Saturday, October 10, 2020

Ten Ten of Twenty Twenty

Biden 3, Trump 0

We voted early. Absentee ballots arrived on Tuesday, we filled them out on Wednesday and I deposited them in the ballot box in front of the town hall on Thursday.

Friday, I received a phone call from a worker on the campaign to reelect our congresswoman. She was looking for volunteers to make phone calls urging people to get out and vote and to specifically vote for our House Representative Congresswoman Jahana Hayes.

I decided to put my money where my mouth is and volunteered to make phone calls starting Monday evening.

Bubble Bath

I caught a new Harry’s razor commercial on television last night. I was not sure what my eyes had seen, so I fast-reversed it and replayed it. And my eyes did see what I thought I saw: a naked femulator sitting in a bubble bath shaving outdoors. She has a towel wrapped around her head, wears full makeup and tassel pasties on each nipple of her flat chest. 

Now that’s something you don’t see every day on network televsion! (You can see the commercial on YouTube; the femulator appears briefly starting at the 18-second mark.) 

Researching the matter, I learned that Harry’s commercials are known for their diversity. Last year, they had a commercial showing a bare-chested transman shaving with visible scars on his chest (at the 37-second mark).



Wearing Jonathan Simkhai
Wearing Jonathan Simkhai



Femulator shaving with a Harry’s razor
Femulator shaving with a Harry’s razor

16 comments:

  1. I am actually in the market for a new brand of razor and blades. Hmmmmmm

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    1. i used inexpensive "bic" disposable razors for decades, but of late they didn't seem to be so effective (perhaps as a result of getting hairier as one gets older?). i was also suffering from facial exzema at the time, which as an active transperson didn't help. so in desperation i splashed out on a newly-available razor called "skinguard", designed for men with sensitive skin (which certainly applied in my case). and (after allen carr's "stop smoking" book) was probably the second-best investment i ever made:

      https://gillette.com/en-us/products/razors-trimmers-and-blades/skinguard-sensitive-skin-razor

      btw: transvestites are not exactly strangers to viewers of commercial television in "panto country" these days. although perhaps not surprisingly they are (still) usually portrayed as figures of fun, if not ridicule. as in what were a whole series of ads for this brand of kitchen roll:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izm4676nQbo

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  2. Are our numbers growing,,,advertisers must think so,,, Trina

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  3. Thank you for volunteering to get people to vote. Here's hoping it makes a difference.

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  4. Before I transitioned I volunteered for the Lamont campaign for the US Senate, but I did it as Diana and I had no problem with the campaign staff. I used my male name on the phone but Diana around the office.

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  5. I love it! YouTube has been a test area for a variety of social changes. I remember my eyes popping out of my head when I started seeing mixed race couples in commercials on YoTube. Then, 6-9 months later those commercials started showing up on broadcast TV. It would appear that 6-9 month waiting period has gone away. And by the way, I've been using Harry's shaving products for a couple years and am very satisfied with them. Now I have an even better reason for supporting them!

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  6. I don't think this is ridiculing trannies, it is as Mac cosmetics did, embracing the spending power of the great human race, whatever!

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    1. carolyn, i presume you are commenting on my post above? in the UK where i have always lived (which is what i refer to as "panto country"), there has been a decades-old tradition of male entertainers dragging up purely for comic effect. maybe one day that will change? but at present, for better or worse that is still the case to a great extent in the british media.

      to my knowledge the nearest we have ever come to a cross-dressing star being seen and accepted as anything other than a clown in a dress was the glamourous and highly convincing danny la rue. but even he would play the whole thing for laughs, and make out it was something he did purely to earn a crust. even going to the extent of appearing after his shows dressed as a man - just in case anyone in his mainstream audience might suspect he enjoyed playing a lady a little too enthusiastically!

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    2. just in case any non-anglophiles are still wondering what "panto" means: it is an informal abbreviation for pantomime, a uniquely-british style of entertainment that has been popular for well over a century (and still is, even in this high-tech age of today).

      the productions are based on fairy tales such as "jack and the beanstalk" and "alladin", and only staged for a few weeks over the xmas period as part of those celebrations. i suppose you could say the nearest american equivelent is burlesque, as the content is a similar mix of knockabout farce (often of a bawdy nature), singing and dancing. however, no panto is complete without the cross-dressing element, where traditionally a mature male entertainer (usually with a comedic background) plays the "dame" and a young-ish attractive actress or singer (who is inevitably clad in hot pants) the "principle boy"!

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    3. That's right, Carolyn. On occasion I get makeovers at a MAC location. Their flier for services includes a couple CDs -- just counted them: there are four of us represented.

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  7. Gina, Eddie Izzard and Grayson Perry, figures of fun? I live in the UK too and it's not panto country, it's a wonderland to get out and be yourself. No one has ever laughed at me and I express myself and people seem to appreciate that.



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    1. i concur that regardless of how trans persons may be portrayed by its media, these days the UK (or at least some parts of it) is more tolerant than many other places around the world. but were it not for the distractions of coronavirus and brexit, the current government may well by now have put into practice its intent of making it illegal throughout the land for m-to-f transgender folk to use the ladies' public conveniences - in the same manner some US states currently designate a female "rest room" a no-go zone, other than for those lucky enough to have been born that way. but don't take my word for that:

      https://dearliz.co.uk/

      as regards messrs izzard and perry: let's just say i would rather we had someone like vladimir luxoria representing our interests in the public eye...

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  8. It would be fair to describe Pantomime as a seasonal form of entertainment
    It is usually performed around Christmas
    Both the "dame" and "principle boy" leave no doubt as to what gender the actors are
    There are quite a few pantomimes on Youtube
    Lucy

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  9. Femulator shaving with a Harry’s razor---- I saw this myself the other day and was Huh???

    We've come a long way baby!

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