What if you want to leave a transphobic country?

 Autocracy and femininity don't mix. The world seems to be opting more and more for controlling leaders who all share the same characteristic: machismo. It doesn't mean they are competent or admirable, it just means they spray their alpha male scent over everything. One thing that the regimes in places as diverse as Afghanistan, the USA, China, Iran, Hungary or Russia share is macho rhetoric and dominance through the threat of force. All governments whatsoever hold power by force, of course, but the hard-line ones make a big deal of the violence they can wield against the supposed badness of outsiders and nonconformists. It's a very male trait. Of course, one hardliner's xenophobia and expansionism is incompatible with that of the maniac next door and so we may be warming up to a whole succession of military conflicts. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine and with China and the USA's posturing, it's fairly clear that the post-WW2 order is being dismantled by the very powers that created that order. So it's not a good time to be a woman or trans. Frankly, it's not a good time to be a normal human, but many people don't realise that so let's concentrate here on protecting trans people and what can be done about it. 

This week I have some suggestions about getting out of a country that's going to the dogs and opting for another place to live. 

What do you do when your world goes bananas? Don't stick around with a bad bunch. Photo by salame.

 

 

 

 

I myself was newborn when the country I had just been born in went crazy and my expatriate parents escaped riot and revolution by returning home to Britain by a roundabout route. Then, with the chaos of Britain's exit from the European Union - and few people realise how close to the brink the UK was in 2019 - I decided to clear out again, this time to Italy since I have always been automatically considered an Italian citizen by the Italian government. You may ask how and it's because, by Italy's ius sanguinis law of 1912, any person who had a male ancestor who was an Italian citizen after Italy was created in 1860, or who had a female ancestor who was an Italian citizen after 1948, is automatically deemed an Italian citizen themselves. This law arises because Italy lost a third of its population to emigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in an age when population represented national wealth. The law was passed to ensure that children, grandchildren and even later generations could return to the mother country and swell its economy damaged by this high outflow of people. If you think about it, a man alive in 1860 might well have been born in the eighteenth century! That's how far back we are going. Given how many people in the USA alone must have had some Italian citizen ancestor born since the American revolution of the 1770s-80s, many tens of millions of Americans today probably don't know that the Italian government considers them to be its citizens in addition to any US or other citizenship they may have. My brother-in-law, although unmistakably from South London, also happens to be one of these Italian citizens because just one of his eight great grandparents was an Italian man who emigrated to Britain around 1900. One of the reasons why Italy has a world-beating football team is that many black players had Italian ancestors who took a fancy to the local ladies in Africa in colonial times. My route to Italian citizenship is a different one but the result is the same. So if you are worried about what it means to be trans in Trump's America, for instance, you might want to look into your family tree and see if you have this option, too.

It can be similar for other countries. The Republic of Ireland, for instance, has an ancestry rule that covers parents and grandparents born anywhere on the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland even though that is ruled by the UK. 

If ancestry is not your luck, then marriage and/or residence might gain you citizenship elsewhere, or simply investment if you have the funds. These options give you the right to clear out of where you are now if you have to, and not even necessarily to the country in question. In Malta, for instance, you can simply invest in property to a certain value for a certain time and that will grant you citizenship. Maltese citizenship also makes you a citizen of the European Union, which expands your options to 26 other countries easily enough. The same in other places (I've just been alerted to a similar scheme in St Kitts in the Caribbean if the Med isn't your thing). Costa Rica has a much lower rate of investment, about a quarter of that of Malta, and I'm told it's a sunny, friendly and politically stable place. 

I've always been involved in the international side of things and keeping your options open and flexible is wise especially if you have a flexible gender or similar situation. Every country has its crazies who could take power so getting out is one possibility if things get horrible. 

Another time I'll make suggestions on how to react to the crazies if you're stuck at home.

Stay safe, girls.

Sue x

Domestic demigoddess

 Photos today ... every TGirl's necessity! 

Relaxing at home today

I dress in womenswear every day, but not everything I wear is of interest. I had planned to spend last weekend taking photos wearing various new items I'd bought but almost as soon as I'd posted here last Friday I developed a sore throat that turned into a full-blown cold that lasted the next four days. I did take some photos but my red nose and worse-for-wear look means they're not going to show up on the internet! 

I'm much better now and have been carrying on with my plan where I left off. Really, I'm just wanting to get an idea of what I actually look like in my everyday wear which, like most women, is mainly leggings, jeans, comfortable shoes, tops that are practical and warm rather than flashy ... It's not exciting or showy but I have always just wanted to blend in, be seen as and treated like the woman I feel I am. So today's photos are just me at home in jeans, sports leggings and a wool skirt doing domestic stuff. I've gone for a pink theme in my top, jewellery, lipstick and nails. This is my normal look, though I don't usually bother with all the makeup - after all, who's normally looking?

Pink sweater of the day and the mules I always wear round the house, with skinny jeans.

 

And with boots.

 

I've lost weight so the boots used to fit my calves more snugly when I bought them. This suggests it's time to buy a new pair. I'll have to go boots shopping again soon. How tragic! 

It's only by looking at photos that you realise things like this, hence the point of the exercise. A mirror only shows you what's in front, not properly from other angles.

Now grey sports leggings, a pair I love. Again the weight loss has made them looser and more wrinkly around the knees, which is not so good. I see I've still got to lose weight around the waist.

I think the dusty pink and the grey work well together. I'd wear a longer top to go out, though, as there are few women who can pull off the leggings-as-trousers look effectively without revealing too much.

A comfortable flared black knit skirt with the same sweater. I've got a pair of pink shoes but, annoyingly, they're coral pink and clash with the dusty pink, so I've chosen black suede kitten heels, which go nicely with the skirt.

But there's too much black with the tights ... but it's winter so plain sheer tights are not right for the season ... so much to think about! Cup of tea needed.

The mules are back here and they work well ... But now it's the Porky Pig mug that is the wrong shade of pink!

... A TGirl's work is never done!

I should do this more often but it's a question of getting half a day without interruptions. I'm sure most of you can relate to that.

Slimming, the benefits of whisky, and food by truck

I lost another pound (0.4 kg) this week. Ideally, it would have been more but having a cold and the winter weather meant I ate stodgier food and broke Dry January by making hot whisky toddy. Believe me, when you have an irritating cold - not one that keeps you in bed but just the sore throat, runny nose, slight headache, bit of a temperature type - there really is nothing better. It's what whisky was invented for, after all. 

To make toddy: put a measure of whisky in a glass or mug, add a sugarlump (brown is preferable to white) and add an equal measure of hot water, stir in the sugar and drink slowly. The barley soothes the throat, the heat clears your nose, the alcohol disinfects your passages, the sugar gives you a bit of an energy boost. Some people add a squeeze of lemon for Vitamin C but I don't as I find the acid neutralises the soothing effect of the barley on the throat. NB Use cheap cooking whisky, not your best single malt!

Still, my weight is going down overall, which is what it's supposed to do. 

I've also started ordering from a food delivery firm and their bags of frozen veg for soup and sides are filling my freezer. As a new customer, they gave me some promotional bags of frozen pasta and sauce, which I have never had in my life but turned out to be surprisingly good. Mind you, wild boar sauce is pretty special if you can get it. 

Very nice young delivery guy, too. I find the younger generation to be excellent workers, polite and helpful. Well, certainly here in Italy they are.

Storms

The Western Mediterranean received the southern portion of the weather system known as Storm Eowyn in the British Isles, which we call Tempesta Herminia. As with the other storms this winter, its caused a fair bit of damage. My TV ariel cable has been brought down by this latest one. Combined with things previously blowing away or falling from the roof, and the earthquake in December that cracked my plaster, it's not been a good winter so far. Stay safe.

Sue x

Trans creativity, January '25

 I'm always delving into the creative world of LGBT artists, writers, actors and musicians. Here are a few things I've come across this month that may be of interest to others.

 

Books

It took me a while to find but I had been looking for this novel since last summer. L'isola dei femminielli by Aldo Simeone, which I'd translate as Pansy Island, is based on real people and the policies of Mussolini's fascist government in the late 1930s and early 1940s, which was to send politically undesirable and LGBT people into exile in remote villages or islands. 

 

Seen from the point of view of Aldo, a gay man who is convicted to join a colony of such exiles on the windswept, sunblasted Tremiti Islands some 20 km off the coast of South-East Italy where, on a clear day, you can see all the way to Yugoslavia. Being condemned as gay is a bit random; it's often actually a way to remove hoodlums from society when criminal investigations haven't proved fruitful. Implication in a mafia murder that's not yet solved is the reason why several Sicilians are there. And, of course, favouritism is a thing, especially from one of the policeman who's one of their jailers and who is himself gay. Being a lawman means that eyes that see ideals in uniformed state service are eyes that don't see the reality of his life. 

The chapter headings are quotes from the rulebook, and each chapter illustrates how each rule is broken. The life is one of boredom, jealousy and fights, and confinement to draughty barracks at night yet with quite a lot of freedom to roam, swim, hold parties and make love by day, and even to work under licence for those locals who aren't prejudiced, or to fight those who are. One character points out that, although notionally unfree, they actually have the freedom to be their true selves here. The police aren't bothered: gays are going to gay, as long as they don't "corrupt" civil society on the mainland and don't riot here. These days, of course, these islands are a holiday destination.

The Tremiti Islands today

Most of the exiles are indeed gay and have feminine nicknames and pronouns but there are a couple of characters who are almost certainly trans: Peppinella, a tailor and dressmaker who liked to try on her various feminine creations, but made the mistake of having a friend take photographs of her dressed; and Picciridda, who's bought a grey dress that she likes to wear often. Peppinella loves helping Picciridda dye and transform that grey dress into a white wedding gown with ribbons, embroidery and other fripperies for a new year's eve party where there will be plenty of homespun crossdressing. Both characters are generally more feminine in mannerisms, outlook and behaviour than the others and I see them as trans more than gay.

Did I enjoy the book? Would I recommend it? 

So far it's available only in Italian. It was interesting to read of the contradictions both of life as an LGBT exile and of the attitude of the authorities who are not so much harsh as indifferent, but the author tied his hands too much by keeping to actual history and the real lives of real people which, when you're put away, is not so exciting. The message that ran through my head, though, was very much that previously beautifully expressed by Colonel Richard Lovelace, imprisoned during the English Civil War in 1642:

                   Stone Walls do not a Prison make

                    Nor Iron bars a Cage

                    Minds innocent and quiet take

                    That for an Hermitage.

                    If I have freedom in my Love

                    And in my Soul am free,

                    Angels alone that soar above

                    Enjoy such Liberty.

Useful to consider the colonel's words when the same phobias and aggressions against the queer community are expressed by contemporary politicians.

Films

1) I still haven't managed to see trans musical comedy Emilia Pérez - my local cinema can't seem to co-ordinate its website, its billboard and its projection schedule so I turn up when advertised only to find it's actually on another day or time. Besides, I have a lousy cold and the weather's bad so I'm staying in at the moment. But clearly the film with its trans protagonist and trans actress, Karla Sofia Gascon - the first to win the Cannes best actress award - is doing well. 

2) April and Amanda (previously Enigma), a documentary about April Ashley and Amanda Lear is at this week's Sundance Film Festival.

3) Jimpa, a drama starring Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow, also premieres at the Sundance Film festival. Coleman plays Hannah, mother of non-binary teen Frances, both visiting gay grandpa Jim, know as Jimpa. Given the profile of the leads and the infectious queer pride in interviews at Sundance of non-binary actor Aud Mason-Hyde, this could be very worthwhile. I found this interesting article from 2018 on Aud from Australian Vogue here.

 

Visual arts

1) New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has an exhibition till February 22nd entitled Vital Signs - Artists and the Body. This, of course, includes works based around "gender expansiveness". MoMA's exhibition page is here.

Interestingly, the Financial Times, not a usual organ for arts news, has a review that is somewhat critical of the concept behind this exhibition here.

2) In complete contrast, Colonel Lovelace's contemporary, Spanish artist Jusepe De Ribera, is the subject of a large exhibition in Paris (Petit Palais, till February 23rd). As much a painter of the poor as of his aristocratic patrons or religious themes, one of Ribera's masterpieces is the Bearded Lady (officially Magdalena Ventura with her Husband and her Son), painted in 1631, which is in the exhibition. In it we see Magdalena Ventura who suffered a significant hormonal imbalance that caused her to develop male pattern hair growth, including an immense beard, yet here she is feeding her baby at her breast. The painting is well known and over the last 400 years has given rise to a wide range of reactions: from incomprehension to fascination, from pity to empathy. What is clear, though, is Ribera's compassion for his subjects, a humble family trying to live normal lives with an unusual condition to deal with in addition to their poverty, yet painted with the same care, realism and striking use of lights and darks as he would equally use for scenes with saints or portraits of nobility.

The painted Latin inscription on the stone blocks reads:

A great miracle of nature.

Magdalena Ventura from the town of Accumoli in Samnite country in Abbruzzo in the Kingdom of Naples, aged 52; what is unusual about her is that when she was 37 years old she began to be covered in hair and to develop a very thick, long beard such as you might see on a bearded man rather than a woman who had previously borne three children to her husband Felice de Amici whom you see standing near her.

Jusepe de Ribera, Spaniard, Knight of the Cross, the new Apelles of his era, commissioned by Frederick II, Third Duke of Alcalà, Viceroy of Naples, painted this unusual subject from life on February 16th in the year 1631.

Not trans and arguably not intersex, Magdalena still falls under our umbrella of persons who have lived with non-standard gendered lives. 

This is, in my opinion, fine art at its finest.

Sue x

Winter warmer girly weekend

 I have a warm woollen dress, cardigan and thick tights on today as it's been almost wintry here, with snow above 1300 metres. The local mountain is exactly 1299 metres high so presumably if you're at the summit you can wiggle your toes in sunshine whilst a blizzard blows about your ears! 

Below: foodie news, girly weekend plans and worries, backing up, and a dip in the archives to my first time out thanks to UK Angels which is closing its forum.

Foodie news

I love local Italian food but just occasionally I need a change. I really fancied a curry and there are no Indian restaurants to speak of in Italy as the two countries have no shared history (apart from Sonia Gandhi) so I took the train to Nice where there are Indian restaurants with rave reviews. I picked the raved-about one nearest the station and the meal was OK but it was hardly exciting. I compounded the disappointment by not bringing my list of Slimming World 'syns', which are the nice/bad things that hinder weight loss. I ordered lamb pasanda, pilau rice and a naan bread and when I got home I found that it's not actually possible to order anything more fattening than that! You're allowed up to 15 of these syns a day; I had 75 in one meal! So I have lost no weight this week. Big oops! But I wanted curry and I got one so that's that itch scratched! 

Tomorrow is Burns Night and, surprisingly, they don't stock haggis locally, either!

In Nice I also looked at kitchen gadgets in the big stores. Some of these are so complex they probably have GPS, fire flares and launch life rafts if you get into difficulties! I declined to buy. Gone are the days when you just roasted a mammoth outside your cave. I miss those days!

Girly weekend plans

I have been frustrated these last couple of months by building issues that have given me little privacy as workmen and others snoop around my home checking and mending stuff, hence I've been unable to get my full face and hair done properly. This weekend I hope to stay home and try out some new clothes and looks and, if all goes to plan, I'll have some photos to show for it next week. There is a but, though ...

I am worried about the return of eczema that ruined my face in 2014-2017. At the start of the week I noticed characteristic red welts on my neck that are the precursor to an outbreak. They're gone now but I must be very, very careful with my makeup and other preparations as another attack will probably make me give up on any future attempts at public visibility. There's only so much pain and frustration one can take in life.

Backing up

I'm busy backing up this blog in case all the IT platforms from the USA go weird. I'd advise anyone else to save their stuff.

I notice that UK Angels forum is to close at the end of this month. I haven't been there for a decade for reasons previously explained but you have about a week left to save anything from there you may want. The site was a big part of my graduation from the closet to real life living so I remember the good times with great fondness (see below).

 

A dip in the archives

You know, this week is the 15th anniversary of my first trip in public. It was the UK Angels 10th birthday party at Pink Punters and I wrote about the event here. You never forget your first time! And I'm still in touch with most of the people I met there.

 Sue x

Under uncertain skies

Let me tell you two weird stories unrelated to Mr Trump. Yes, unrelated (* irony *)! They're about things that have happened relating to home.

The first concerns a neighbour of mine whose building works have constantly caused me problems. He has been undertaking the renovation of his flat for over five years ...

Now, I do know something about houses and flats, having owned or rented several myself and been a director of a company that owned and managed several hundred flats, shops and garages. One thing I know is that no ordinary person takes five years to renovate a flat. This man is no ordinary person, though. He is a 'pillar of the community': a lawyer and a local politician, in fact. 

So, he hires builders who start work on part of the project, they work for a few weeks, with all the inconvenience to everyone else that that entails, and then he dismisses them, claiming that they have done something wrong or that they have damaged his property. He then sues them. I know this as he has a very loud voice and I have heard the same shtick carrying through the building on many occasions. He then hires someone else to proceed with the works and the process repeats. It seems to me that he is gradually renovating his flat at the expense of the firms that supply materials and labour since they are being sued not paid.

An interesting tale I have heard from several sources is that he was the lawyer of the wealthy lady who owned the flat before him. It's a huge penthouse and is worth a seven-figure sum. When she died, it was he who inherited it, despite not being related to her.

Now his works have caused a leak that has damaged part of my home. He asked to view the damage and after that he invited me to see his flat. It was a total mess - five years of supposed renovation leaving little but holes, bare wiring and broken tiles. The leak, from a pipe in a bathroom, he blames on the condo. In fact, in five minutes he told me so many lies that I almost started laughing. I kept my counsel rather than argue with a person who is vindictive and I alerted my landlord and the building manager, who both have a long history with him. 

Just fancy: a malign property owner, a swindler and a politician who lies, all rolled into one! Incredible, isn't it?

My second tale is about road rage and dates back to the week after the Brexit referendum in the UK in 2016. I lived in a quiet London street so an altercation outside was something unusual and made me look out of the window. A shaven-headed white male was out of his car and was yelling at and throttling a man of South Asian ancestry who had unwisely got out of his. This caused several people in the street to call the police simultaneously. The police told them all to stop pestering them and just tell the two to get back in their vehicles and drive on; they weren't going to intervene. 

Given the many government reports on London's Metropolitan Police over the decades that have concluded and re-concluded that the force is institutionally racist, and given the meteoric rise in racist attacks after that xenophobic referendum, you can see what's going on here. Laws don't seem to apply so much to the dominant race or to the male of that race.

So if you are in the USA and have doubts today about the rectitude of your politicians or feel laws or law enforcement might not protect you, my anecdotes may have resonance.

I took this photo of a regatta on the sea yesterday from my front terrace. It seems suitably moody and apt, showing people trying to make way under an uncertain sky.

I shall miss living here as I miss my old home in London but when you feel things are too stacked against you it's best to make plans to move on.

I will be posting more on surviving extremism of which, I am sorry to say, I also have direct experience but that may be of help to any trans people who are fearful.

Stay safe, girls and boys. 

Sue x

Defying the bad

 January is never the jolliest time of the year, let's face it, so I have been planning and preparing for fun times ahead. In addition, today is Friday 17th which in Italy, Greece and some other countries is as bad as Friday 13th in English-speaking ones. To ward off bad luck, you are supposed to scratch yourself. And not plan journeys, do business, or cut your hair. Oh dear, there's a lot of bad luck on my way, then, as I've been doing all that today. I'd best hire a scratching robot to purge the evil.

Fear of Friday the Seventeenth is known as Friggaheptadecaphobia. Which sounds exactly like the sort of expression you mutter when bad luck befalls you! (Or is that actually what Muttley used to mutter when in the dog house!).

Anyway, here's what I've been doing to score on the femmometer this week.

Slimming to slinkier dress sizes - I lost another two pounds in weight (0.8 kg), which is a decent weekly loss and it would be great if I could keep that up steadily. Time for a reward!

Clothes - I am so much in love with the soft cotton trousers I bought in the sales last week that I got another pair in a size down - after all, slenderer is what we're aiming for. Thank goodness for elasticated waists, eh, girls? I also got an additional pair of feminine corduroy trousers for winter with those all-important deep pockets. I might make a repeat purchase of those, too.

Hair removal - I got a new lady shaver in purple that so far is proving useful for quick and easy hair removal. Not as accurate as a wet razor but a lot less painful than epilation. Time to find a waxing specialist for summer, though.

Travel - I have started booking my next major trip to Britain to sort residual things and have some more girl time with trans friends. So far I have bookings to visit London, Salisbury and Nottingham in late May / early June with Bath, Bristol and South Wales as other possibilities. A busy trip!

Salisbury Cathedral Close with Dee and Chrissie, November 2010

 

Grim Reaper

Not so good at the moment is the prospect of my having to attend a relative for some weeks after he has an operation as I am now his nearest kin who can. His other half and stepdaughter (a nurse) would have been ideal, of course, but his partner is now in hospital and the daughter died just before Christmas. We are all very upset about her passing. She was 62 and had had a lifelong heart problem that the doctors eventually ran out of options with. The Grim Reaper has been culling a lot of my friends and family these last three years and I confess it's getting me down, especially as most were my kind of age. If scratching's the remedy for this, too, then I'm scratching away!

 

Social media

I was annoyed to lose my Facebook account to hackers last autumn. But given the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, their increasing twists and turns to make your info public, and now their policy change to reduce fact checks and allow more toxic discourse, I wonder if I'm so bothered and whether I would ever return. I'm becoming cautious about any social media site based in the US in the same way that I don't use any based in China. Maybe these sites have had their day as a place for enjoyable exchanges. OK, so this site, Blogger, is run by Google in the US, but that seems less Trump-leaning at moment, or am I uninformed? Lynn of YATGB offers a characteristically wise and informed summary.

Have a good weekend.

Sue x

The cat whisperer

 This is a bit of a photographic addition to my recent makeovers and photoshoots post, but enriched with cats.  

I've never kept a pet but I've always been happy to make my outdoor spaces friendly to bees, butterflies and other invertebrates with a variety of plants. This in turn attracts lizards, geckos and small birds who enjoy a juicy bug or two for lunch. You may recall Laura the Lizard who lived in my herb pots through the hot summer of 2022.

A few weeks ago I had a bad moment when a dog owner stopped to chat on her mobile and let her dog wander across the pavement on its lead, thus blocking my path completely. As I moved to step off the kerb to skirt round the dog, either through overfriendliness or curiosity, it bumped me and I nearly tumbled into the traffic. It was the distracted owner's fault but it was disconcerting. I had some bad experiences with dogs as a child and have never really trusted them since but I'd like to thank the various dog lovers I've asked to help me get to appreciate these animals better. Round here a dog is part of street fashion, preferably a small, overly fluffy thing that you can carry in a handbag or basket. The annual Christmas dachshund walk is hilarious. 

But the one critter I seem to attract like a magnet is cats. I've never owned a cat although my grandmother did. Somehow, they instinctively make for me and we get on immediately. In November I wrote about my makeovers and photoshoots (part II of that is coming soon, by the way) and mentioned the cat, Spike, a lilac point siamese, who insisted on being in many of the photos. 

 

I thought I'd share some of those here. 

This photo I've always called the "Three Kitties" picture: there's Spike the cat, there's Alan the Acrylic Leopard (deceased) and there's me, Cute Kitty!

 

Now here's Spike here prowling round my legs.

 

Him again, purring in my ear.

 

Now he's just bounced on my lap. I was worried he would rip my tights but Jodie my makeover artist said he never did that. She was right as I got out snag free. Just as well as I have two of my favourites layered here.

 

My skirt here was far too short which meant he didn't have a proper lap shelf to sit on so he was uncomfortable and soon hopped off again. Despite scrabbling for purchase, he didn't damage my tights here either.

 

Only one other photo of me dressed with a cat. That was last autumn when I stayed with friends who had three five-month-old kittens. They were all friendly but one took an especial shine to me and wanted constant cuddles. My head's not visible as I didn't have my hair and makeup done but these are my typical everyday fem clothes.

Much as we get on, I don't want a cat as a pet. I go away too often, which is unfair on any pet, and Tiddles would scare away the little birds and reptiles that are a pleasure here.

Have a good week.

Sue x

Back to normal, kind of

 Starting the weekend with good news.

Firstly, in the week after New Year, I got back to my healthy eating plan and I lost over three and a half kilograms (3.6 kg), or eight pounds (8 lb), in weight. This may be a personal record as I don't think I've ever lost so much in a week before. It brings me back to where I was before the Yuletide overindulgence started. 

I got several items of clothing in the sales at a good discount: women's trousers and shirts that are for everyday wear outdoors. The new trousers I'm wearing are so-o-o comfortable in soft jersey material. Men's clothes are never soft and comfortable like this. Why do men put up with that? Also, deep pockets. Why do so many women put up with mini pockets? Even if you've got a handbag, pockets are essential for the items you may need swiftly. So I'm happy with my purchases. Must buy more. 

Interesting to hear of this musical film, Emilia Pérez, with a trans actress that's winning awards. I have made a mental note to go and see it when it shows here. It seems to be dividing trans film critics a bit but I prefer to make up my own mind.

I'm currently reading a novel about LGBT people exiled to an island by Mussolini, based on real events. I'll let you know what I think of it when I've finished.

The festivities are over and I'm always a bit sad to take down the Christmas tree and decorations - I find a bright, cheerful home is good for getting through the shorter, darker days of midwinter here in the northern hemisphere. But anyway, the days are getting visibly longer. And I can't complain as the daytime temperatures outdoors have been around 16C (60F), which is normal for these parts.

I'm annoyed at not having been able to take any photos this year by my Christmas tree. That's mainly been down either to timing or to dealing with a leak that's required other persons to be in my home so, you know, stealth mode. There's more to the leak than a neighbour's burst pipe, though. I think he may be the catalyst for a forthcoming post about what to do about difficult politicians, for he is one. They seem to be increasingly popular!

 

A dip in the archives

I haven't dipped into the archives for ages. Appropriate to today's theme, this was me all wrapped up waiting for a train to take me to the sales in London in 2010. I miss those grey suede boots as they were warm and comfortable. I don't miss the grey skies.

Have a good weekend.

Sue x

Ladies of Liberty

 This post is intended mainly for my American readers as I know there are more than a few worries about what happens after January 20th.

In Milan last month I went to look for a statue that is said to be the (or one of the) inspirations for the Statue of Liberty. The statue is on the outside of Milan cathedral. I was worried it might take me a while to find as Milan cathedral is a colossus among places of worship (for centuries it was the largest cathedral anywhere*) and it has thousands of statues and carved figures. I've heard many numbers but they seem to be settling on 3400 statues, 700 other carved figures and 135 gargoyles. Potentially a long hunt, therefore. But I needn't have worried: the statue I was looking for is right in the centre of the main façade. (And if you're from the US, sorry for writing centre and not center but I learned my English in Britain and they can't spell ;-) )

Here she is:

 

Apart from leaning on a cross rather than holding a book, and holding an oil lamp not a torch, she is very like Lady Liberty, isn't she? She is "The New Law" sculpted by Camillo Pacetti in 1810 and stands just above the central door with her companion, "The Old Law", on the other side of the window.

 

It's easy to assume that Auguste Bartholdi* copied this statue for his Statue of Liberty. I'm a bit sceptical as there are genuine coincidences in art and I can't help feeling that Eugène Delacroix's famous painting Liberty Guiding the People (1830) is more likely to be the main inspiration:

Who can say? 

* St Peter's in the Vatican is larger but was built later and is a church not a cathedral; similarly, Cluny in France was an abbey (technical point). Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi also used the pseudonym Amilcar Hasenfratz. That's a way better name!

The point is that I did this sightseeing exercise because I am distressed about the state of liberty in the world at present and obviously in the USA specifically. All the US bloggers I read, especially Hannah, Stana and Marian, have made their worries about the trans community under Trump quite clear and I share those worries. 

I was brought up under pretty brutal ideologies: cultish religion and extremist politics. I have been coming to terms with this and pushing against it for 30 years. I will be offering some advice in the next few weeks on how to understand and fight extremists who have phobic agendas. I'm only a trans woman with a blog but maybe any little helps against the potential enormity of the chaos and instability that might come and that we are already seeing with ongoing nationalist and religious ideologies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Brexit Britain, the South China Seas... 

That said, the self-absorbtion and general incompetence of the Trumpite top brass and the amorphousness and flexible living of the trans community may be saving graces here.

 

Shoutout

I promised Emily Shorette I'd do a shoutout for her blog, Emily's Virtual Rocket (https://emilysvirtualrocket.blogspot.com/) which is full of trans-related news. It's US-oriented, hence the relevance to this post.

Sue x

2025: slipping into something more (un)comfortable?

 Hello and happy new year. 

I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. The official new year fireworks here were spectacular although some maniac nearby decided to let off some supernova bomb that was so loud that my ears are still ringing! Maybe the army surplus store had a sale on or something.

I made the traditional, symbolic new year supper which here is cotechino, a large and very fatty boiled sausage (to represent life's plenty) and lentils, which are shaped like coins and represent prosperity. I added some sauerkraut with wine and apple that went really well with the pork. 

Anyway, as is inevitable, I put on a lot of weight but it's allowed. It was nice to have time to cook and eat well. I'm back on the slimming regime and I lost two pounds overnight so something's working. I plan to do Dry January (as I did Dry November) so I'm sitting here with a glass of what I call Slimmer's Champagne, which is a champagne flute filled with fizzy mineral water with a dash of balsamic vinegar and a squirt of lemon juice to colour it and add tartness and flavour. For a moment you might mistake it for champagne. Anyway, it fools me, and I made it!

Any resolutions? Well, apart from continuing to get trim so I can get back into my favourite dresses, I'd like to meet up with other TGirls in Italy and continental Europe, so my (manicured) feelers are out.

Apart from that, I have found the past decade to be so unpredictable that I'm not inclined to make more resolutions than those as circumstances outside my control seem to be all too prevalent.

I always wish everyone the best for the year to come. To be honest, though, I don't think it much of a shock to say that, at this point at least, future world scenarios that look positive are not so many. But I like to be pleasantly surprised, so who knows? I have had this cover of The Economist from 29 December 1979 in my mind's eye recently. For years it was pasted up in a classroom at school and it struck me then and still does 45 years later.

(c) The Economist

The 1980s turned out not so bad as some feared. So ... into the late 2020s, then. My plan for bad news days, therefore, is to try to enjoy the little things as much as possible. Just for instance, this evening just after sunset I got a clear view of the conjunction of the moon and Venus. It's not a rare phenomenon but it does help you feel there are bigger things out there.

At the same time tomorrow the moon occults (i.e. passes in front of) Saturn from here and that is rarer and more exciting. And it's a free spectacle. (If you want to see the occultation it should be visible from the UK and Western Europe a little after sunset, so about 5pm to 7pm GMT - times vary depending on your location.)

This coming weekend is holiday here in Italy and on Twelfth Night (5th-6th) kids are visited by a kindly witch called Befana who gives them sweets and chocolates. I wrote in more detail about this and other traditions here. After that it's the January sales when I hope to stock up on women's trousers as my fem style in public these days is, let's say, ambiguously feminine. 

So, yes, it's kind of a plan for 2025. I hope this year is kind to you.

Sue x