Dina’s Diner, August 24, 2020

WHAT’S HAPPENING? NOT MUCH

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly disrupted a lot of social activities this year. So many events and plans both big and small have been canceled, rescheduled, postponed, or thrown in the dumper.

Quarantined fun.

For many crossdressers who indulge only in the privacy of their own living spaces, thankfully the virus restrictions have not had much impact. I suppose for those who were forced to work from home, it may have increased the opportunities to dress even if they were busy with their occupations. There may be some interesting stories about handling work assignments or communicating with co-workers while dressed or partially dressed en femme.

For the gurls who like to go out at least occasionally, things have been depressing. All of the big crossdressing conventions (Southern Comfort, Fantasia Fair, Keystone) were canceled. Nightclubs and bars are mostly out of the picture except for food service. Even if you are a public shopper, it seems wearing a face mask in stores would take at least a bit of the fun out of it. I had a friend float the idea of simply taking a drive one night just to get out of the house while dressed. I actually enjoy driving as Dina with music or an audio book but I am going somewhere — not just cruising around as an end in itself.

I was hoping to get back to the Philadelphia area to visit one of Angela Gardner’s Laptop Lounge events earlier this year but. . .well, that didn’t happen. People keep saying that they’ll be glad when 2020 is finally over. But what makes us think things will magically be better come 2021? The power of positive thinking, perhaps. I wish it would, I wish it would, I wish it would. . . .

LIFE TIMES TWO

I came across an article profiling lady wrestler Britt Baker. When she isn’t wrestling on television and in arenas around the country she is a practicing dentist in Orlando, Florida. The article appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine’s July/August 2020 edition. Dr. Baker earned her D.M.D. at Pitt and grew up in Punxsutawney Pa. The New York Post also had a profile of her on November 8, 2019.

Britt Baker, DMD

I don’t follow professional wrestling but I enjoyed reading the duality of Britt Baker’s two careers. She got started on a smaller wrestling circuit while still in dental school in 2015. Neither article explained what motivated her to the ring. She wrestles now for something called All Elite Wrestling and appears on their Wednesday evening televised cards on the TNT cable network. She told the interviewers that the AEW circuit allows her the freedom to practice dentistry which she didn’t want to give up to join another women’s wrestling circuit whose travel schedule would have made that impossible.

Stories of “double lives” are always fascinating. Perhaps the moreso because as crossdressers we are all living double lives to one degree or another. The wider the gulf between the two lives, the more interesting the story. A white coated dentist who becomes a spandex-clad amazon flying around the squared circle certainly fits that bill. So does the neighborhood husband, handyman, sports fanatic, and dog walker who enjoys transforming into a femme alter ego in his spare time.

Britt adorns her pre-bout entrance cape with a large tooth graphic on the back and is introduced as “Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D.” According to the articles, she has suffered black eyes, a broken nose and a concussion during the course of her professional career. Uh, the wrestling career, that is. The Post article played up a budding “feud” with a rival wrestler (a proven wrestling promo build-up) and seemed to portend a growing stardom and fan following for her.

Grappling with decisions regarding our double lives? Britt Baker found a way to have it all and she didn’t even have to hit it upside the head with a folding chair ringside.

DOCTOR, DOCTOR, GIVE ME THE NEWS

. . .I gotta bad case of lovin’ you (in your bikini). Or perhaps that’s how the lyrics should be amended after a spate of news sources reported on a controversial study that appeared in a medical journal in July, 2020. According to one news source, “In a now-retracted piece from its August issue, the Journal of Vascular Surgery published a study titled Prevalence of unprofessional social media content among young vascular surgeons, which sought to “evaluate the extent of unprofessional social media among recent vascular surgery fellows and residents.”

The results of the study warned young doctors that social media posts featuring inappropriate clothing and behaviors (such as alcoholic beverage consumption, obvious inebriation, suggestive Halloween costumes and, yikes, bikinis) could affect their ability to get good jobs and attract patients. The focus seemed to fall mainly on female doctors. As you can imagine, the study drew fast and voluminous outrage.

Dozens of women doctors posted photos of themselves in their bikinis and holding alcoholic beverages with captions celebrating their private choices to live as they pleased. Besides the Victorian sensibility of the study, many questioned the metric by which some apparel or behavior would be judged “inappropriate.” The Journal retracted the study and apologized for its misguided attempt at lifestyle advice.

Dr. Candice Myhre, in her bikini helping an injured person.

One of the women doctors who objected to the article was Dr. Candice Myhre of Hawaii. She posted a photo of herself treating a badly injured swimmer who was hit by a boat — and she was wearing a pink bikini while doing so. She captioned the photo “Dr. Bikini will save your life in the middle of the ocean if you’ve been hit by a boat.” Maybe that was the photo that made the Journal of Vascular Surgery cry uncle. Bikinis save lives. Hmmmm. Let’s re-think that “no bikini” rule.

Sure, we want our medical professionals to be laser focused on our health issues when we are being treated. Would it really trouble you to think Dr. So-and-so wore a bikini on vacation, or got loaded at a bachelor party? We crossdressers — more than some others — should understand that how we conduct ourselves away from work in our own hours should not reflect poorly on our careers. I had a doctor for a few years whom I would not have objected to at all if she posted bikini photos. Come to think of it where are you Dr. F.?

A final thought: the sexy nurse has been a staple of crossdressing (and more broadly, male) fantasies for many years now. Maybe we should set aside the nurse’s conch hat and micro-mini uniform with white stockings in favor of the woman doctor with a stethoscope hanging around her neck, a clipboard with the patient’s chart in hand, and wearing nothing but a bikini to fuel our fantasies. Doctor, doctor, give me the news…..

WELCOME BACK, LADIES

I’ve written in the past about the return of the university coeds to my college town. The influx of twenty thousand-plus students doubles the size of our population during the fall and spring semesters. This year, with the spring semester of 2020 wiped out by the Covid-19 shutdown, along with the restrictions on the general populace, the town was especially dead. Now the downtown streets near the campus and the streets running through the campus are alive with students.

With temperatures in the high 80s the coeds (sort of an old fashioned term nowadays, I guess) are dressed for the heat. As I noted in previous years entries on this subject, short-shorts of several different styles are definitely on display. And a tip of the hat to whoever brought them back several years ago.

Who loves short shorts?

Cutoff jean shorts are popular. Some of them are cut so short that the pocket material hangs below the frayed hemline of the denim. I like that. You can almost imagine some breathless ingénue exclaiming to herself, “Oh, no, I cut the shorts too-too short!” It’s okay sweetie. Don’t be bashful. Let’s see what ya got.

Gym shorts are also out in force. These are not the baggy shorts you see on basketball players. These are the gym shorts we wore in the 1960s and ’70s — way up on the thigh. Even higher than that because a goodly percentage of the young ladies have the bottom of their derrieres peeking out below the material. Maybe they receive extra credit in Physical Education for that.

The ultimate head-turner for me are the Spandex® boyshorts that cover the form as if, as if, as if they aren’t even there. Some girls also leave a little roundness visible below the hemline where the material struggles to contain everything it ought to. Visible bottom flesh is like the upside down backwards version of cleavage, if you think about it.

I think about it. A lot.

APROPOS OF NOTHING

Rachel

The July/August edition of Pittsburgh Magazine had a feature on the “Best Dentists” in the region. It also gives them a chance to sell large ads to practitioners that display in the section. They do the same thing with Doctors and Lawyers on an annual basis.

One such full page ad showed the staff of a cosmetic dental practice. The young woman pictured here was included in the photo captioned as Rachel, but she was not identified as one of the practitioners or assistants. Maybe she was a patient. She has a nice smile but for some reason that was not what caught my eye.

You know how the dental assistants put a bib around your neck to protect your shirtfront from getting any spittle on it? They might have needed to use a bib the size of a city newspaper for this young lovely.

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Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender Opinion