Female Masculinity
By (author) Halberstam, Jack
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By (author) Halberstam, Jack
Short description/annotation
In this twentieth anniversary edition of Female Masculinity—which features a new preface by the author—Jack Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities, cataloging the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from nineteenth-century pre-lesbian practices to contemporary drag king performances.
Description
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.
Table of contents
Illustrations ix
Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition xi
Preface xxiii
1. An Introduction to Female Masculinity: Masculinity without Men 1
2. Perverse Presentation: The Androgyne, the Tribade, the Female Husband, and Other Pre-Twentieth-Century Genders 45
3. "A Writer of Misfits": John Radclyffe Hall and the Discourse of Inversion 75
4. Lesbian Masculinity: Even Stone Butches Get the Blues 111
5. Transgender Butch: Butch/FTM Border Wars and the Masculine Continuum 141
6. Looking Butch: A Rough Guide to Butches on Film 175
7. Drag Kings: Masculinity and Performance 231
8. Raging Bull (Dyke): New Masculinities 267
Notes 279
Bibliography 307
Filmography 319
Index 323
Review quote
“[Halberstam] steers herself admirably between the subtle and not so subtle interactions between the personal and theoretical.”
Review quote
“[R]efreshing . . . . Halberstam forces us to look at familiar texts and problems in fresh ways and leaves room for future scholarship to expand her critical insights. . . . [S]he has taken on a vast project and is clearly committed to sketching the contours of many possible approaches to female masculinity rather than dwelling on one or two . . . .[A]ccessible and enlightening . . . .”
Review quote
“A significant contribution to a growing genre of feminist analyses of masculinity. . . . Female Masculinity''s greatest strength lies in its scope. . . . [It] should rank among our most important, sophisticated feminist analyses of the way maleness is constructed in Western culture. Because of its focus on specifically lesbian contributions to masculinity, Halberstam''s book surpasses its predecessors in its special relevance to lesbian readers. Finally (and perhaps most importantly for Halberstam''s peers), because of her book''s attention to both popular and high art subjects, Female Masculi
Short description/annotation
In this twentieth anniversary edition of Female Masculinity—which features a new preface by the author—Jack Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities, cataloging the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from nineteenth-century pre-lesbian practices to contemporary drag king performances.
Description
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.
Table of contents
Illustrations ix
Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition xi
Preface xxiii
1. An Introduction to Female Masculinity: Masculinity without Men 1
2. Perverse Presentation: The Androgyne, the Tribade, the Female Husband, and Other Pre-Twentieth-Century Genders 45
3. "A Writer of Misfits": John Radclyffe Hall and the Discourse of Inversion 75
4. Lesbian Masculinity: Even Stone Butches Get the Blues 111
5. Transgender Butch: Butch/FTM Border Wars and the Masculine Continuum 141
6. Looking Butch: A Rough Guide to Butches on Film 175
7. Drag Kings: Masculinity and Performance 231
8. Raging Bull (Dyke): New Masculinities 267
Notes 279
Bibliography 307
Filmography 319
Index 323
Review quote
“[Halberstam] steers herself admirably between the subtle and not so subtle interactions between the personal and theoretical.”
Review quote
“[R]efreshing . . . . Halberstam forces us to look at familiar texts and problems in fresh ways and leaves room for future scholarship to expand her critical insights. . . . [S]he has taken on a vast project and is clearly committed to sketching the contours of many possible approaches to female masculinity rather than dwelling on one or two . . . .[A]ccessible and enlightening . . . .”
Review quote
“A significant contribution to a growing genre of feminist analyses of masculinity. . . . Female Masculinity''s greatest strength lies in its scope. . . . [It] should rank among our most important, sophisticated feminist analyses of the way maleness is constructed in Western culture. Because of its focus on specifically lesbian contributions to masculinity, Halberstam''s book surpasses its predecessors in its special relevance to lesbian readers. Finally (and perhaps most importantly for Halberstam''s peers), because of her book''s attention to both popular and high art subjects, Female Masculi
