Female MasculinityDuke University Press, 2019 M01 5 - 360 pages In this quintessential work of queer theory, Jack 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 centuries. Demonstrating how female masculinity is not some bad imitation of virility, but a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders, 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. He rereads Anne Lister's diaries and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness as foundational assertions of female masculine identity; considers the enigma of the stone butch and the politics surrounding butch/femme roles within lesbian communities; and 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. Featuring a new preface by the author, this twentieth anniversary edition of Female Masculinity remains as insightful, timely, and necessary as ever. |
From inside the book
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... male hysteria was a particularly troubling neurosis; and since female masculinity had been tied so definitively to female homosexuality, the participation of women in masculine occupations gave cause for concern about the impact of ...
... male hysteria was a particularly troubling neurosis; and since female masculinity had been tied so definitively to female homosexuality, the participation of women in masculine occupations gave cause for concern about the impact of ...
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... male, not female, masculine but not male, female but not feminine, the term serves as a placeholder for the un-assimilable, for that which remains indefinable or unspeakable within the many identifications that we make and that we claim ...
... male, not female, masculine but not male, female but not feminine, the term serves as a placeholder for the un-assimilable, for that which remains indefinable or unspeakable within the many identifications that we make and that we claim ...
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... manhood, and a historical trajectory that extends back beyond modern sexual and gender definitions. In our current era, a time riddled with public accusations of male sexual misbehavior and a period plagued by lone male mass shooters ...
... manhood, and a historical trajectory that extends back beyond modern sexual and gender definitions. In our current era, a time riddled with public accusations of male sexual misbehavior and a period plagued by lone male mass shooters ...
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... masculinity and yet pay a considerable amount of attention to male femininity.” People tend to nod and say, “Yes, of course, female masculinity,” as if this is a concept they have grown up with and use every day. In actual fact, there ...
... masculinity and yet pay a considerable amount of attention to male femininity.” People tend to nod and say, “Yes, of course, female masculinity,” as if this is a concept they have grown up with and use every day. In actual fact, there ...
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... masculinities are framed as the rejected scraps of dominant masculinity in order that male masculinity may appear to be the real thing.But what we understand as heroic masculinity has been produced by and across both male and female ...
... masculinities are framed as the rejected scraps of dominant masculinity in order that male masculinity may appear to be the real thing.But what we understand as heroic masculinity has been produced by and across both male and female ...
Contents
Beryl Reid as George in The Killing of Sister George 1968 198 | |
Beryl Reid as George in drag in The Killing of Sister George 1968 198 | |
Movie poster for Caged 1950 200 | |
Hope Emerson in Caged 1950 202 | |
Doris Day in Calamity Jane 1953 210 | |
Greta Garbo in Queen Christina 1933 211 | |
Tilda Swinton in Orlando 1993 214 | |
Ana Beatrice Nogueria as Bauer in Vera 1987 216 | |
SelfPortrait by Catherine Opie 1993 39 | |
The Androgyne the Tribade the Female | |
John Radclyffe Hall and the Discourse | |
Even Stone Butches Get the Blues | |
ButchFTM Border Wars and the Masculine | |
A Rough Guide to Butches on Film | |
Jeanette Goldstein as Vasquez in Aliens 1986 182 | |
Beryl Reid as George in The Killing of Sister George 1968 184 | |
Robin Johnson as Nicky in Times Square 1980 189 | |
Julie Harris as Frankie Addams in The Member of the Wedding 1953 191 | |
Mercedes McCambridge as Emma in Johnny Guitar 1954 194 | |
Mercedes McCambridge as a street butch in A Touch of Evil 1958 196 | |
Mary Stuart Masterson in Fried Green Tomatoes 1992 221 | |
k d lang in Salmonberries 1992 223 | |
Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in Bound 1996 228 | |
Queen Latifah in Set It Off1996 229 | |
Masculinity and Performance | |
Judith Jack Halberstam by Del Grace 1997 243 | |
Sean by Betsey Gallagher 1995 247 | |
Chico Soda by Betsey Gallagher 1996 249 | |
Diane Torr by Betsey Gallagher 1996 251 | |
Dred by Betsey Gallagher 1996 254 | |
Who Loves You Baby? Murray Hill as the Puffy Elvis by Matthew Sandager 1997 258 | |
Murray Hill as Bela Karolyi and Penny Tuesdae as Kerri Strug by Tanya Braganti 1997 260 | |
Murray Hill for MayorThe God Bless America Show at Club Casanova by Vivian Babuts 1997 265 | |
New Masculinities | |
Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta in Raging Bull 1980 274 | |
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Common terms and phrases
androgynous Anne Lister argue Barker bathroom become binary butch-femme called camp century chapter cinema club contemporary cross-dressing discourse dominant drag king drag king contest drag king performances drag queen dyke embodiment essay example female body female masculinity femininity feminism femme film forms Fredd Furthermore gay and lesbian gay male gender identity gender variance girl Hall’s heterosexual homosexuality identification images invert John kind lesbian desire lesbian feminism lesbian feminist lesbian masculinity lives Loneliness lover male impersonation male masculinity mannish masculine women men’s Miss narrative Newton notion novel obviously perverse play pleasure politics produced queer theory Radclyffe Hall relation representation represents role same-sex scene seems sexual activity sexual identity sexual practices signify simply social Souline Stephen stereotype stone butch Stone Butch Blues suggests tend theatrical tomboy tomboy film transgender transgender butch transsexual transvestism tribadism woman York