I've always loved feminine nightwear and, when I finally stopped purging and accepted that I was a trans woman, the first thing I did was buy lots of nighties. The most feminine styles were so affirming. There's nothing wrong with pyjamas, if you like them, but they're too much like the masculine item to be of interest to me. Nighties might be unfashionable nowadays, but we trans girls need our feminine boost, right? (I think it's TGirls who are single-handedly keeping the stocking industry alive, for the same reason!)
It's been a hot summer as always but, thankfully, not as hot as the previous two years and, unlike last year, we haven't experienced any forest fires. At least, it's not so hot by day, but it's been hard to sleep because, although daytime temperatures in the low 30s (85-95 F) are fine, nights ought to be cooler but they're not because of soaring sea temperatures that don't let cooling evening breezes arise. This year the water temp hit 30C, like the Caribbean, which is way hotter than it should be.
Anyway, the nights have been too hot for the usual nightwear and even the light microfibre underwear alternative I suggested last year hasn't been good. Yes, there's air conditioning but I find artificially created atmospheres are not healthy for various reasons and, in any case, I prefer not to keep it on all night. Thankfully, french knickers work well but the best solution for tropical nights, short of a bamboo wife*, are these underskirts or half slips.
Totally unfashionable and hard to find these these days, I happen to have a few which I bought in the 1990s (!) that were useful for use under unlined skirts at that time but now make great summer nightwear. Still feminine yet cool.
(*If you're wondering about bamboo wives, they're a wicker structure still found in some homes in South East Asia that you embrace in bed on hot nights and so as to allow air to flow around your body, making a night in bed less torrid. This is the best illustrated article: Good Night's Rest; and the Wikipedia article. My grandfather spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and mentioned them to me as a child.)
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The good stuff
I was delighted to hear of the election of another trans person to public office. In this case, Kim Coco Iwamoto in Hawaii. Pink News article.
One day this sort of thing won't make the news because of the trans aspect, but until being trans is accepted as normal we'll celebrate these achievements of our community.
Do enjoy the rest of summer.
Sue x
So when your clothing says "wash at 30C" we can use the sea now? 🙂 Crikey, that's a bit warm 😬
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the background on bamboo wives, that's fascinating. I wonder if the interest goes the other way too? What I mean is, Far Asian people look at some of the things we have and think about the novelty of them.
BTW, on hot nights, I've been putting a 'chill mat' in the fridge to make the bed cooler. Also, menopause nightwear can help too.
Well, washing clothes in the sea would save on electricity for the washing machine and it's electricity that's part of the global warming problem so I think you could have solved the climate problem at a stroke there, Lynn!
DeleteOne other benefit of the hot sea here is that turtles who don't normally visit these shores are laying eggs on the beaches and yesterday, 43 baby turtles made their 20-yard dash from the nest to the water. So cute!
As far as I know, East Asian people have seen Western stuff over the last 500 years, adopted it and grown fat and unwell as a result. I'm talking tobacco, burgers and beer!
Thank you so much for the tip on menopause nightwear. I had never heard of it and now there might be a perfect solution. You see the benefits of the blogosphere and the internet?
Sue x
I had to wear a horrifically cute winter one while camping the other day :) - but do own a nice thin nightie for summer
ReplyDeleteI had not heard of the Bamboo wife ! an interesting idea
We're into horrifically cute here and I suspect you weren't too distressed yourself!
DeleteIn the days before electric fans and domestic air conditioning units, people had simpler and cheaper solutions but still apparently reasonably effective. And there's a whole industry built around the idea. Still popular in Korea, it seems.
Sue x