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� In this diary, I record my life as a transvestite. Perhaps it will help somebody else, who finds their lifestyle doesn't quite match that endorsed by the 'tranny mafia'. Well, I've been there... and survived. The debriefing starts here.

�loves: All kinds of stuff that society thinks I shouldn't.

�hates: Microsoft. Obviously.

�reads:
secret-motel
artgnome
enfinblue
stepfordtart
ten-oclock
boombasticat
lawliiet
annanotbob
fifidellabon
my-serenade

Lynn Jones
Becky
Samantha

Clear as Mud: Rejected Entries for the Tranny Dictionary - number 114
4:45 p.m. -- 2008-09-30

From time to time, I like to bring my readers the amusing, the bizarre and the downright strange. I think this qualifies, fitting also the subject matter of this blog, in that it attempts to navigate through the minefield that we call gender...

For some reason, I found myself in a Wikipedia article on 'Cosplay', which is one of those conflated, funky new words that yoof culture spits out from time to time.

It is, of course, short for �costume play�, which is either a highly self-indulgent level of fandom-gone-too-far, or a performace art form... depending on your age, as much as anything. The costumes in question are almost always based upon the Japanese comic book style, Manga. For those of you who don�t speak Japanese, �Manga� means �vaguely disturbing childlike yet simultaneously sexual characters with improbably large heads�.

Okay. I could be wrong about that. Personally, I don�t like Manga art: can you tell? But I think costumes can be fun, to a degree. To compete (or even to be seen) with the best of them, you�ll need to spend months creating a perfect costume, so you can go and hang out on the Harajuku Bridge in Tokyo. Have a great time!

Here�s the part of the article that I found amusing:

�Cosplaying as characters of the opposite sex is called "crossplay", and cosplaying as characters who dress as the opposite sex is called "cross-dressing". They often coincide, but since some Japanese characters cross-dress to start with, it is possible to do one without the other.

�For example, a female cosplayer cosplaying as a male character would be cross-dressing and crossplaying. However, a female cosplayer dressing as someone like Mana (male artist from the Visual Kei band Malice Mizer known for dressing in female clothes) would be crossplaying, but not cross-dressing; and a male cosplayer also cosplaying as Mana would be cross-dressing, but not crossplaying.�

My brain hurts. Today�s coffee-time challenge is to draw a pictogram that explains the above, without using any words at all.

And there�s more:

�A small niche group in the crossplaying field are dollers, a subset of kigurumi cosplayers; usually male, they wear bodysuits and masks to transform fully into female characters.�

It gets hot in Tokyo. I can�t imagine that I�d feel very feminine when dressed from head to toe in a rubber bodysuit. �This exemplary doller leaves no part of their skin exposed,� gushes the caption to a photo.

It takes all sorts, eh? I mean, people who live in glass houses shouldn�t throw stones, and all that. These guys aren�t any weirder than I am, I�m sure. But.

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