Female MasculinityDuke University Press, 1998 - 329 pages Masculinity without men. In Female Masculinity Judith Halberstam takes aim at the protected status of male masculinity and shows that female masculinity has offered a distinct alternative to it for well over two hundred years. Providing the first full-length study on this subject, Halberstam catalogs the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from nineteenth-century pre-lesbian practices to contemporary drag king performances. Through detailed textual readings as well as empirical research, Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities while arguing for a more nuanced understanding of gender categories that would incorporate rather than pathologize them. She rereads Anne Lister's diaries and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness as foundational assertions of female masculine identity. She considers the enigma of the stone butch and the politics surrounding butch/femme roles within lesbian communities. She also explores issues of transsexuality among "transgender dykes"--lesbians who pass as men--and female-to-male transsexuals who may find the label of "lesbian" a temporary refuge. Halberstam also tackles such topics as women and boxing, butches in Hollywood and independent cinema, and the phenomenon of male impersonators. Female Masculinity signals a new understanding of masculine behaviors and identities, and a new direction in interdisciplinary queer scholarship. Illustrated with nearly forty photographs, including portraits, film stills, and drag king performance shots, this book provides an extensive record of the wide range of female masculinities. And as Halberstam clearly demonstrates, female masculinity is not some bad imitation of virility, but a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders. |
From inside the book
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Page 115
... lesbian invisibility in an essay titled " Lesbian Sex , " in which she claims that in comparison to gay men and heterosexuals , lesbians seem not to articulate their desires . Her lesbian feminist reading of this inarticu- late desire ...
... lesbian invisibility in an essay titled " Lesbian Sex , " in which she claims that in comparison to gay men and heterosexuals , lesbians seem not to articulate their desires . Her lesbian feminist reading of this inarticu- late desire ...
Page 121
... queer dyke desire ; the rejection of the femme produced limits for lesbian feminine expression and grounded middle - class white feminism within an androgynous aesthetic . The suppression of role playing , therefore , by lesbian feminists ...
... queer dyke desire ; the rejection of the femme produced limits for lesbian feminine expression and grounded middle - class white feminism within an androgynous aesthetic . The suppression of role playing , therefore , by lesbian feminists ...
Page 134
... lesbian feminists of the 1970s " defined these butch - femme communities as an anathema to feminism , " we must as ... feminist journals of the late 1970s and early 1980s , as I show later , seem to lack a sexual language for lesbianism . It ...
... lesbian feminists of the 1970s " defined these butch - femme communities as an anathema to feminism , " we must as ... feminist journals of the late 1970s and early 1980s , as I show later , seem to lack a sexual language for lesbianism . It ...
Contents
John Radclyffe Hall and the Discourse | 75 |
Even Stone Butches Get the Blues III | 111 |
ButchFTM Border Wars and | 141 |
Copyright | |
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androgynous Anne Lister argue Barker bathroom become bian binary butch-femme called camp Catherine Opie century chapter cinema club contemporary cross-dressing culinity discourse dominant drag king drag king contest drag king performances drag queen dyke Elvis embodiment essay example female body female masculinity femininity feminism femme film forms Furthermore gay and lesbian gay male gender identity gender variance girl Hall's heterosexual homosexuality identify images invert John kind lesbian feminism lesbian feminist Leslie Feinberg linity lives Loneliness lover male impersonation male masculinity mascu masculine women Miss narrative Newton notion novel obviously perverse play pleasure political produced queer theory Radclyffe Hall relation representation role Routledge same-sex scene seems sexual identity sexual practices simply Sister George social Souline Stephen stereotype Stone Butch Blues suggests tend theatrical tion tomboy tomboy film trans transgender transsexual tribadism University Press woman York
References to this book
G-Strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire Katherine Frank No preview available - 2002 |