A review of Femmethology: "My femme is not your femme"
Filed by: Alex Blaze
April 9, 2009 11:30 AM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/04/a_review_of_femmethology_my_femme_is_not.phpThis post is part of Femmethology's online book tour. For other dates and locations, check out the Femmethology blog. Also too, we're giving away a copy of the anthology here at Bilerico.
Femmethology is a seriously diverse and diversely serious anthology replete with perspectives on femme identity. Open-minded, complex, and self-reflexive, the book presents femme identity as an affirming action in response to often misogynistic mainstream and queer cultures, exploring racism, sexism, transphobia, biphobia, ablism, and classism in these contexts.
That's not to say that it's a collection that focuses on reaffirming one's already-held beliefs. To the contrary, if you think that there is one way to be/do femme, this probably isn't the book for you. It's meant to be read more objectively than subjectively, and serves more to let readers know what they can think instead of telling them what to think.
It's not a collection of essays tied together through a similar starting viewpoint - instead, Femmethology tries to unpack the inherent discrimination in such deployments of stable identity, reminding readers about the diversity even among fabulously single femmes in Brooklyn or Riot Grrrls in San Francisco.
