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{{short description|Identity for people, usually lesbians, with feminine characteristics}}
{{short description|Identity for people, usually lesbians, with feminine characteristics}}
{{other uses}}
{{other uses}}
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[[File:Young lesbian woman at New York City Pride 2019.jpg|thumb|Femme lesbian at 2019 [[NYC Pride March|New York City Pride.]]]]
{{Lesbian feminism sidebar}}
{{Lesbian feminism sidebar}}
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[[File:Young lesbian woman at New York City Pride 2019.jpg|thumb|Femme lesbian at 2019 [[NYC Pride March|New York City Pride.]]]]

'''''Femme''''' ({{IPAc-en|f|ɛ|m}};<ref>{{cite web|title=femme (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/femme |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref> {{IPA-fr|fam|lang}}, 'woman') is a term traditionally used to describe a [[lesbian]] who exhibits a [[Femininity|feminine]] identity.<ref name=Collins>{{Cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/femme|title=Femme definition and meaning|website=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|access-date=29 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="Miller">{{Cite book|last=Miller|first=Meredith|title=Historical Dictionary of Lesbian Literature|publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc.|year=2006|isbn=|location=|pages=65}}</ref>
'''''Femme''''' ({{IPAc-en|f|ɛ|m}};<ref>{{cite web|title=femme (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/femme |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref> {{IPA-fr|fam|lang}}, 'woman') is a term traditionally used to describe a [[lesbian]] who exhibits a [[Femininity|feminine]] identity.<ref name=Collins>{{Cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/femme|title=Femme definition and meaning|website=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|access-date=29 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="Miller">{{Cite book|last=Miller|first=Meredith|title=Historical Dictionary of Lesbian Literature|publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc.|year=2006|isbn=|location=|pages=65}}</ref>


Revision as of 03:24, 9 August 2022

For other uses, see Femme (disambiguation).
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Femme lesbian at 2019 New York City Pride.

Femme (/fɛm/;[1] French: [fam], 'woman') is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian who exhibits a feminine identity.[2][3]

Heavily associated with lesbian history and culture,[3] femme has been used among lesbians to distinguish traditionally feminine lesbians from their butch (i.e. masculine) lesbian counterparts and partners.[a] Derived from American lesbian communities following World War II when women joined the work force,[4] the identity became a characteristic of the working class lesbian bar culture of the 1940s–1950s.[6] By the 1990s, the term femme had additionally been adopted by bisexual women.[4]

Alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word,[7] notably some gay men, bisexuals, and transgender individuals.[8]

1940s through 60s culture

Main article: Butch and femme

Scholars Heidi M. Levitt and Sara K. Bridges state that the terms butch and femme are derived from the 1940s-1950s American lesbian communities following World War II "when women joined the work force and began wearing pants, creating the possibility for the development of a butch aesthetic and gender expression within gay women's communities." They state that "the butch-femme culture made lesbians visible for the first time."[4]

Femme lesbian scholar Joan Nestle describes the femme lesbian identity as being underrepresented in historical records, with femme women having been often attacked for passing as straight while also being accused of imitating heteronormativity for pairing with a butch partner. In Nestle's text on femme identity, "The Femme Question", she challenges this commonly held belief by stating that butch-femme relationships are "filled with a deeply lesbian language of stance, dress, gesture, love, courage and autonomy."[9] Arlene Istar Lev argues that through their subversive appropriation of heteronormative gender roles, these identities were considered "complex erotic and social statements" rooted in "gendered erotic identities".[10] Nestle states that they publicly declared same-sex love between women at a time when there was no liberation movement to support or protect them, and adds that "in the 1950s particularly, butch-femme couples were the front-line warriors against sexual bigotry. Because they were so visible, they suffered the brunt of street violence. The irony of social change has made a radical, sexual, political statement of the 1950s appear today a reactionary, non feminist experience."[9]

1970s and 80s, and rejection of femme during lesbian feminism

Main article: Lesbian feminism

Lesbian feminism saw a rejection of the butch-femme dynamic and therefore femme identity. During the emergence of lesbian feminism, femme lesbians were accused by prominent lesbian feminist figures of aping patriarchal beauty standards for wearing traditional feminine clothing. Black lesbian feminist poet and activist Audre Lorde wrote in Tar Beach that "butch and femme role playing was the very opposite of what we felt being gay was all about – the love of women".[11]

Many bisexual women also active in the lesbian community felt pressured to identify as "lesbian", resulting in bisexual erasure factoring into the history of femme identities.[12][13] This is further impacted by the fact that bisexual communities and the related bisexual movement did not formalize until the 1970s.[12][14]

1990s and early 21st-century expansion of femme identity

General

During the 1990s and the emergence of the lipstick lesbian identity into the mainstream, femme became a catch-all term to describe a feminine lesbian. Citing research from the 1990s, Levitt and Bridges stated that the terms butch and femme "began infiltrating bisexual communities, and women began writing about their experiences as bisexual femmes", but also that "very little empirical research has been conducted looking at the expression and experience of gender expression and gender identity within bisexual women."[4]

With expansion of the femme identity, sexual attraction differences between butches and femmes began to be analyzed.[4] Scholars Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender wrote, "Femme diversity is also manifested in the sexual arena. As many femmes may be attracted exclusively to butches, some are attracted to other femmes, and still others are also attracted to men and consider themselves bisexual."[15] Some research has indicated that butches are more likely to be exclusively lesbian, while femmes are sometimes bisexual.[5] In 2005, preliminary research conducted by Levitt and Bridges indicated that lesbians are more likely to identify as butch and have a more masculine gender expression than bisexual women. 4.5 percent of the bisexual women they studied identified as butch compared to the 30.1 percent of lesbians who did.[4] Lesbians were more sexually attracted to women whose gender expressions contrasted theirs, and bisexual women were more sexually attracted to those whose gender expressions were more similar to theirs. Levitt and Bridges theorized that "this finding may be in part due to the different aesthetics that are available and popular within lesbian and bisexual communities."[4]

The term femme has also been used to refer to gender non-conforming people who do not identify as lesbian or to transgender or non-binary people. In 1994, Kate Bornstein chronicled their experience as a gender non-conforming person who is a femme lesbian in their book Gender Outlaw.[16] Praising the publication of Ivan Coyote's Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme in 2011, Bornstein said, "The butch/femme dynamic is a conscious, loving binary of desire and trust ... it's a dance of love and outlawed romance. Butches and femmes share a sense of tribe, extended family and kinship—no matter what our genders might be."[17] Since the late 2010s, influenced by the emergence of queer and transgender culture on sites such as Tumblr, Everyday Feminism, and Autostraddle, femme has been expanded to describe feminine people across gender and sexuality categories including heterosexual women, cisgender men and transfeminine people.[18][19][20][21]

The postmodern queer conception of femme is a femme-identified person who does not always dress or act in a "traditionally feminine" (meaning a feminine aesthetic, such as wearing makeup, heels, and numerous accessories) way, but who expresses femme identity through feminine-associated behaviours, interactions and political views.[22] Rather than an erotic identity rooted in lesbian women's culture, queer femme has been reframed into a political identity that is inclusive of all who wish to identify with it, feminine-presenting or not. As femme has moved into the mainstream, it has also been connected to notions of emotional labor, witchcraft and self-empowerment.[23]

Based on the understanding of femme as describing a person (not necessarily a woman) who presents femininely, the expression "women and femmes" is sometimes used, but it has been criticized as conflating two different categories of identity.[24]

Femme has also been used to describe a form of contemporary feminism which rejects the gender binary and acknowledges that individuals can fall anywhere within the gender spectrum, resulting in the possibility to be gender-less, gender-fluid, femme or masculine of center. Often using the phrase "women and femmes", adherents to this definition of femme believe that misogyny is used not only against women to inflict theoretical and physical violence but primarily against all feminine people. Connecting cisgendered male violence to toxic masculinity, they believe that patriarchy not only negatively affects female-identified people but men as well.[22][23][21]

Many prominent femme-identified voices in mainstream media tend to be transfeminine and or non-binary individuals.[25][26][27] The term femme is also essential to ballroom culture through the terms butch queen and femme queen, denoting a gay man and transgender woman respectively.[28]

Use of fem(me) by gay men

From the 70s through 90s, gay male culture included the phrase "No Fats, No Femmes",[29][30] and that persists in queer dating culture today. Constrained by character limitations on gay hookup apps such as Grindr and Scruff, "fem", "femm", and "femme" are used as an abbreviation for feminine. The ubiquitous phrase "No Fats, No Fems", indicating that a user does not want to be contacted by men of a certain size or feminine men, has been challenged by those in the gay community for perpetuating homonormative beauty ideals. "Fem" is used as a descriptor of one's appearance or mannerisms.[31][32][33]

Lesbian femme erasure

The contemporary queer concepts of femme have been challenged by lesbians who still use the term based on its original meaning.[34] With concern about the erasure of lesbian culture and history, it has been argued that taking a term from an already marginalised society is a form of misogynist appropriation that undervalues lesbian identities, history and women's autonomy to self-identify outside patriarchal structures.[35]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to Heidi M. Levitt and Sara K. Bridges: "The terms femme and butch began infiltrating bisexual communities, and women began writing about their experiences as bisexual femmes...Although essayists have begun to explore this identity, very little empirical research has been conducted looking at the expression and experience of gender expression and gender identity within bisexual women."[4] According to some academic studies about the butch/femme subculture, "Femmes were sometimes bisexual."[5]

References

  1. ^ "femme (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Femme definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b Miller, Meredith (2006). Historical Dictionary of Lesbian Literature. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 65.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Firestein, Beth A., ed. (2007). "16. Gender Expression in Bisexual Women: Therapeutic Issues and Considerations". Becoming Visible: Counseling Bisexuals Across the Lifespan. Columbia University Press. pp. 301–310. ISBN 978-0231137249.
  5. ^ a b Ukockis, Gail (2016). "5. Lesbians and Bisexual Women: Concerns of Lesbian and Bisexual Women: Butch/Femme Stereotypes". Women's Issues for a New Generation: A Social Work Perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0190239411.
  6. ^ Theophano, Teresa (2004). "Butch-Femme" (PDF). glbtq.com. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. ^ Herbitter, Cara; Levitt, Heidi M. (2016). "Butch–Femme". In Goldberg, Abbie E. (ed.). The SAGE Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies (1st ed.). SAGE Publishers. p. 177. ISBN 978-1483371306.
  8. ^ Donish, Cassie (December 4, 2017). "Five Queer People on What 'Femme' Means to Them". Vice. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  9. ^ a b Nestle, Joan (1992). The Persistent Desire: A femme-butch Reader. United States of America: Alyson Publications. pp. 138–146. ISBN 9781555831905.
  10. ^ Lev, Arlene Istar (2008-07-15). "More than Surface Tension: Femmes in Families". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 12 (2–3): 127–144. doi:10.1080/10894160802161299. PMID 19042728. S2CID 9394693.
  11. ^ Lorde, Audre (1983). Smith, Barbara (ed.). Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. United States of America: Rutgers University Press. pp. 141–148. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  12. ^ a b Udis-Kessler, Amanda (1996). Historical Sources of the Bisexual Movement. New York University Press. p. 55.
  13. ^ Highleyman, Liz (11 July 2003). "PAST Out: What is the history of the bisexual movement?". LETTERS from CAMP Rehoboth. 13.
  14. ^ Ochs, Robyn; Liz Highleyman (2000). "Bisexual Movement". Retrieved 2 Feb 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ Kramarae, Cheris; Spender, Dale (2004). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge. Routledge. p. 191. ISBN 1135963150.
  16. ^ Bornstein, Kate (1994). Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. United States of America: Routledge. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-1136603747.
  17. ^ Coyote, Ivan E; Zena Sharman (April 5, 2011). Persistence : All Ways Butch and Femme. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 978-1551523972.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Pulliam-Moore, Charles. "In 6 tweets, Janet Mock takes down a controversial critique of Beyonce's 'Lemonade'". Fusion. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  19. ^ "In Defense of 'Lemonade,' Janet Mock Took a Stand for "Black Femme Feminists" Everywhere". Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  20. ^ "Bittersweet Like Me: Lemonade and Fat Black Femme Erasure". wearyourvoicemag.com. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  21. ^ a b "11 Common Assumptions About Being a Queer Femme – Debunked - Everyday Feminism". Everyday Feminism. 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  22. ^ a b Anouk, Safíra (2016-02-07). "Femme is Radical, and Femme-Shaming Isn't Feminist". Harlot Media. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  23. ^ a b "What We Mean When We Say "Femme": A Roundtable". Autostraddle. 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  24. ^ Boom, Kesiena (16 March 2018). "Why the Popular Phrase "Women and Femmes" Makes No Sense". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  25. ^ "14 Femmes of Color Whose Style We Adore". Qwear | Queer Fashion. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  26. ^ "Daily Crush: Alok Vaid-Menon's 'Femme in Public' Poetry Book". 2017-03-13. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  27. ^ Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi (2015-11-03). Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 9781551526003.
  28. ^ Hugh, Ryan (12 Aug 2016). "Ballroom Culture's Rich Alternative to the Trans/Cis Model of Gender". Slate. Retrieved 2 Feb 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ Hrynyk, Nicholas Andrew (2018). "Pin the Macho on the Man": Mediations of Gay Male Masculinity in The Body Politic, 1971-1987. pp. 101–105.
  30. ^ Chua, Lawrence (28 March 1993). "Phantoms of the Opera : THE QUEEN'S THROAT: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire By Wayne Koestenbaum". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2 Feb 2021. Retrieved 2 Feb 2021.
  31. ^ "This 'No Fats, No Fems' Shirt Is Everything That's Wrong With the Gay Community". 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  32. ^ "This Disgusting Shirt Is Going Super Viral — And It Reveals a Sad Truth". Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  33. ^ Cash, Patrick (June 25, 2016). "Why Are Gay Men No Longer Proud of Each Other?". www.vice.com.
  34. ^ "How To Make Space For A Fierce Femme Future". The Establishment. 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  35. ^ Taylor Stone, Chardine (June 2016). "Femme is more than make up, it is about desire". Diva Magazine. Archived from the original on 2016-09-06.

Further reading

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