User:TheFQDeva/sandbox

Queer Femininity

By definition, femininity is based on heterosexual, gendered norms of identity. Femininity operates based on ideals that are meant to be performed through one’s “natural” state of gender. When looking at femininity within queer communities, these ideals and standards of this gender expression continue to operate within a heterosexual framework, which causes negative stigma. Femininity within queer cultures is still limited and regulated when applied to an intersectional framework of identity.

Hetero-Normative Context of Femininity

Representations within Queer Cultures and Identities

Within the queer community, there is a mainstream visibility of masculine, queer women (particularly lesbians). This privileged queer masculinity creates an ideal for queer women, which is in direct contrast to femininity. Much of this idealist stigma eliminates the validity of femininity within queer women. Distinctively, femininity within queer men (particularly gay men) and transgender women occupies the dominant, accepted narrative of gender and/or sexuality embodiment. As is understood, femininity is not a totalizing product or manifestation of one’s queer, gender identity. However, with this imbalance of representation and affirmation of these embodiments within the queer community, there is a perpetuation of queer standards of gendered femininity (and masculinity). When identifying queer femininity, following practices of adequate, intersectional representations can be challenging because there is no one totalizing embodiment of femininity that is applied to and resulting from a queer label (or rejection of a label).

Femininity, by definition, is based on a gendered, hetero-normative standpoint. And, this gendered, hetero-normative context is often believed to be a biological, natural state of identity (understanding gender, sex, and sexuality as fixed characteristics that manifest in an “activation” of these characteristics. Consequently, femininity within queer persons who do not identify with a gender (ie. gender fluid, gender non-conforming, gender-queer, etc) is still understood on a gendered basis. This creates a marginalization of such queer individuals, and consequently limits the freedom of expression within the queer community. The fluidity and multiplicity of feminine (and masculine) embodiment is not understood as an adequately complex, non-traditional or permanent means of expression of identity through one’s lived experiences.

Stigma

Within queer cultures, marginalization and lack of full validation of bi-sexuality perpetuates an intra-queer discourse of queer embodiment. For example, there is a separation of bi-sexual legitimacy because of one's possible position to be in a heterosexual relationship. Bisexuality can be understood as a privilege in order to be accepted within normative structures of sexuality and human relations. This privileged position, within a hetero-normative framework of gender and sexuality, allows for the misrepresentation and inclusion of these experiences. A woman who is feminine and bi-sexual can "pass" as straight if presently engaged in hetero-normative/straight sexual acts. In this case, femininity acts as a privilege within the queer context.

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WORKS CITED

The Re-Making of Sexual Kinds: Queer Subjects and the Limits of Representation.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=916f787b-0e1f-41e1-9df5-c16d79a51419%40sessionmgr113&vid=0&hid=120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=37558577&db=qth

2) SITUATING "FLUIDITY".

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=a8440b30-80fb-45a0-bfee-77659ca4d8a2%40sessionmgr113&vid=0&hid=120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=35391146&db=qth

3) Questioning Gender and Sexual Identity: Dynamic Links Over Time.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=5e6afa0e-69cc-4d49-9a7a-b5a371f1fd4b%40sessionmgr110&vid=0&hid=120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=33937575&db=qth

4) Biased-Interaction Theory of Psychosexual Development: “How Does One Know if One is Male or Female?”.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=cec156b6-8d21-4163-bf6c-4673a4ddc2d6%40sessionmgr110&vid=0&hid=120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=23444598&db=qth

5) Reclaiming Sexual Difference: What Queer Theory Can't Tell Us about Sexuality.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=eb7c5dc4-a301-4741-8eca-8156ee00a793%40sessionmgr111&vid=0&hid=120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=45483974&db=qth