Femme theory

As it currently stands, little academic attention has been paid to the systematic devaluation of femininity or femmephobia. By adopting “femme” as a critical analytic, this paper dislocates femininity from its ascribed Otherness and demonstrates how empowered femininities have been overlooked within gender studies. Femme, as the failure or refusal to approximate the patriarchal norms of femininity, serves as the conceptual anchor of this study and is used to examine how femmephobic sentiments are perpetuated within Contemporary Western Feminist (CWF) theory. This perpetuation is propped up by the thematic marginaliza- tion of empowered femininities from the texts chosen for gender studies courses, revealing a normative feminist body constructed through the privileging of identities that maintains femininity as white, middle-class, normatively bodied, and without agency. The excavation of an empowered feminine subject from the margins reveals the foothold of normative whiteness embedded within feminist pedagogies. Using a thematic analysis of how femininity is taken-up within textbooks used in gender studies courses, the current paper demonstrates how intersections of femininity have yet to be addressed within dominant Feminist theories. The femme—as a queer potentiality—o ers a way of (re)thinking through the limitations of CWF theory and the paradoxical preoccupations with the absented femme.

This paper seeks to develop a theory of subversive femininities or femme theory. It argues for the inclusion of femmephobia in intersectional analyses and provides the theoretical groundwork necessary for feminist theorists and researchers to incorporate an analysis of femmephobia into their studies of oppression.

Since the 1970s social science researchers have documented the cultural devaluation of femininity and its impact on experiences of discrimination among sexual and gender minorities. Yet, despite the continued and accumulating evidence demonstrating the role of anti-femininity (or femmephobia) in these experiences, little research has specifically examined femininity as an intersecting component of discrimination. Using in-depth interviews with sexual and gender minorities (N = 38), the current study explores the intersecting role of femmephobia in experiences of discrimination. Under the global theme of “femininity as target,” 5 key subthemes were identified: femininity and passing, regulating sexualities, masculine right of access, biological determinism, and the feminine joke. Participants illuminated femmephobia as a regulatory power within LGBTQ+ communities and society at large, as well as how femininity itself operates as a target in their experiences of gender policing and discrimination. By turning attention toward femininity, the current paper provides a clearer understanding of what may possibly lay at the heart of many social issues surrounding discrimination and violence. These findings have implications for the study of social inequalities, as well as strategies for remedying the pervasive devaluation of femininity.

Using femme theory, Foucault, and queer failure as analytical frameworks, the current paper demonstrates the role of feminine failure in resisting and subverting systems of oppression, subsequently providing the minute shifts in power necessary to expand the terms of patriarchal femininity. More specifically, the current paper draws on contemporary modes of art and aesthetics to examine the productive potential of failing to embody patriarchal femininity, positing this failure as a form of femme resistance. By hijacking cultural signifiers of adornment, femme and feminine failure celebrate that which is culturally shamed (queer, fat, disabled, variant, poor, and racially minoritised bodies), expose systems of erasure, challenge binary systems of meaning, and promote feminine growth. Examining each of these themes in turn, the current paper argues that feminine failure challenges the pillars of patriarchal femininity and discursive systems of normativity. To this end, femme as a theoretical framework demonstrates the freedom of failure by exposing the heterogeneous multiplicities of femininity, and offering possibilities that normativity never could. This critical discursive essay contributes to the emergent application of femme as a theoretical framework.

Narrative-works are the lifeblood of femme scholarship. Through this medium, femmes write themselves into existence. In this article, I begin with my own story of femme and examine the backdrop of patriarchal femininity that positions pieces of me as being at odds, disjointed, and something needing to be reconciled. Indeed, many current frameworks and dominant framings for understanding femininity create disjunctures needing to be reconciled and fail to include diverse feminine perspectives in ways that constitute epistemic and hermeneutical injustices. Using my own femme becoming as a guide, I offer this process of femme reconcilement as a framework that can be applied to dislodge feminine normativity and challenge the assumptions researchers make about femininity within their work. In this article I highlight the importance of femme epistemologies; the importance of valuing feminine knowledge, and how the absented femme highlights the continued god-trick of objectivity. Here, I discuss how femme narratives can be used to bolster femme as theory and critical analytic. This situated knowledge holds the possibility to inform novel methodological frameworks and to substantially shift the way researchers think about femininity and feminine people.

The devaluing of femininity is a social problem with serious consequences. Violence against women, men, transgender people, and racial minorities is often exacerbated when elements of femmephobia are present. Femmephobia refers to the devaluation and regulation of femininity and suggests a separate, perhaps overlapping, phenomenon specific to gender (e.g., femininity), rather than gender/sex (e.g., woman) or sex (e.g., female). Yet, despite growing evidence warranting the consideration of femmephobia, little research has considered femininity as an intersectional axis. Femmephobia has been examined in a fractured manner, isolating its various manifestations in specific, rather than overarching ways. The current paper explored how these systems are interrelated and argues that sources of oppression underlying many forms of violence today (e.g., anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes, Incel attacks, sexual violence, transgender murders) are all symptoms of the same underlying social prejudice: femmephobia. While sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and racism also play a role, previous research tends to overlook or conflate the role of femmephobia in fueling prejudice and violence. Using in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, the current paper explored the intersecting role of femmephobia in experiences of oppression among sexual and gender minorities (N = 38). Two thematic networks are presented. The first network pertains to masculine themes: masculine privilege, masculinity as protective, and masculinity as the norm. The second network pertains to femininity: feminine inferiority, femininity as target, and femininity as inauthentic. The connection between these two thematic networks illustrates the symbiotic relationship between femmephobia and the gender binary. Finally, patterns identified from the thematic analysis were used to generate a model of femmephobia. This paper suggests that the gender binary is not merely a division; it is also hierarchical and regulated by femmephobia.

Is being more religious a protective factor when it comes to eating disorders, or a risk factor? Past research has provided conflicting answers to this question, and thus, the purpose of the present study was to determine whether the variable association between religiosity and eating disorders can be explained through the mediating variable of views of femininity. Using a sample of 231 individuals, the current study demonstrated that the ways in which individuals view their femininity mediates the association between religiosity and disordered eating. More religious individuals were more likely to hold an essentialized (unexplored or unexamined) view of their own femininity, and this view was associated with an increased risk of disordered eating. However, more religious individuals were also less likely to feel excluded by others on the basis of how they enact their femininity, and that view was associated with a decreased risk of disordered eating. These two indirect effects effectively canceled each other out, leaving no significant overall association between religiosity and eating disorders. Future researchers are encouraged to explore further applications of considering femininity as a multifaceted concept when studying both religion and eating disorders.

Passing and failing: passing as that with which I disidentify, failing to approximate norms of cultural intelligibility. Through an exploratory personal essay and autoethnography, the current paper addresses the co-existence of seemingly contradictory identities, and the complications of passing and failing. In so doing, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature on identity formation and nuanced categories of identity.

Pour La Fontaine, la fable est un genre où se réalise la réactualisation de l'apologue ésopique, à travers laquelle il a su maintenir une parole libérée de toute oppression mais déguisée par celle de l'animal fabuleux, afin de condamner les vices de la cour de Louis XIV. Cette thèse se donne pour objectif principal la saisie de la conception du pouvoir monarchique à travers la figure du Monarque et l'imaginaire tyrannique dans la fable « Les Compagnons d'Ulysse » et autres. Pour ce faire nous appréhendons la vision du pouvoir se dégageant de la réécriture de l'épisode du voyage d'Ulysse chez Circé. Nous poserons des hypothèses relevant du fondement philosophique et politique des Fables par les diverses connotations de la définition du pouvoir chez le fabuliste, en analysant les procédés adoptés pour dénoncer les dérives des instances du pouvoir dans la France de Louis XIV. L'analyse textuelle des fables dévoile une figure du Monarque souvent liée à la métaphore d'un monstre chimérique trouvant refuge dans le monde bestiaire des fables. En outre, la relation du processus de la métamorphose comme fonction dans « les Compagnons d'Ulysse » engendre les figures animalières du pouvoir. Cette mise en pratique de réécriture du mythe chez La Fontaine rend plus accessible la symbolique de l'agressivité et férocité, qualités qu'incarne un tyran. De plus nous analyserons des situations de violence, de crime, ou de guerre qui sont souvent des situations allégoriques dans les fables. Par la suite nous étudierons les variations du langage tyrannique des compagnons d'Ulysse métamorphosés en bêtes carnassières dans le but de définir les principaux fondements de la pensée politique chez La Fontaine. On peut se trouver sur l'Olympe fabuleux des dieux grecs ou romains où on pourrait imaginer les figures animalières les plus dominantes telles que le Lion et le Loup et L'Ours mais un écart s'installe dans l'affrontement des forces. D'autre part, dans les Fables, la réécriture de l'épisode du voyage d'Ulysse par Jean de La Fontaine réincarne sa propre vision de pouvoir. Chez La Fontaine l'art d'écrire des fables se mêle avec une imagination avantageuse se dissimulant derrière l'allégorie du pouvoir. En dernier lieu, cette thèse envisage de découvrir la face cachée du pouvoir monarchique plus qu'absolu, sous ses aspects multiple et tyrannique. Recommended Citation Bencherif, Hafida, "Figures du Monarque et imaginaire tyrannique chez La Fontaine" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4320. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4320

This special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society explores fatness in relation to femininity. The relationship between fatness and femininity is longstanding and fraught: fatness can be feminizing, and fat flesh is often feminized, while fatness is simultaneously a “failure” of feminine norms (Hoskin & Taylor, 2019). For example, existing scholarship on fat femininities, especially in the areas of feminist theory and fat studies, demonstrates how fat femininities are marginalized via their deviations from normative feminine ideals, particularly slenderness. The goal of this special issue is to build on this literature by centering critical analyses of the relationships between fatness and femininity, especially how these relationships are mediated by sexuality, race, class, disability, age, gender identity, and other axes of identity. This special issue will prioritize submissions that use a critical femininities lens, which challenges femininity’s associations with superficiality and oppression and, instead, centers intersectional and recuperative approaches to femininity.  It is our goal that this issue will illuminate: the complex relationships between femininity and fatness; how these relationships differ across intersectional axes; and the ways in which femininity and fatness intertwine to create unique experiences of gendered embodiment and being.  For full details visit ashleyhoskin.ca/fat-femininities

Is being more religious a protective factor when it comes to eating disorders, or a risk factor? Past research has provided conflicting answers to this question, and thus, the purpose of the present study was to determine whether the variable association between religiosity and eating disorders can be explained through the mediating variable of views of femininity. Using a sample of 231 individuals, the current study demonstrated that the ways in which individuals view their femininity mediates the association between religiosity and disordered eating. More religious individuals were more likely to hold an essentialized (unexplored or unexamined) view of their own femininity, and this view was associated with an increased risk of disordered eating. However, more religious individuals were also less likely to feel excluded by others on the basis of how they enact their femininity, and that view was associated with a decreased risk of disordered eating. These two indirect effects effectively canceled each other out, leaving no significant overall association between religiosity and eating disorders. Future researchers are encouraged to explore further applications of considering femininity as a multifaceted concept when studying both religion and eating disorders.