Butch and femme

It is difficult to abandon what is has defined our very selves. Every image we see, from the moment we are born to the moment before we pass, are what create who us as individuals. This representation, as described in “Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture,” that happens without our conscious acceptance, is what gives us our perception of society and culture and tells us what emotions to apply. Though this social embodiment is hard to shake off, as can be seen in the butch-femme expression dilemma and in stereotyping as a whole, it is important to be at least aware of it. Negating the fact that we are influenced by subconscious messages is problematic as it leads to conformity in the way society is and impedes progress. It is essential to be aware that how we feel about race, class and gender is socially constructed to try and change its composition and improve the issues with our current…

A comparison of the lesbian community from the twentieth century and that which exists today shows almost no resemblance between the two. The traits that marked lesbian culture as ‘distinct’ - namely butch/femme identities - have been replaced by the modern lesbian. The butch/femme lesbian dichotomy of the early twentieth century challenged society’s definition of being female, but the rise of lesbian feminism and the “new lesbian” critiqued this traditional approach as ‘heterosexual roleplay’…

studies that has room for greater exploration. Scholarship on queer parenting is burgeoning, yet, it exists in a silo, as is the current literature on lesbian pop culture representations and butch lesbian identity. The issue with the latter literature, is that much of it is out of date and requires greater analytical details, particularly intersectional analysis. Bridging these fields of study, this unique analysis discursively traces pop culture representations of butch lesbian parents.…

you gain insight on what makes each label different from the other. If gay and lesbian studies were taught together, you would not understand the depth of what lesbian women had to go through to be taken seriously. Most history on gay studies are told through a gay man’s perspective. This has led many women to feel like the lesbian experience is frequently presented as a pale version of the male. This, however, is not true. Lesbian women have encountered many struggles that differ from the…

to describe self-representation, feelings and opinions throughout the lifespan, including earlier identity, ‘coming out’, to current identity and possible future self. It can relate to looks, actions, feelings, opinions, and any other way an individual may express himself or herself in any given situation. My wish was to highlight some of these constructed naturalizations and see how lesbians respond to the way lesbians are represented and if it has affected their self-identity as lesbians. …

In many ways, Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues does more than explore what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community. In many ways, Stone Butch Blues is a “how to” book just as much as it is a lifeline for the LGBTQ community. It is a “how to” book in the sense it examines how to be a member of the LGBTQ community, while at the same time revealing the follies of a definitive correct way how. In doing so, Feinberg reveals not only the performative nature of gender, but also how the concept…

this is the life of someone else. This is the life of Jess Goldberg, the stone butch. The novel Stone Butch Blues written by Leslie Feinberg follows the life of stone butch Jess Goldberg. To understand…

Delicatessen is black-comedy set in around the 1950’s. The French film was written and produced by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro in 1991. This film show cases a range of themes from comedy, romance and horror. The use of different camera angles such as chanted or Dutch. Jean-Pierre Jeunets use of multi narratives to slow the viewer to full understand each character important to the story told in throughout the film. The film opens to a fog consumed rundown apartment building, on the ground…

The femme fatale became a very popular character in crime fiction in the United States during the mid-twentieth century (Jaber, 1). This character is a woman who is portrayed to be hyper-sexual and is manipulative towards men. The femme fatale appears in hard-boiled crime fiction and film noir. She also was featured on many pulp covers making seductive poses because of the rise of sex in books (Horsley). Throughout the mid-twentieth century, the femme fatale character changed. Throughout this…

Robert Ebert states, “One difference between Film Noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines.” The Movie Psycho which was made in 1960 directed by Alfred Hitchcock definitely has the plot twist element of Film Noir . The film, being the Film Noir genre, uses lots of different Film Noir elements to complete the feeling. Throughout the movie the viewer sees the traits of classic Film Noir, in the movie Psycho.…