Femme: Feminists, Lesbians and Bad Girls

by Laura Harris (editor), Elizabeth Crocker (Editor)

Femme seeks to redress the ways that femme identities have been elided, idealized, or not fully historicized in a productive reconsideration of lesbian and butch-femme history, of feminism, and of queer thought. As a feminist project, Femme offers an alliance between many communities of women previously passed over by feminism. Leah Lilith Albrecht-Samarasinha, Barbara Cruikshank, Madeline Davis, Heather Findlay, Jewelle Gomez, Kelly Hankin, Leslie Henson, Amber Hollibaugh, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Mabel Maney, Katherine Millersdaughter, Joan Nestle, Lisa Ortiz, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Rebecca Ann Rugg, Gaby Sandoval, Marcy Sheiner, Alex Robertson Textor.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, Feminism, Lesbian, LGBT, Butch Femme, Queer Studies

230 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 1997

Reviews

[Martine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this weeks ago but it took me this long to process it. “A femininity that is transgressive, disruptive, and chosen.” Femme as coded behavior, femme as negotiation of power. Femme as identity, performance and “gut-wrenching need.” Femme as not depending “solely on being seen with a butch.” Seeking the “embrace of masculinity devoid of superiority.” “Femmes share more with drag queens and MTF transgendered [sic] people than we do with straight women.” Femme as ok as long as other signifiers are more visible (they state tattoos and piercings, but I would add boots/chucks to that list.) Playing with gender as a privilege when others' gendered bodies are a source of violence.

[Letitia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a lot of thoughts about this book, but I'm not going to air them all here. Some because they are boring, some because they are misshapen or half-formed, and some because they are too personal.

This book is a mixture of academic and highly poetic, and maybe an intentional blend of both. It's an anthology of sorts, giving voice to various femmes of the mid to late 20th century. I think this is probably a work that some will deeply connect with and feel themselves "seen." I did not have that experience with the book and was mildly disappointed. What seemed to be such a deep exploration of the heteronormative language of femme, of the cultural norms of femininity, didn't subvert them. It felt like it doubled down on them in an attempt to justify a masculine-feminine binary. Not all of the chapters take this tone, of course, since various authors are represented, but the overall feel of the book is one of reinforcing the idea of femme for masculine's sake, if not for man's sake.

Chapters that DID particularly resonate as beautiful and meaningful were "Dresses For My Round Brown Body" and "Forever Femme." There is also a strong narrative running through every interview and writing selection of femme as subversive and countercultural, which I dig and would like explored much more. What is femme for the femme's sake, rather than for the man's sake? Unfortunately the answer in this book seemed to be "for the butch's sake." This assumptive binary seemed outdated and highly annoying to someone that doesn't feel it, live it, or believe in it. Maybe this was not the author's intent, but in their exploration of the feminine lesbian, they seemed incapable of discussing her without reference to the butch lesbian, and this uncomfortable and constant contrasting defeated what this book might have been, which is an acknowledgement of femme as independent of butch, independent of masculine, independent of heteroculture and categories.

Jewelle Gomez refers to "our civil rights struggle as kind of a guerilla warfare," and I think that is the key issue that should have been explored more. How could the authors not just have made femme visible, but made it an attack on the very system of categorization that society assumes?

So what's lacking? The feminists and bad girls that were promised in the title. I haven't found them. Where are the warrior women saying not just WE ARE HERE but also SCREW YOU AND YOUR PATRIARCHY? I wanted them and I did not find them.

[Addy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another must-read for lesbians. Most of the lesbian literature I see promoted is butch-centric, and it's pivotal to also center femme perspectives and experiences. I really enjoyed the different aspects of being femme that the contributors added to this book and how much femme was uplifted and treasured. Specifically, the ideas that femmes are not dependent on butches to exist and that race and class have huge implications on femme identity and presentation were so well done in this book and I really appreciate it

[syd · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

i liked a lot some essays (others a little less) but as a whole this has been an interesting reading.
what really stuck with me was the concept of femininity being seen not as a “cis women conforming to their assigned gender” but linked to transgender identities and drag queens’ vision instead, a performance based also on unrealistic gender “stereotypes” and a way to rebel.

[Cpt Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Probably the best book on femmes and femme-ness I've read in terms of sheer thought-pieces, but it's also very academic in a way that makes it difficult to recommend. It's extremely excerpt-worthy, however, and I think anyone very interested in femme would like this book. Word to the wise ... if it feels too dense, DO skip a page or two until you get to whatever feels more readily digestible. A few essays were convoluted enough that I had to go back to reread prior pages to make sure I understood everything, and I had to do that more than a few times.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology about what it means to be 'femme' from a variety of writers and self proclaimed 'femmes,' in which the writers featured here discuss at length the stereotypes often associated with the term 'femme,' and what it means to them, and how the movement, society, and the writers themselves have changed over the years.

[Sam P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borrowed this from a friend to read, but now I want to buy myself a copy because there are so many passages I want to underline & be able to come back to again & again.

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fab

[Kuu · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some parts of this anthology that I really liked, and others that I felt kind of meh about. All in all this wasn't, like, bad, I'm glad I read it, but I also wouldn't reread it.