Dina’s Diner 2/7/22

THE DEEP END OF THE POOL

Lia Thomas

Trans swimmer Lia Thomas (University of Pennsylvania) became the focus of a new policy put forth by the NCAA to deal with trans athletes competing in collegiate sports. It seems to have generated a spirited debate as parties take sides or try to find some level of fairness for Lia and the other women swimmers against whom she competes.

I have to say that I am not any expert in the fine points of testosterone levels, muscle mass, or other points brought into the debate over Lia Thomas swimming in women’s competitions. According to reports, she transitioned in 2019 and began hormone therapy at that time. She still swam on the men’s team at Penn in the 2019 season. She switched to the women’s team in the 2021 season and began winning easily against women competitors and thus began the controversy.

The most recent news about Lia and the Penn swim team is that 16 members of the team have made a statement (released through an attorney) asking the university not to fight the new restrictions on trans swimmers promulgated by the governing body of swimming. This was seen as a rebuke of Lia’s presence in women’s swimming. Previously, a few of the team members had made a statement in support of Lia. Besides the women on other teams going up against Lia, some her Penn teammates feel her presence in women’s competition is unfair.

Critics of her participation say that a man who transitions in his prime (late teens, early twenties) has already benefited from male development before hormone therapy halts or retards testosterone levels. They cite things like lung capacity, length of arms, legs, and feet that can greatly affect swimming performance. The counter-argument that some put forward is that all gifted athletes have some physical advantages over their peers – like Olympian Michael Phelps who also had those advantages over other male competitors and excelled as a result. It’s a difficult issue when you want to be fair to transitioning athletes and, at the same time, their cis-competitors. As a male swimmer, Will Thomas was far down on the individual men’s rankings. As a woman competitor, Lia Thomas is cleaning up. She hasn’t won every single race but she has dominated and broken records in enough for many to cry foul.

If you eliminate the die hard anti-trans folks from the argument, it seems like most people involved want to be fair to both sides. Yes, it is great to support Lia to compete and finish her collegiate swimming career as she wants to live. It would also be nice if women who are now competing against a virtual juggernaut could have a shot to win against more evenly matched women competitors. In honesty, it doesn’t seem fair to me —

A crossdresser on Reddit.

as much as I support trans inclusion in sport and elsewhere. There aren’t enough trans athletes yet to have their own competitions as has been suggested. And I don’t believe male athletes will begin “transitioning” for the sole purpose of dominating women competitors as some have stupidly charged. But the real solution? I haven’t any ideas.

REVISITING REDDIT

I few months ago, I wrote an item about the crossdressing community on Reddit.com. I’ve been getting notifications from the Reddit site whenever something new gets posted so I’ve continued looking at the entries and thinking about the posters.

As I mentioned in the earlier Diner piece, most of the Reddit crossdressing posters seem to be in the twenty-ish age category. Perhaps befitting the younger generation’s comfort with nonbinary or androgynous presentations, many of the posters dress very casually. Thinking back to the decades ago when many of today’s middle-aged crossdressers got started, the ideal was much more stylized with dresses, hosiery, high heels and carefully coiffed wigs the usual uniform.

Despite the popularity of over-the-top queens from RuPaul and his graduate students to online male cosmetic influencers, the crossdressers of Reddit rarely try to emulate that type of look. The majority of the postings are young crossdressers looking for affirmation about their everyday transformations. It’s a different vibe and it’s kind of refreshing.

When I look at the faces of the Redditors, I see young men with a genuine interest in presenting as women. There is no real discussion of any deep gender feelings. (There are other sub-Reddits for trans folks). They just seem to like wearing women’s clothing and looking like women. Thanks to online shopping, camera phones, and a multitude of internet sites they can indulge this urge easier than earlier generations of crossdressers ever dreamed.

The crossdressing sub-Reddit offers a kind of community for the crossdressers and wannabe crossdressers. There does seem, however, to be a longing for human interaction that can’t quite be satisfied only through electronic communication. The dozens of local crossdressing support groups of the 1980s and 1990s have largely folded or downsized. But when the Reddit crossdressers post about “going to the club” or “dressing for the office” or “dressing for my date” I can’t help but think they’d jump at the chance to go someplace just to hang with other crossdressers for a while.

Purchasing clothing and accessories online has removed the old embarrassments of having to buy women’s stuff in person. The ease of taking photos with a digital camera and phone (rather than getting film developed) and immediately posting to a Reddit or other online source has been a boon for crossdressers since the 2000s began. As economists might say, the entry point for crossdressing has been lowered considerably. But it seems the loneliness of individually solo crossdressers is still rather high. Getting together, going out together, and actually doing things away from the camera lens could be and should be the new frontier for crossdressers.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ALAN OR OLEG?

I saw an interesting item on the AllAboutCrossdresser.com site recently. It was headlined Guy Almost Wins Beauty Contest by Disguising Himself as a Woman. It was dated November 2, 2021 on the site.

According to the article (which was not attributed to any source), a 25 year old Russian college student named Alan Gancharov entered the Miss Yukachiya pageant which allowed entries via online posting. The student worked with a small group of stylists, designers, and photographers to turn Alan into Angela. The report said that Alan/Angela was chosen as one of the 10 finalists by the pageant committee.

Alan/Angela Gancharov

Alan confessed to his deception and was eliminated before the actual pageant. The winner of the local pageant would have been entered into the Miss Russia contest. By the way, this year’s Miss Russia pageant contestants will be massed on the Ukraine border on a hastily prepared runway stage.

I searched around looking for more information about Alan and the Miss Yukachiya pageant and came up empty. There doesn’t appear to be a Yukachiya, Russia but the large area in the upper northeast of Russia is known as Yakutsk or Yakutia. So maybe there was a language issue but I still couldn’t find anything about a crossdresser in a pageant there. I also noticed that near the end of the article, they referred to Alan as Oleg. So I tried that variation also with no luck.

Despite the questionable provenance of this story, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt because there are photos showing Alan/Oleg/Angela in pageant preparation and finished presentation and she looks quite good. It’s made a little more believable (a little bit) because they didn’t try to make Alan/Oleg up like a drag queen. She looks like a pretty, local pageant girl. It’s a shame I couldn’t find anything more about her. But I did learn a bit about Yakutsk, Russia on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. So there is that.

FAT TUESDAY

Mardi Gras happens on Tuesday, March 1 this year. The origin of the celebration before the start of (the traditionally solemn) Lenten season has spread beyond New Orleans as Americans (and other international denizens) look for reasons to party. According to an online source, Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash
Wednesday – the beginning of the Lenten season – was the day to “confess your sins” before Lent. I guess if you gotta confess you may as well do something crazy worth confessing about…and Mardi Gras was born.

Mardi Gras celebrations often have a bit of crossdressing or drag in the festivities. A travel guide article I stumbled onto, 5 Things You Must Do At Mardi Gras, included this nugget: “semi-nudity and even cross-dressing have a long history with the Carnival in New Orleans, at least back to the 19th century.” Much of the crossdressing (judging by photos) is of the “fright drag” variety but there are some decked out glamour queens and the occasional homespun crossdresser in the mix.

Mardi Gras

I found a large number of photos online from Sydney, Australia’s Mardi Gras celebrations that featured crossdressers and drag queens prominently. I’ll probably cover Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival in a separate Diner as it approaches in April, delayed by their Covid pandemic. For a couple of years in the early 2000’s a friend and I would go downtown in Philadelphia to bar hop on Mardi Gras. Then the “party” turned into a riot one year and that was the end of that. While it lasted, Mardi Gras – like Halloween – promised to be a kind of “hall pass” for crossdressers to mingle hassle-free and enjoy a night out without all the baggage of “passing.” Maybe it still is in some places.

Poking around online, I was also reminded that one of the great retail stores devoted to crossdressing and the community was Lee’s Mardi Gras in New York City. Lee Brewster’s store celebrated the joy of crossdressing and that may have been the inspiration for naming it after this one great “let your hair down” party.

MEET LACY UNDERALLS

The folks at SoraNews24.com in Japan always have a lot of interesting articles. I saw this item in their January 20, 2022 edition: Lace Boxer Briefs for Men. Company Creates Underwear That’s Beautiful and Functional.

The article reported, “These days, as the world breaks free from traditional norms surrounding ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’, Wacoal is on the front foot again, this time developing the Lace Boxer — boxer briefs for men made with lace.” Wacoal is the Japanese company that makes many lingerie and underwear brands that are sold worldwide.

Lacy Boxers

The boxers are made with a stretch lace material the company says is as strong as more traditional materials. The press release additionally said, “the carefully moulded front section is designed to hold you securely in place, making them comfortable to wear for long periods of time.” I’ve never worn boxers for that reason. But lacy briefs with support? Well, I’d at least think about it.

They look pretty nice and the lace is as (dare I say) feminine as any lace pattern for women’s undies. But remember the old admonition to make sure your underwear is clean in case you’re in an accident? Would men feel comfortable being found out wearing lacy boxers? Perhaps. The company did a pilot program of the new items and they exceeded their sales projection by a huge margin. The article made an additional selling point for the cheeky boxers when it closed with “Plus, the satin waistband will turn heads when it peeks out from beneath your trousers.”

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Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion, Transgender

Category: crossdressing, Transgender Opinion