Superheroine costume ready to don

 We certainly have some exciting disasters going on this summer, from heatwaves and forest fires to tsunamis and tornados. And in the face of chaos a girl like me has her cute disasterwear firmly on.

 

That's not jewellery, those are ultratech crimefighting gadgets

I mentioned a forest fire on the hill I live on a couple of weeks ago that required the intervention of a helicopter. This week we have a much bigger fire on the mountain above town that's already been burning for three days and has two helicopters and four Canadair tankers dealing with it as well as firemen and volunteers on the ground.

Canadair tanker heading towards the fire

Given that the thermometer in the coolest, shadiest outdoor spot of my home reads 36C (97F) in the afternoons, I don't know how those firefighters have been coping in the blazing sun on a bare mountainside (apparently about 42C, or 107F). That's truly heroic. Although an absence of dwellings there means no-one's in danger, it also means a lack of roads and paths means they have to scrabble around the steep, broken landscape on foot. The tanker planes fly endlessly, filling up from the sea, flying up to the fire and dumping their load before returning to the sea, again and again and again from dawn till dusk. (We won't go into apocryphal stories of scuba divers found lying in the charred remains of burnt forests!)

The smell of woodsmoke is everywhere and the chains of flames creeping over the crest of the hill the other evening was eerie. I hope they can get it out very soon.

Last week there was a lot of seismic activity in the Med (they've also discovered three new undersea volcanoes, so maybe the earth felt like having a celebration!) So we were greeted by this unusual, dead straight wave 1-2 metres high that stretched all along the coast as far as we could see. My neighbours and I reckoned was most likely due to underwater seismic activity, a mini tsunami if you will.

The heatwave this week has been breaking records in the region. More seriously, people have died as a result and others have been treated in hospital for it. It should end at the weekend. At least, we hope so.

I cope better than most with heat but I have to confess that it's not easy at night. Thank goodness for the beautiful outdoor pool just below. And for my lovely microfibre underwear that I bought from Marks & Spencer's when I was last in the UK. Their pretty but practical bras are ideal and their microfibre briefs have been my touchstone for 20 years now. In this heat they are very light on the skin and mould to your contours. Recommended. 

It always puzzled me as a kid that, when the going got tough, male superheroes put on extra armour, bigger protective capes and filled their utility belts with extra special gadgets. Whereas the superheroines seemed to lose clothes in the face of danger and fight in just a bikini and cute boots. Admittedly the bikini is radiationproof and bulletproof but it still leaves vulnerable areas... like most of the body! Even as a child I sensed there must therefore be something decidedly more heroic about the women than the men! So I guess if I'm going to combat natural disasters, this underwear will have to be the outfit. It's just too hot to wear anything else!

 

A dip in the archives

It was ten years ago that Emma and her wife came to London and we went to see the Cutty Sark sailing ship. I have some favourite photos from that day. 

Sue x

A woman trapped in a dog's body

Thanks for your kind comments on my anniversary post. 

Now, what's the difference between a beautifully dressed woman and a tired dog?

The woman wears an evening gown, the dog just pants!

Today, I am like the dog. The North Africa heatwave is back and it's best to do little, just aestivate. I'm still recovering from this bronchitis thing (I'm sure it's not Covid) and I didn't have a good night last night with the heat and the coughing. However, in the last few days I've felt able to go back to the swimming pool, where the water has been beautifully refreshing and the exercise has done me good. There are no mosquitoes this year, thankfully, but there are a lot of cicadas making a racket in nearby trees. I do like the hot summer and maybe I'm just lazy at heart. My girly swim shorts and bikini top are enough clothes for today! So, like the dog, I'm sprawled out, panting.

Image Credit: Liliboas/iStock/GettyImages

What's good, though, is that when it's very hot I eat less and better. Yesterday, for instance, I just had a big bowl of mixed salad and some fruit for lunch. I've lost over 6 kg (1 stone) since 1 June so that's all for the good.

"Gary" review

I'm pleased to hear from my friend Grace that the play Gary she was performing in at the Cockpit Theatre in London went well and there are two more performances at the Etcetera Theatre on 3 and 10 September. Here's one review of it that gives it 3.5 stars out of 5: Luvvie with a Rollaboard review.

I hope to be in London in October and if they still have performances then I will try to catch it myself.

What, me worry?

I see MAD magazine is still going. As an occasional reader I used to enjoy the film parodies most, and the fantastic work of cartoonists like Mort Drucker and Don Martin.

I found this page in an archive site and I'm sure Mad won't mind my copying it.

I'm not sure Miami was ever quite like this. And sounds even less so right now. But it made me laugh.

(C) Mad magazine

Sue x

Anniversary post 2023

 Nearly 600 posts and my blog is 12 today. Time to start thinking of puberty blockers!

Thanks to all my readers and subscribers who have made this task worthwhile, and to the metasites like T-Central and Feedspot that feature transgender blogs like this one. 

I read all comments and do my best to take suggestions into account. Do keep them coming.

On a practical level, I've made a few additions today. Mainly a search function for posts by label. I have been labelling my posts over the last three years and have started labelling early posts from 2011-12. It's a lengthy task and I've no idea when every past post might be labelled but this means you can search by topic as well as by word using the normal search function.

The early days of this blog were mainly about what I'd been doing as a trans person out in the real world. The world has changed dramatically since then and not for the better as far as my and other trans lives are concerned. I try to remain positive as I do not think the current anti-trans culture war in certain countries is actually influencing the public much and I see a lot of trans positive things out there, such as the plethora of art, photography, theatrical and online shows dedicated to us that my last few posts have highlighted.

Let's face it, being trans is not necessarily a great prize in life's lottery. But it has many rewards. No woman brought up as one that I ever met said she was glad to be a woman and all my female friends, when asked, stated that, in their view, being a man would have been better for them because of the greater strength and aggression, the higher social status, the better pay at work, the less domestic responsibility, etc. This either means we are most of us, in some respect, transgender, or that women don't appreciate how much better it is not to have to be like an 'alpha male': competitive all the time, hunting out sex and status and dominance and repression of perceived inferiors all the time, abrasive and domineering and flaw-seeking all the time, paranoid of succumbing to some other male all the time, and constantly on the alert for challenges from any quarter. But when I see the state of this male-dominated and male-oriented world I feel we lose a lot by it. Of course, women have their own challenges, not just from men but from other women that, in many ways, doubles the jeopardy. Yet, despite the threats, I love being a woman. I feel calm and happy and right when I do not feel forced to hide myself behind a male veneer. I embrace and enjoy and revel in my femininity every day. This blog is a small testament to that joy, to pushing back against abuse and repression of our trans reality.

Thanks for reading, have a lovely summer and keep being beautiful.

Sue x

Difference is beautiful

 Being trans need not be about trauma but about celebration. My last posts have been about trans art and theatre shows taking place this summer. Here are some more. 

 

(1) Seahorse Parents

This is a beautiful photography show in Amsterdam celebrating transmen who are pregnant. A series of calm, fairytale shots underwater by Miriam Guttmann (nominative determinism at work?) 

The official site is here: Seahorse Parents (they don't seem to have a page in English) but there is a recent illustrated article about it here from the UK: Difference is beautiful. There's a trailer for Guttman's film here: Seahorse Parents trailer.

I have tried to make my own blog a celebration of trans positivity over many years so reading this from Alex, one of the transmen involved, was uplifting: "I feel like far too often projects involving queer and trans people revolve around trauma. This project is all about celebrating and embracing our transness, our bodies, and our babies." 

The idea of a man carrying a baby can still seem strange to most people. After seeing this, though, it seems beautiful, right and normal.

 

(2) Mona

An exhibition by photographer Dominique Pasquet with accompanying book that presents six series of photos of LBGTQI+ people and so illustrates aspects of life in 21st Century France, from trans and same-sex families who are having babies to transitioners (and lovers of body art) who transform their bodies. The portraits are left to speak for themselves but the book's independent texts are provided by 30 well-known writers and journalists who are given a free hand to express their thoughts. 

"She could be called Mona" cover, published by Lelivredart

 

I haven't bought this yet but will let you know my own feelings about it in due course.

 

(3) Amsterdam Rainbow Dress

"The Amsterdam Rainbow Dress is a living work of art, made of all the national flags from countries where being LGBTIQ+ is illegal, on penalty of imprisonment, torture or capital punishment. When a country adopts LGBTIQ+ inclusive legislation, the respective flag shall be replaced with a rainbow flag." 

Here's their website: Amsterdam Rainbow Dress

The dress has been modelled in cities all over world. One day, we hope, it will made entirely of rainbow flags.

San Francisco City Hall - Ashlyn Danielsen and Amsterdam Rainbow Dress Foundation 2017 (c) Amsterdam Rainbow Dress Foundation

 

Health update

I'm not ill that often but this last week has not been easy thanks to this bronchitis. I feel quite a lot better today, though, and hope the remaining cough and other symptoms will be gone completely soon.

Blog 

My next post will be my annual anniversary post. This blog has been live for 12 years now and I will be making a few additions.

Enjoy the summer.

Sue x

Arty and trans

 I said last time I was failing in my TGirl photo duties but I did get dolled up in the end...

It's the least horrible picture I took. I wasn't feeling it, especially as I'd made an effort to look nice for a video chat and then the other person let me down at the last minute. And the next day I went down with bronchitis and I'm still unwell so, yeah, not at all my best. But some days you've got it and some days you haven't and that's the way it is.

I think when the hot weather is over I'll try again. I did break open all my lovely new makeup, though, and that is always a delight, especially with a squirt of perfume.

Trans and LGB art

This summer there are a number of exhibitions in prestigious institutions aimed at showcasing LGBT art, photography and activism. 

(1) The Centre Pompidou in Paris has a major exhibition of LGBT art from its own extensive collection and others. "Over the Rainbow" runs until November 13th.

Jean-Baptiste Carhaix, "Sister Sadie the Rabbi Lady" (1983). © Jean-Baptiste Carhaix, Courtesy Galerie Vrais Rêves, Lyon Photo: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Bibliothèque Kandinsky/Dist. RMN-GP

 

Link: Over the Rainbow (English)

 

(2) The Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art in Prato, Italy, a small city near Florence, has an exhibition till October 15th of photographs by Lina Pallotta of trans activist Porpora Marcasciano.

Link: Lina Pallotta, Prato (Italian only)

(3) I notice that the nearby town of Menton, France, which has a large museum dedicated to creative polymath Jean Cocteau, who made no secret of his homosexuality and was strongly influenced by 1920s drag queens like Barbette, has put some of its Cocteau exhibits in the main square. 

Barbette, 1926. Photo: Man Ray 2015 Trust/ARS/ADAGP

I must visit the museum and report back.

Sizzling hot news

Forest fires are the order of the season and we had one on the hill I live on the other day. Here's the emergency helicopter carrying a bag of seawater from out front to dump it on the fire out back. 

Most of these fires are started by idiots being careless with cigarettes or barbecues, a few by pyromaniacs who love a cosy blaze or people wanting money off insurers. The cloudbursts and flooding in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, though, are caused by the climate crisis and I am worried about my friends there.

No selfies, no crazies

I'm at risk of being expelled from the TGirl Club. You see, I haven't had a photo taken since last September and this low ratio of pics is just not the TGirl way! 

I had set yesterday afternoon aside to do my hair and makeup really nicely but the weather turned out hot and steamy and it was impossible. It'll happen but maybe I shouldn't hope too much for this summer. 

I've been asked for some paintings. I used to do a lot of art and illustration but gave up my studio ten years ago to pursue better-paying work. Instead of photo selfies, I might try some more self-portraits. Here's one from ten years ago.

I think the hairstyle was 'artistic'! 

This was me in my studio.

Portraiture was a new thing for me at the time and I think I have a lot of work to do to improve the style and presentation. Let's see how we go. Any worthwhile results will be posted here in due course.

The view from Crazytown

Talking of art, I found a picture some years ago from a site that provides modern commentary on old illustrations. I've always liked the picture because it inadvertently illustrates the life of a trans person according to some of the crazed pronouncements from religious maniacs. It makes me chuckle as I know that's how my bigoted family would see me if they knew the full story. The incongruity here shows the silliness of their position.

I'm happy to emphasise this point further by pointing out that a drag queen topped the iTunes Christian Charts this week. This suggests that religious bullies do not have the monopoly of religious thought, faith and practice that they like to think they have. Drag Queen Flamy Grant tops the iTunes Christian Charts. The article has links to some relevant songs.

How about when bigotry goes really nuts. This preacher's fear of the Barbie movie suggests to me that being seriously unhinged is possibly the chief qualification for the job of evangelical minister in the USA. (And a love of money, of course.)

Well, demons are surely more fun than boring old popcorn while me and the kids watch the movie? We demons do love a pretty dress, after all.

I mean, seriously, folks!

Trans success

I hear from the UK that Highland Pride went well. The same for Nottingham Pride. And also Sparkle 2023. For every attack from the bigots and haters there are trans people fighting back and living their lives. I remain positive as I don't think the bigots actually have the public's attention, other than to put the public off bigotry.

Sue x

Raising the trans profile

 Despite all the anti-trans hate these days, I am not inclined to despair. You see, there's good news from two of my friends this week, and from others similarly promoting the profile of trans people. Many fields of endeavour accept alternative people readily, such as performing arts and academia. 

 

Trans theatre this summer

There are quite a number of trans themed theatrical performances this summer. Starting with my friend Grace Statton's performance in Gary at the Cockpit Theatre in London on 10 August.

Gary tells a story of love, self-hate and identity confusion when you realise you are what you fear. Looking at bigotry, identity, trans narratives and community, this show will resonate with some and hopefully bring joy to all.

Things are going to change... Just not in the way Gary expects. He wants your vote to make his little piece of London great again. However, after a protest gets out of hand outside a library hosting a drag queen story time, Gary wakes up in hospital. With no memory of who he was, how does he tell the world who he really wants to be? And how will the world around him react? How will HE react when he finds out who he was - someone who would hate everything about the person of the present. And how does he deal with the fact that he is now perhaps she!

Gary has a lot of thinking to do and a very short time to do it.

More info and to book a ticket: Gary

 

Gary is not the only trans play on this summer. Vladimir Luxuria, a very well known trans person here in Italy as she was a member of parliament, is performing at the nearby Borgo Verezzi Festival in Princesa, a play about the life of a controversial Brazilian transwoman, Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque (1963-2000). 

Vladimir Luxuria by Sergio D'Afflitto

The Avignon Festival in France has just hosted a long-running play Giovanni! Awaiting the Bomb, a somewhat surreal solo performance to music about outsider artist Giovanni Galli whose troubled mental state and gender dysphoria is reflected in his life and art. 

Giovanni! En attendant la bombe. Promotional image.

 

Trans academics

The other friend I mentioned, Jan Eldridge, has now become full professor of astrophysics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and heads the physics department there, as well as being a visible advocate for trans rights. Her inaugural lecture aimed at non-specialists, "Exploding Binaries", referring to both stars and genders, can be watched here (53 mins):  

Few of my readers will be experts in binary stars but most will know enough about the gender binary already. Jan does emphasise the importance of great hair and pretty nails here, and I'm sure we can all relate to that! I hope to see Jan again next time I visit New Zealand. Here's us in 2011.

So it's good to have another leading academic who is trans. Another professor I know is Sophie Grace Chappell of the Open University in Britain who has a lot to say about being trans (take this in the Guardian newspaper, for instance: Harry Potter helped me become a woman.)

I notice that a new Professorial Chair of LGBTQ+ History has just been created at Oxford University, the first such post in the UK. This is exciting news, too.

Thanks to all these folk for presenting trans life to the real world. And for arts and academic worlds for offering plenty of scope for trans people to lead their best lives. 

Sue x

Barbiemania, better than Barbie, and barbecued

 I failed the audition for the Barbie movie; given the state of my eyebrows, maybe I should've auditioned for the Lassie movie instead. Woof!

It's definitely the case that women are dressing like Barbie right now. Not only is there this year's all-over pink look that I discussed at the start of the year but it's become definitely more 'little girl' over the last week or two. There are some embarrassed kids round town with mums who look more dolly than their own toys. I've no objection but don't out-little girl your little girl! 

Better than Barbie

I had hoped to post this yesterday but wasn't able to then. That's because yesterday was the tenth anniversary of this lovely day out in London when we got our best summer frocks on and posed on Waterloo Bridge, to the delight of passing tourists and traffic, and then sat demurely on a bench outside the nearby Savoy Hotel. A lovely reminder of great times. These girls look lovelier than any Barbie, don't they?

L-R: Stella, Linda, Stephanie, me, Rachel, Irene

L-R: Irene, Stephanie, Rachel, Linda, me

I'm still in touch with most of these girls. I hope to be back in London this coming October and hope to organise another of those London Ladies Who Lunch outings. We used to do so many of these and I miss them.

Barbecued

Well, the heatwave in the Mediterranean continues and shows no sign of letting up. I tolerate heat much better than I tolerate cold but this past week I've actually had trouble sleeping because the temperature at night is pretty much the same as by day. The sea is almost 28C (82F), which is tropical and is the same now as the famously warm Caribbean. This results in there being no cool evening breeze to mitigate the daytime air temperature, and in a proliferation of invasive species, too. I literally spend all day in my swimwear because wearing more is uncomfortable. 

More news from the barbie next time!

Sue x

So cool!

I've been making fruit ices to round off my midday meal. This one's a melon water ice, with lots of pulp in it as well as juice so it's more fruity and filling. 

 

One annoying seed got away from the sieve, though! If I say so myself, I have always made nice fruit sorbets and ices in summer and I have oranges ready for the next batch. 

I've had a lot of people wish me well in the current heatwave but unlike other places we've actually had a drop in temperatures over the last few days. It's partly why I moved to this part of the world - mild winters and sunny but not broiling summers. It's 33C here in the shade this afternoon (91F), which is hot but nothing like the Rome area where it's 10C higher right now. Yesterday evening there was a nice breeze and I went to my next door neighbour for a cold prosecco, which was actually the first booze I've had for a couple of weeks. I don't think alcohol and hot weather go well together at all but it was OK yesterday.

 

Indisputably Isobel

Isobel has a fully charged outdoor trans life and her adventures can be read on her blog, Indisputably Isobel, which I have added to my blogroll on the right. Her blog reminds me of the first few years of this blog, before I got sick, when I packed in a lot of events and meet-ups with other girls, with lots of photos. Worth keeping up with her.

Keep having fun, honey.

Recognition of non-op transwomen in Italy

Good news from Italy where transitioners already have good protections but where help for and recognition of other trans people is patchy. After a long legal dispute, a transwoman in Sicily has been recognised as female despite not going down the official medical transition route which up to now has been the only way to change sex markers on official documents. It's another step forward. I admire her tenacity with the Italian courts that are not renowned for their speediness.

Catherine et Liliane

Many thanks (or curses) to Stana over at the Femulate blog, for introducing me some months ago to the long-running TV show in France, Les RTT de Catherine et Liliane (Catherine and Liliane's time off in lieu), in which actors Alex Lutz and Bruno Sanches took on the roles of gossipy secretaries in a French media office. I have been watching the episodes on YouTube endlessly. The show has now ended but was fine topical satire and neither I nor any other commentator can get over just how brilliantly they performed the roles, from gestures to voices to clothing and accessories. I'm not sure I've ever seen crossdressed roles done so well. The trick is to play it absolutely straight.

There are no versions in English or subtitled in English that I can find but if you want a taste without needing to know much French this episode is as good as any to illustrate the sort of scrapes they get into. Catherine and Liliane are all dolled up in Cannes and come across the Louis Vuitton shop where Catherine soon realises she can just about afford a bar of Vuitton soap. But they bump into Nicolas Ghesquière, Vuitton's creative director, who offers to take them to the fashion show later if they will parade Vuitton dresses there. Having been fitted, they are then stood up for Susan Sarandon and Nicole Kidman. They have no choice but to pay for the new dresses that have been altered just for them. Catherine offers post-dated cheques. Brilliantly played - and what great outfits (although Liliane's is, as ever, slightly comedic). 

All very cool.

Sue x

Heat - a hot topic

 It's hot and not the best weather for wearing wigs or makeup. In the last couple of weeks, temperature records have been broken in several ways and we are expecting a serious heatwave this weekend in southern Europe. I have been doing very little because anything too strenuous is actually unpleasant at the moment. 

I've written on this subject in each of the last few years since moving to the Med but the fact is that here in July it's always going to be hot, 30C and more even at night. I try not to run the air conditioning till shortly before bed (so I can fall asleep in a temperature that's more conducive to sleep) because it's expensive and gives a false sense of ease, as well as contributing to the overall problem of manmade climate troubles. To cool off, I prefer to drink hot tea than eat an ice lolly as the latter only chills your insides whereas the 'glow' the tea gives you is your natural way to cool off. I say 'glow' on the basis of the old saying that only horses sweat, whereas gentlemen perspire and ladies merely glow. I am a lady, after all!

I did once experience 45C heat in Central Italy way back in 1988, the first year I myself realised that the climate was off. The best thing in such cases is simply to stay cool indoors with blinds or curtains closed. It isn't just laziness and gluttony that results in a 3-4 hour lunch break for businesses where I live but the fact that working in the high heat of early afternoon is not desirable. Mornings and evenings are more conducive to productivity and health. A workman died of heatstroke in Lodi, Italy, the other day, which illustrates how careful one has to be. Condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

My ceilings here are high, my floor is ceramic, and my home is designed to counter the excesses of summer. Frankly, I don't go around the house in much more than my bikini at the moment. And no, I won't post a photo!

I haven't had any alcohol for a fortnight, as that exacerbates the effects of heat. It's had the knock-on effect of helping me lose weight: nearly another kilo (2 lb) since last writing on Monday. And thanks for the thoughts and encouragement from those who commented then on weight loss.

In the evenings, I'm enjoying the starry sky and I get good views southwards over the sea. Scorpio is dead ahead just after dark at the moment; you couldn't see all the constellation when I lived further north in London but I can now, it's stinger curling out of the waves.

My chicory has put out even more of the pretty flowers that I mentioned last week. But so far this year I haven't had any little animals visit my plant pots, like Laura the Lizard who lived with me for months last summer. They will come, though, I'm sure.

Laura the Lizard 2022

Music to dress to

I've been doing a bit of work helping a musicologist log the uses of stock music, the sort that's written, played and recorded for a one-off fee and then sits in a music library for any registered library user to use as desired. It's a less a common system now, I believe, and royalty arrangements are more complex than they were 50+ years ago when media companies used these libraries regularly. This does not mean that the music is poor quality, it's just that the composer was prepared to accept a one-off fee and give up their copyright. 

I came across one familiar piece from my childhood, by well-known composer Johnny Pearson (who conducted the orchestras on Top of the Pops, Cilla Black's shows and other such musical extravaganzas). It's the 'Dopey Dinosaur Theme' from brilliant kids' show Vision On that was also the 'lift theme' from the wonderful Mary, Mungo and Midge, a really beautiful animation series with long episodes (15 minutes!) for 3-4 year olds that I adored when I was very small. Both those were made by the BBC but the music was also used by CTW in the USA for it's Nancy the Nannygoat animations in their fantastic show Sesame Street, which I believe is still going. As an aside, the care, thought and dedication by production companies and presenters making children's shows on a shoestring budget when I was small was heroic and I still have very fond memories of these lovely programmes that were fun as well as educational. It's a pity that archiving bulky videotape made production companies wipe many episodes of classic shows - it's a big issue in this research project I'm contributing to.

Anyway, to get to the point, Vision On was a very visual show, an art magazine particularly intended for deaf children to enjoy. One presenter, Pat Keysell, would accompany her explanations with sign language. Many other sketches involved word bubbles appearing above the characters, giving kids time to read them. The rest was making and showing art, or short cartoons or presenters lunking around. That said, they had a huge mix of music for those of us who could hear well. One episode is here and ends with a young Sylvester McCoy (in his pre-Dr Who and Hobbit days) enjoying a dance with Pat Keysell, first as duplicated dancers (not such an easy effect in those days) and then thoroughly enjoying themselves in reversed roles. Sylvester McCoy in a pink dress with frothy petticoats having a ball on a superbly conceived show is the best thing I've seen this week. I can't find a separate clip of that but a whole episode is here with the dance sequence starting at 22:04, Sylvester's frock entering at 23:14. And, by the way, the Dopey Dinosaur is at 15:20. Enjoy the show.

 Sue x