Stuff 88: A Beauty Pageant

Part 3 - The Finale

By J.J. Atwell

Thanks to my faithful readers for following along with this tale of my participation in our club’s beauty pageant. If you haven’t yet read parts one and two, I suggest you go back and read them first. In this last installment, I’ll cover beachwear, Sunday best and the results. 

Beachwear

I mentioned in a previous installment that the pageant substituted “beachwear” for bathing suits. That was in recognition of the fact that our contestants were predominately crossdressers and wouldn’t really be able to pull off a skimpy bathing suit without exposing things that shouldn’t be exposed. So the compromise was to allow you to dress in what you might wear on the way to the beach. 

I decided to be fairly conservative and went with a coverup, big hat, sunglasses and a beach tote. Others wore similar stuff, but a couple were in bathing suits and looked very good. I know I’m going to have to up my game in this area for this year’s pageant. 

Sunday Best

As I noted at the start, this part of the pageant can be thought of as the evening gown component of a traditional beauty pageant. I was a bit unclear as to what this meant and as a result I was a bit dressed down compared to others. Most of the other contestants were in long gowns, some with really dramatic accessories, legs shown through slits and some faux cleavage. I’m pretty sure that the judges would have graded me last in this part. Again, this is an area that I will have to up my game this time around.

Results

As the pageant wrapped up, we were all brought out on stage for the announcement of the winners. First they announced the runner-up and I was surprised and honored to be named for that! As I think about it, the judges apparently valued things beyond just traditional standards of beauty or convincing transition. I believe my strengths were my comedy routine and the answers I gave during my interview. 

I apologize for not including pictures of the other contestants, but since I didn’t ask for their permission it wouldn’t be appropriate to post them in public. Please take my word for it though, that we all brought some surprisingly realistic feminine presentations. In my opinion, we were all winners.

There is no question that this event was like living a CD’s dream. I hope you get a chance to participate in an event with your local CD group. 

I’ll Be Back

The picture at the top of the page was me participating in the beachwear part of the pageant. I’m currently planning my outfits for the next beauty pageant, which will be held in early November. I’ll post more about that after the event. In the meantime I welcome comments either here on the blog or by email to Jenn6nov at-sign gmail dot com.

Wearing Chanel bag

Dave Foley femulating on Canadian television’s The Kids in the Hall.