Dina’s Diner 4/3/23

MODEL CITIZENS

The website Insider.com had an interesting article dated March 1, 2023. The headline said, China has banned women from modeling lingerie on online shopping livestreams — so men are doing it instead.

Chinese male lingerie models

The article was fairly short so I will copy some of it here. According to Insider, “China’s livestream shopping scene is a booming industry that is projected to be worth more than $700 billion by this year. The industry is said to account for about 10% of the country’s e-commerce revenue. Livestreams featuring females modeling lingerie have had a history of being promptly shut down and banned as a result of China’s law against spreading obscene material online. To work around this ban, some of these businesses have recently started hiring male models to flaunt women’s lingerie. One of the first broadcasts was held last December.”

I’m not familiar with livestream e-commerce sites but it sounds similar to home shopping networks on cable television with presenters and models and product information. I’m not sure if U.S. or other western countries use live streaming to sell products. I am surprised that China has such a strict prohibition against females modeling lingerie on live broadcasts. And that they think this is a more wholesome way to sell lingerie.

Insider reported that “Male broadcasters modeling traditionally female products are in fact not new to the scene. One of the industry’s most popular lipstick models, Austin Li Jiaqi, is male and was even dubbed the “Lipstick King” in China by fans.”

A brief excerpt of one of the livestreams shows a somewhat awkward attempt to model the lingerie by some young men. It doesn’t seem to help cis-women to judge how the fashions would look if the guys are just standing and perhaps moving slightly (but hardly ‘modeling’ as we think of it) in slips and camisoles. As the Insider article suggests, “It seems that what began as a witty scheme has evolved into a marketing strategy that has enabled certain businesses to distinguish themselves from the numerous other e-commerce shops selling lingerie.”

A MOTHER’S REFLECTIONS

The Huffington Post website had a good article by the mother of a trans child. It was headlined, I Appeared To Be An Incredibly Supportive Mom But I Was Secretly Failing My Trans Son. It appeared on March 19, 2023.

The mother’s story opens with her daughter – then 12 years old – saying that she was transgender and wanted to become ‘Oliver.’ She writes, “I couldn’t make my mouth form words, but my heart broke as I watched this beautiful blue-eyed, blond-haired child curled up in the opposite corner of the couch, holding on to a pillow for dear life, as if to provide some protection from my response.”

The heart of the story is the Mom’s confession of mixed feelings inside despite external support for her trans son. “Of course I support you,” I said. “And I meant it. But I meant I supported him on my terms. I suspected this was a trendy move, not truly believing this was permanent. I would have known. I would have seen something. I hugged him and added, “I want you to know if you change your mind about this, it’s fine, and you don’t have to decide anything now.””

One of the concerns was that any pharmaceutical treatments for Oliver’s transition might affect her birth daughter’s ability to have children if she de-transitioned later on. However, she learned that puberty blockers are reversible. “For Oliver, who had already started puberty, the puberty blockers would still buy him – us – some time before the decision would need to be made on whether to initiate a hormone treatment like testosterone. It simply puts puberty on hold and gives the young person time to get counseling, to transition socially, and to live as their authentic self without battling their body’s ticking clock. Some kids stay on them for several years.”

She recounts a conversation with another mother of a trans child. Trans kids and parents need to make important life decisions that are scary but inaction is also dangerous. She notes that, “Forty percent of people who are transgender will attempt suicide. Forty. That’s almost as bad as flipping a coin.” The other Mom said that there are other ways to create a family if childbirth is not an option in the future but “she needs to be alive to do it.”

The trick ending to the article is that Oliver is now an adult and six years has passed since the transition process began. She writes, “When I look back, there had a been a dozen signs of gender dysphoria before Oliver’s announcement but I had overlooked them.” She also says that they had to maneuver through many layers of counseling and bureaucracy to get all the gender affirming healthcare needed. “No one is passing out hormones like candy” she writes to refute a popular misconception.

She finishes with this: “I thought my reluctance to seek medical care for my son was protecting him. Instead, that medical care likely saved his life.”

THE 2 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ON MY MIND ARE. . .

Morgan Greenwald

I came across a couple of items that brought my attention back to where it so often is drawn: to women’s breasts. The first item appeared on a website named LittleThings.com on March 10, 2023 and had a long but provocative headline. I Stuck Breast Lift Tape On My 34DDDs To See If It Held Up was written by one of the site’s contributors, Morgan Greenwald. The other eye-catching headline proclaimed, I Thought I was a B Cup My Whole Life [But] I’m an E. This was an article about fashion blogger Jen Warnes and appeared on TheExpress.co.UK website on March 16, 2023.

The article about breast tape interested me because I often used duct tape to create the illusion of cleavage for certain of my dresses. But the tape in Ms. Greenwald’s online review is the Hollywood Secrets Breast Lift Tape to be used in lieu of a brassiere for strapless or backless dresses and tops. Morgan reports that she has “34DDD” breasts. Would the tape lift up and maintain under the strain and weight of such bodacious ta-tas? Long story short, the answer was yes. But the interesting thing about the tape is that it is applied atop the breasts and then taped even higher up in a pull-up rather than a push-up from underneath arrangement as I had assumed.

There were some issues with the stickiness of the tape making it difficult to get in place smoothly but practice would perhaps make perfect. Morgan Greenwald wasn’t completely sold on the results of her tryout but marshaling those 34DDDs is no easy task up against mere tape. I’m not sure if this would work for crossdressers. We don’t have as much breast tissue to work with as cis-ladies but it does offer an alternative idea to plump up natural breast tissue.

Jen Warnes

The other breast-related item featured the lovely Jen Warnes who (as you will shortly find out) is no slouch in the boob department either. Her newsworthy bit of advice for women had to do with correctly measuring the cup size for brassieres. She told the Express reporter that she always thought she was a “B” cup – but using her recommended method discovered she was really an “I” cup. Contrary to Frank Costanza’s advice to his son George, “D” is not the largest cup size, apparently.

Here’s how Jen figured it out. Measure the underside of the breast (lifting the breast if necessary) to get a number measurement. In Jen’s case it was 28 inches. Next, take a measurement across the largest part of the breasts. In Jen’s case this was a very fulsome 37 inches. Subtract the two and you get the number nine. Then count the alphabet letters A, B, etc. until the ninth letter which is “I” and, voila! that’s your cup size. She claims it is a good starting point to get the right fit for the bra cups although it may be inexact for some women.

I didn’t even know you could buy “I” (or “G” or “H”) cup bras unless you were on the burlesque circuit with Chesty Morgan and Pandora Peaks. Again, I don’t know if this is helpful for crossdressers. But if it makes you think a little more deeply about the sizes and shapes of women’s breasts and brassieres, who’s complaining?

SWEET SIX-TY

Kathy Ireland, the former fashion model, cover girl, and legendary swimsuit model, turned sixty years old on March 20, 2023. According to a Wikipedia entry for Kathy, she was discovered while in high school at age 16 by Elite Model Management

Kathy Ireland

Her face was ubiquitous on magazine covers in the 1980s and – to me, at least – she was achingly beautiful. For a while she was doing the thick eyebrow thing ala Brooke Shields but her actual eyes were always penetrating as they stared out from photos. She had glorious thick hair sometimes meticulously coiffed, sometimes sexily windblown. Kathy always looked like a teenager which is why it surprised me to read about her 60th birthday recently. None of her contemporaries (that I could think of) have turned 60 yet. Turlington, Christensen, Campbell, Porizkova, McPherson are all younger which also surprised me. So the timeless Kathy is the senior among Reagan-Bush era models.

Then there were the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit appearances that ran into the 1990s while she was thirty-ish. Those photos of Kathy seemed to capture the healthy beauty of her and offered some innocent sexiness. I remember the first time I saw her in a thong bikini in one issue. None of the other SI Swimsuit models appealed to me as much as Kathy Ireland.

She became fabulously wealthy through the company she created to license her name and image, Kathy Ireland Worldwide. Through that venture, she got into clothing, media, record production, and home merchandise. She’s been married to the same lucky fellow since 1988. And recent photos of her prove that she’s still got it, too. Happy Belated Birthday, Kathy.

HAVE YOU HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH THIGH HIGH BOOTS?

The website Shoe-Tease.com had a fascinating article headlined How To Wear Thigh High Boots. The article promised “35 Over the Knee Boots Outfit Ideas.” Even though I do not own a pair of thigh high or over-the-knee boots, I was intrigued. The article was not dated but the advice is timeless.

These boots are made for. . .

True to their claim, the site ran through an exhaustive review pairing thigh high boots with long dresses, midi-dresses, short dresses, jeans, leggings, and shorts. It also noted that there are many different styles of over-the-knee length boots with varying heel types and leather, suede, etc. materials that can be styled as tight and sleek, soft and crinkly, or wide buccaneer style

The article also acknowledges that thigh high boots can appear ‘racy’ and gives advice how to avoid that if you don’t want to give off that vibe. In the short dress section, they say “the mini dress can cover the top of the boots or leave a couple of inches of thigh exposed, with or without tights.” Ladies, I suspect you will opt for leaving a couple inches of exposed thigh. Likewise, in the section on pairing the boots with leggings: “High boots with leggings and a high stiletto heel look a little racy.” Maybe it’s just me but I endorse thigh high boots with a stiletto heel. The only group that is racier than crossdressers contemplating thigh high boots are Formula One fans at the Grand Prix.

In a concluding section of the article headed Final Thoughts on Outfits with Thigh High Boots, our reporter notes, “Figuring out what to wear with thigh-high boots outfits can be tricky. That’s because these boots are just so darn tall!” Good point, huh?

Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion

Category: Transgender Opinion