Re-reading the feminine present: affective and queer transformations

Abstract

This thesis examines how "femininity" as a style of the body is considered within feminist scholarship and queer femme communities. Re-Reading Femininity is a response to recent feminist and femme discourse. A number of feminist texts have emerged which interrogate the "post-feminist" landscape and "raunch culture", but they specifically locate their analyses alongside critiques of feminine gender presentation. Texts on queer femme identity have also been produced during this period, seeking to position feminine presentation as both empowered and resistant to traditional gender norms. While feminist scholarship is often sceptical of appeals to agency and empowerment with regard to femininity, femme styling is often defended on the basis of individual preference, with femininity seen to be chosen rather than assigned. Despite this apparent divide, femme perspectives also often position themselves as feminist. This thesis contends that, while feminist scholarship over-emphasises the disempowered aspects of femininity, femme perspectives overstate femininity as an empowering and transformative aesthetic. The thesis meanwhile draws on affect and queer theory perspectives to intervene in this debate. Re-Reading Femininity analyses specific feminist and femme texts produced in the past decade, and also analyses interviews conducted with Australian femmes. Engaging with theorists including Gilles Deleuze, Jasbir Puar, J. Jack Halberstam, Lauren Berlant, and Jose Munoz, this thesis reconsiders femininity in terms of its affective and sensate dimensions, as well as the elements of queer failure and pleasure associated with feminine embodiment. The language of "raunch culture" is replaced by a discussion of "the feminine present". This term is used to refer to the current context of feminine gendered expectations, without accepting the idea that contemporary society necessarily reflects a "raunch culture". In this way, this research "sits" with femininity to examine what the feminine body can do, rather than what the feminine body means. This thesis also gives time to considering the attachments that are at play in maintaining cruel aspects of the feminine present, but suggests a queer feminine utopia visible on the horizon. Ultimately it demonstrates how the feminine present - and thus femininity as a style of the body - can be understood differently. Show more