Being Me

Ever wondered how to shop online as your lovely self? There's a way and it's called, in the credit card industry, the authorized user. What is that you say? It's simple... An authorized user is basically a second card on your account where you simply need to provide some basic information, such as first, last, date of birth, and the like, but don't specifically have to provide additional identity information. Why? Because the credit is still only extended to the primary card holder, they're just authorizing another person to make use of it and thus they still hold liability. That means that the credit card issuer doesn't care and doesn't have a legal obligation, known as KYC, to confirm. So, needless to say, I have a credit card as lil' ole me, set up with Paypal as well, that lets me shop online for lots of clothing, shoes, and other feminine products as Joanne and have them sent to my home address. For spendier items, where you need a signature, ...

We're into sweater weather here in Ontario and that means cozy slippers, fleece-lined leggings and a nice wood fire. My last post was about comfy too. I think I reached those years where over-sized sweaters and fuzzy slipper socks are my go-to choices in evening wear. All that aside, I was thinking about the choices I have been making in clothing purchases lately and a great deal of them have been leggings/jeggings, hoodies, t-shirts, and other casual choices. Even some of my recent shoe choices have been way more on the casual side, despite the fact that I clearly enjoy heels as well. These sneakers I recently purchased, by Blowfish, are a great example of fun and casual that's caught my eye recently. Pair these up with a nice jegging and over-sized sweater, and you'd fit in nicely in almost any mall or store setting. Dressing to the nines is fun, but I highly recommend a major stock of casual in closet as well.

It's often a truism in the trans community that when we dress, we dress UP . However, there's nothing wrong with the comfy casual either! Consider, it's highly likely you own a few sweatshirts and that you find them comfy. So, extend the length of those a bit and you have a dress with all the same comfort. I couple these, usually, with leggings. A basic black legging with a grey hoodie dress is a comfy casual for lounging and being feminine at the same time. While leggings are a bit tricky when it comes to hiding nature's sins, but when worn with a longer tunic of some sort they work wonderfully. Wear some, you'll understand why so many women do. 😘

It's not too often that I'll drop super serious money on a dress and that is mostly a function of how frequently I'm likely to wear it. As a consequence, I tend to buy more inexpensive options and if I only get a few wearings, so be it. However, I'm a real fan of the Kate Spade look I have to admit. It's is ultra-feminine, chic, and arguably only rivalled by Ted Baker when it comes to hitting my like buttons. Both are also very spendy and that's really hard to justify when I don't get a lot of opportunity to wear. Now, with the dress pictured to the left, my spouse was all over my buying it. At the outlet, the dress was going for 75% off of list price and that put the price at $129.39 with taxes! Consider that, at the time of this writing, the very same dress can be had for $279.00 USD or, in Canadian dollars, $365.31! I think they call that a steal. So why was I buying it? Well, these shoes... A while ago I had picked up these shoes from 2 Lip...

Today is International Women's Day and there are enormous amount of topics on the subject of gender equity that will rise in discussion as a result. The obvious ones, ones that really need to have greater and greater pressure applied, are pay equity and opportunity for advancement. However, not entirely in the subject of the workplace, there are still a whole host of issues that face today's women. The #metoo movement is a very profound example of where we, as a society, really need to keep the heat on. However, there is one topic that doesn't really get a lot of discussion and that is the place of transgender women in all of this. It is also time that role is discussed and Denise Balkissoon is bringing this to the front in the Globe and Mail today. What caught my attention, in particular, is the recognition that the path to womanhood is not universal and never has been. Even should trans women not exist, one women's journey is not the journey of another. Not ...

Jessica is a professional women's hockey player, playing for the Toronto Furies and, now, she's the first openly transgender woman playing professional sports. I'm seeing more and more of these stories every day as people shake of their fears of rejection and bring their whole selves to the front.   The other thing I really like about this story is that she's playing hockey. How Canadian! I'm also really happy to see that the CWHL and her teammates are very supportive of her journey and I hope this will be another journey that helps to show that the trans experience is a human one. How did she come out? Well, it's quintessentially modern... I hope that I can inspire others to live their lives true to who they are and to never give up on their dreams. #cwhl #transgender #transathlete #wearethegsme #furiesfever A post shared by Jessica Platt (@jplatt32) on Jan 10, 2018 at 8:11pm PST

Sébastien Lifshitz has been scouring the world for old photographs, building a pictorial history of cross-dressing from an incredible collection that spans more than 100 years of work. This collection will be on display at London's Photographers Gallery and I would love to be there to see them. For more details, see this article on huck .

Last September, Teddy Quinlivan came out as transgender and spoke about her experiences and growth as a person. In the video, below, Teddy expands upon a lot of her experience, the concepts of passing privilege, and more. It's a powerful video and I think it takes great courage to do this, especially in light of the toxic atmosphere for trans people in the United States these days. So, watch the video, it's educational and empowering. As an aside, Teddy seems to be latest in a long line of fashion models that are coming out trans. While I have mixed feelings about the modelling industry as a whole, there is something to be said about the powerful message of femininity in this space when it comes to answering the question so many cisgendered like to put forth.