Dina’s Diner 2/5/24

LARGER THAN LIFE

I went to a drag show last month at a club I liked on two previous visits. I’m not a big fan of drag shows but I thought it might attract some other crossdressers. It didn’t and that was okay too. I found a spot at the bar where I could choose to watch the show or not.

It took a while into the lineup of performers for me to notice that all of the queens were of the larger persuasion. I speak of avoirdupois rather than height here. Not ‘supersize’ queens but sturdy, husky, zaftig ladies they were. About five of them in all.

And they all looked completely fabulous – every man jack of them, if you will pardon the expression. This was a glamour drag show with impeccable makeup, wigs, and costumes. A different costume for each of their three turns on the stage. The fact that they were not model thin maybe even enhanced their performance. I saw a few of them up close later on the smokers’ patio and, as observed from afar, the makeup was flawless, fishnet tights over nude stage tights, the beaded, sequined costumes beautiful.

I’ve been struggling with weight for years now. I liked the idea that these ladies were working what they had. Not camouflaging, compressing, or covering their bodies but using their personalities and accoutrements to celebrate who they were.

Drag queens are supposed to be sort of larger than life. Some do it with the classical supermodel figure and face plus all the other external factors of drag. Some do it because they ARE sort of larger than life.

I took a lesson from that night. I’m not going to start going out in showgirl costumery (believe me) but trying to find a way to make the most of what I/we have could be an empowering attitude going forward.

I TRIED IT AND LIKED IT, SORT OF

Dina with glasses.

Back in September 2023, I had an item in the Diner about eyeglasses. The upshot was that glasses could be an interesting accessory for those of us needing eyesight correction.

I mentioned at the time that I wear glasses regularly but use contact lenses while dressed. Fussing with the contacts is one reason for my reluctance. Another reason is that I don’t have a pair of “women’s” eyeglasses. I have better vision with glasses – especially for near objects or reading. The contacts are okay for a casual night out and driving to and fro but if I want to read a menu or even my phone, I need reading glasses to assist. So it’s frustrating.

On the visit to the drag show mentioned above, I decided that I would just try wearing one of my pairs of glasses instead of fussing with the contacts. I chose the most unisex of my glasses and away I went. As I mentioned in my earlier item about glasses, they definitely change your appearance. After literally decades of seeing myself as Dina without glasses, the “with” version looked much different to me. You probably will not look ‘different’ to anyone else and, because glasses on crossdressers are somewhat a novelty item, it might even enhance your appearance. It felt okay to wear my glasses as Dina and having the perfect vision I get with specs was a nice bonus.

If you’re a glasses wearer who never uses them with your femme self, try it out. You might look better both as a viewer and the viewed.

IT’S DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS

I’m not the first fella to wonder why girls appear more intimate with each other in social gatherings or paired meetings. For the purposes of this Diner item, I am referring to the type of photos that women and girls post online. I’m sure you’ve seen them on Facebook pages, certainly on Instagram posts, TikTok and YouTube videos, etc.

The photos run the gamut from playful groups of high school or college age girls embracing to twenty-something women partying cheek to cheek or even in more intimate postures together. It’s rare (nearly never) to see young men or boys in such close physical contact with the same level of intimacy between them. There does seem to be an innate gender difference in how friendship is displayed by women and men.

I thought of this topic while looking at an Instagram page of a woman basketball player on a college team I follow. There were several photos of the page owner and a teammate together in playful selfies. There seemed to be something going on and the exchange of emoji laden messages below the photos strengthened the idea that perhaps the women were a romantic pair. And perhaps they were or maybe not at all. There was nothing overt and – like many guys – I am intrigued by the idea of women ‘together’ and this undoubtedly colored my thoughts.

But it also made me wonder why I ‘went there’ with my own thoughts. I started to think about how women and men (girls and boys) express affection or close friendship with each other. Where it seems perfectly normal for females to embrace closely, even kiss in greeting or in fun, it is still uncommon in males together. (There is also a difference between cultures in attitudes about male affection).

All of this deep thinking led me to wonder about crossdressers. Except in R- or X-rated photos of crossdressers together, we seem to adhere closer to the male distance with each other. It also holds true for in-person gatherings or outings (in my personal experience) where the crossdressers are interacting much more akin to their male personas than their female alter egos. There might be an embrace or air-kissing upon greeting but you rarely see photos of crossdressers draped on each other or tete-a-tete in the same way that is common in women in social settings. I guess there may really be something to this idea that men and women are different.

EVERYONE NEEDS A HOBBY

I can’t remember how I first came across Angela, the Hobby Night woman. I made a note to myself and had to Google to find her later. But find her I did.

Angela (no last name) has a YouTube channel and Instagram page to document her love of hobbies. No, not those type of hobbies, guys. Like board games, painting models, online gaming, attending conventions. . .y’know, real hobbies. She also works in a hobby shop and is up on all the latest stuff related to fantasy games, figurines, and who knows what all else. She had a YouTube video where I only comprehended a fraction of what she was talking about.

Angela of Hobby Night

But as you can see by the accompanying photo, Angela does know how to attract attention from the less hardcore hobbyist universe. Of which I count myself one. And Angela, Hobby Night woman, is one of those ladies who has that indefinable sexiness that comes through with personality and – in this case – a genuine love for hobbies. She does a little cosplay too in sexier costumes but she remains a self-described “nerdgirl.”

For most crossdressers, the dressing and cosmetizing is an important hobby but probably not the only hobby. It’s not something we can discuss with friends or coworkers so it remains hidden and suppressed despite how much of our psyches we put into it.

I watched one of Angela’s YouTube videos where she was painting a small fantasy warrior figurine. If you’re into that it was interesting to watch her apply the layers of paint and the brush work to get to the small details. What I found appealing was her competence and obvious joy in completing a difficult task in her hobby. She’s attractive, seems like a nice person, and she favors patterned tights. What’s not to like?

WHAT HAPPENS UNDERGROUND. . .

I saw an article about the Trouserless Tube Ride in London scheduled for January 7, 2024. Here are a few sentences about the event from an article in The Standard:

“The No Trousers Tube Ride is an annual event in which Londoners remove their trousers and ride the Tube in their pants. [Note: the difference between trousers and pants in London is important. The latter are what we call underwear.] The No Trousers Tube Ride began in 2009 and was inspired by the No Pants Subway Ride, which was created by Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002. The idea is to act completely normal – by reading a paper or listening to music– while being trouserless. People have been asked to keep underpants as lowkey as possible to make it appear as though they’ve simply forgotten trousers.”

The London Underground carries untold thousands of passengers each day and it seemed like it would be quite a scene. The organizers, however, scheduled the ride for a Saturday with the exact originating tube station kept secret until everyone is assembled at the meeting point. This year it was in a Chinatown location near four different tube stops. I guess this is supposed to keep things somewhat organized and not too chaotic with trouserless people all over the city.

Trouserless tube riders.

The participants enter the Underground, and de-trouser on the platform – not above ground on city streets. January seems to be an odd time of year for a partially disrobed public transport ride but maybe that’s part of the Monty Python-esque charm of the thing.

A few Diners ago I wrote about the “pantsless” fashion trend in which women are wearing or encouraged to wear opaque pantyhose or tights without a skirt. Yes, I can see the wheels turning in our collective heads. Could we combine these two pantsless/trouserless concepts to our own devices? But, please, for modesty’s sake, no Sheer-to-the-Waist pantyhose on our skirtless tube ride.

Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion, Transgender

Category: Opinion, Transgender Fun & Entertainment