Ditching old discriptors

The raging conversation around terms never really stops as at one site people are talking about FemBoy (feminine boy) vs Crossdresser which is as some of you are aware an old term for a person usually a male who wears attire that was seen as just for females.

To me some of that talk is less about the act of wearing clothes associated with females of any age so much as subdivisions around to what extent that person may be out wearing any particular look and if it is seen as a more indoors, closet, bedroom fetish or fantasy thing.

And to be honest I feel that itself gets mixed up because some people may not be sexual while others are (and who we to know?) and other traits such as submissiveness can be shared.

The bigger thing to me is this: I'm a feminine gurl because I identify as a sex as a male however I dress wearing clothing seen as more feminine and have no issues with it, being happy to be referred to while dressed as that.

In the past crossdressers were seen as more people who had no permanent longing to be full time women but who had a feminine side, a separate personal name for that aspect of them and while some dressed in a more everyday female fashion others took exaggerated uber-femme form which may be more sexual.

You may prefer to called by that name by all in that role.

In the most extreme case you might think of say a drag act.

What complicates it is when you are an age regresser either voluntary as part coping mechanism or involuntary connected with more developmental or disability reasons in which instance you are very likely to dress less adult.

These may include school girl (boy), toddler, young girl into frilly dresses and much of those presentations are relatively flat chested.

Personally I'd sooner ditch the term cross dresser, keep any sex or gender based idenities where necessary and go more with the expression we are using adult or little.

I see myself as a adult little gurl who does wear girls uniform, dresses and skirts but accepting of my sex identity.

All of us if we felt that way could present in a more older teen adult way too perhaps taking in elements from submissive culture and as legal adults engage in sexual acts with other legal adults who were at one with this.

It's not the clothing that is gendered only the roles in which we may wear them and our response to that is of necessity personal.

Would a person seriously undertake gender re-assigment treatments and surgery just to let out that younger girl side? 

Having spoken with some, my answer would be no as they've indicated little benefit having no interest in female adult side.

Dollies and the the Feminine Gurl

 Another week, our 1,000th post and in view of some of my posts in varying places I am going to post something around a topic I don't think can be ignored.

The sissy gurl is just that - feminine but biologically male which tends to show in many ways we've looked at over time such as how we present ourselves compared to our peers in society and we've mentioned a bit about growing up as a feminine boy.

I've spoken about schooling but a big thing then was play and play is in many ways the last frontier of gender stereotypes and gatekeeping and play includes action figures typically for boys who are masculine and dolls for most girls often the more feminine.

The feminine boy has been missed out cos he may play with either which is perhaps in some respects more balenced and that was true for me personally at the time.

So it is interesting that a leading toy company is showing in a commercial a boy playing with dolls which are clearly feminine from which this is a still from.

Everything around the boy is pink.

That is code for: Girls Only so I think we clearly say he's a feminine boy even if his dress is more gender neutral and he dresses and plays with them.

Given these dolls are Barbies they are clearly "dollies" dolls to be dressed as fashion icons, practising looks and ideas.

Looking at the rest of us we really need to go back and start playing with dollies ourselves.

The simplest are woollen dolls which are fun to hold, hugs and tip-toe in adventures we create using our imagination.

The next level up is the moulded doll which typically come in 8, 12 or 18 inch sizes such as this American Girl one whose outfits can easily be changed to place in different eras and sorts of adventures from school days to parties and are generally very well made.

Another sort is more action figure but with changeable attire such as this Hermoine Granger dollie from the Harry Potter franchise with bendable joints, supplied in UK inspired school uniform.

Finally for the more responsible or older feminine boy/gurl there are the porcelain collectable dolls that come with stands where the character is set in period which are collected and handled rather than played with on the floor or in a park.

Dollies are a feminine gurls joy helping him see how they can be and something they can share with girls which they often crave to be allowed to play with, having fun, expressing his more girlish feminine nature.

Marvin Gaye on vinyl

This week we are looking at a small group of records in my collection

Motown's anthology series started in 1974, compiling singles and key album tracks usually in stereo and Marvin Gaye's was a prominent one taking in his early 60's recordings both solo and his duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell and tracks from his 1970's groundbreaking albums such as What's Going On, Let's Get It On and the soundtrack to Troubled Man.

While in the United States these were triple albums, in the UK they were reconfigured as doubles.

This is probably the best way to hear his 60's output .

What's Going On remains a fantastic album looking at the human condition and the state of society in the backdrop of the Vietnam War and was reissued in April of this year in a version that has the original mono singles versions cut by Kevin Grey.

It sounds fantastic.

Marvin went on after the Trouble Man soundtrack to explore romantic love and sexuality with his Let's Get It On album tackling straight on America's puritanical attitude to sex with tender romantic songs that celebrate the joy of sexual relationships.

This copy issued in 2008 by Mobile Fidelity and cut by Shawn R Britton is the finest sounding edition on vinyl.

The Best of Cat Girl

 This Sissy Gurl blog has always prided itself in being different than most in that it is more centred around the everyday life and interests  of being one, not least an age dysphoric one so we do talk about stuff like comics which is where we are today.

Girls comics tended to suit us better whatever the boys said about them and actually many a cartoon strip series could easily rival the very best boys comics and  so from the pages of classic 1960s girls' comic Sally comes the first ever collection of beloved British superheroine The Cat Girl! 

Cathy Carter is not your average teen. She can jump further, fight longer and climb higher than anyone she knows - with the aid of a magic suit, she is Cat Girl! 

Facing off in glamorous, globetrotting adventures against supervillains and master criminals, Cathy often finds the hardest fight comes from her bumbling detective father, who doesn't believe Cathy can fend for herself. Can Cathy save the world when the person trying to hold her back - is her dad?

This collection contains Cat Girl's latest adventure, Cat Girl Returns from the Tammy & Jinty special, as well as a purrfect selection of the best classic Cat Girl stories from Sally, and a brand new cover from Elkys Nova.

Bernard Cribbins: An appreciation 1928-2022

 On Thursday it was announced Bernard Cribbins died who was major part of our childhood.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire he got into acting at the age of fourteen, then like many was called up during WW2 in the parachute regiment before resuming.

I'm going to ignore the grown up acting he did and leap to one of several comedy records he recorded for EMI produced by the legend that was Sir George Martin whose UK Label Parlophone had dance band music and comedy such as The Goons before an infectious Liverpool foursome called Beatles kickstarted the British Invasion.

In Britain, this was one of the staples of the children's requests show Junior Choice for many years together with Right Said Fred that I loved listening to at weekends as a boy.

Doctor Who is a BBC TV series that is a global sensation with a long history that was popular with children and he took part twice in it.

With the Daleks in 1964

With David Tennant.

The Wombles were environmentally friendly superstars in the 1970's and returned in more recent years and he provided the all the voices for the 1973/5 series by Elisabeth Berrisford.

They were filmed by Filmfair in stop motion by Ivor Wood and Barry Leith who gave us many more favourite cartoons such as Ivor The Engine.

In Britain, he was a staple of that much missed BBC show Jackanory where across several days leading actors and actresses read stories with vocalization to children.

Here he is as one of the actors tackling J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit in 1976.

He tackled the whole of Jane Aiken's Mortimer's tales and actually he appeared more than a hundred times, the most appearances on that show ever.

There is something quite magical to just being sat listening to a story being read with no big visual effects as you create that world in your head and for many of us he was part of that.

None of us can forget that classic children's film The Railway Children from 1970 where he played Albert Perks, a modest station porter in the North of England filmed on the Keighley and Worth Valley preserved steam railway in Yorkshire.

It is out on Blu Ray and well worth seeing.

Bernard was everywhere and someone whose performances played a big part in our lives so we'll miss him as he reminds us of our lives not least our childhoods.