainstream thanks to Ru Paul's Drag Race. The festival started out in 1986 as a one off performance by some of the regulars at New York's Pyramid club and was so popular it returned every year until 2001 when, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, it was decided to stop as the mood of the city had changed. That is until 2018 when drag legend The Lady Bunny, one of the driving forces behind the original shows, decided to bring it back. The documentary follows her as she does and looks at the history of the festival and the comeback show itself. 

As any Drag Race viewer knows, queens come from a variety of backgrounds from the primped and perfect pageant queens to the more edgy club kids and this is more a celebration of the latter with some very edgy performances reminding us how pioneering drag performers are. It's not just about putting on a dress and a pair of false breasts but pushing the envelope in not just performance terms but in gender barriers as well. 

While Ru Paul only appears in archive footage, Drag Race does loom large over the documentary (some familiar faces from the show also appear) as it has catapulted drag to the mainstream like never before and some argue that it's not necessarily for the better. In some ways Ru Paul and Lady Bunny represent both ends of the spectrum of drag with Ru taking it mainstream and Bunny preferring the more edgy, envelope pushing, performers. It's a nice exploration of the different generations of drag artists too.

If you have an interest in drag then this is definitely worth a look. Here in the UK I saw it on Now TV as it was originally shown on Sky Documentaries. I'm not sure about other streaming services but I think it's also available via HBO. I'm also intending to check out Wigstock: The Movie, an earlier documentary on the festival made in 1995. It's also inspired me to check out some of the drag based films I've never seen such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kinky Boots, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (which surely has one of the most bizarre titles in the history of cinema). 

I sometimes wonder if, in another life, I could have been a drag performer and films like this are certainly inspiring. I know I certainly wouldn't have the courage to do a lot of what these girls have.

Check-Up #9

I'm continuing my trend of not having an awful lot to talk about recently due to one thing or another. I guess it may be the time of year or the ongoing crisis although the lockdown is easing here so things may be back to normal, or approaching normal, quite soon. I'm probably still going to be on my amended work schedule for the next couple of months which is no bad thing as I've been getting more downtime recently and it's quite nice.

Anyway, I've been buying clothing again and this time I bought a smart black skirt for work. Still no changing rooms so it had to be a rough guess that my regular size would fit me and thankfully it did. I don't really have the confidence to slip it on in the store in front of people.  I know I did say it was a work skirt but I am still working from home a lot so it's mainly for that but like the traditional LBD I think a smart black skirt is something that comes in useful and already I've coupled it with some tops and it looks really nice. There are a couple of decorative buttons on the top as well and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing and I think this is also down to the costumes from Clueless and that spoiled rich girl look.

In other media, I've mainly been watching season three of Ru Paul's Drag Race as I think it's the only one I've never seen. I remember watching the first two late night in my bedroom hoping that my parents wouldn't hear and ask too many questions about why I was watching. By the time it changed channels I had moved out and was a little more confident. I'm also watching the fifth season of Drag Race All Stars and I caught an episode of Neighbours today which was Pride themed and with former Drag Race contestant Courtney Act. The show has a transgender character now as well which is quite cool and I was reading about her and the actress earlier.