Excerpts from Female Masculinity

Judith Jack Halberstam

book

"The Real Thing"

pp. 2527-2530

The argument is that masculinity is not limited to the male gender and that female masculinity is not an imitation of male masculinity. Female masculinity is represented as the “scraps of dominant masculinity” (2527) to invalidate female masculinity. Ideological motivations of male masculinity is to upkeep social structures of male power and domination. White-middle class maleness marks the dominant structure of masculinity. She uses multiple movie examples such as the James Bond movie, and how he is called out by "a butch women" for being misogynist and sexist as well as his secretary for sexual harassment.

"Tomboys"

pp. 2530-2533

It is generally described as “an extended childhood period of female masculinity” (2530). It seems to be associated as “natural” and exploring the freedoms that boys have unless it is taken too far by refusing girl clothing or having a boy's name. However, gender conformity is forced after puberty. She uses an example from a film called “Looking Butch” about a girl named Frankie who would like to change her name and discovers many challenges because of societal normalities. The goal is to “challenge hegemonic models of gender conformity” (2532).

"Queer Methodologies"

pp. 2533-2536

Halberstam critiques the way certain data doesn’t accurately represent queer life. The first example is a traditional social science which is surveying people and expecting the truth. The only way to find out information about sexual activity is to ask, however people are not always going to be honest due to societal expectations. She believes the answer to study sexuality is “an interdisciplinary approach that can combine information culled from people with information culled from texts” (2535). She states how this may be classified as cultural studies but it is not far from ethnographic research.

"Constructing Masculinities"

pp. 2536-2541

Masculinity was finally beginning to be recognized as female (1990). Halberstam critiques Sedwick for “what makes it so difficult not to presume an essential relation between masculinity and men” (2537). The issue is despite all the strong women leaders and public figures there is no recognition for masculine women. She critiques Smith for not considering the ideas of gender being constructed and seeing women as victimized. She states “male masculinity is predictably not so interested in taking apart the patriarchal bonds between male whiteness and privilege; they are much more concerned to detail the fragilities of male socialization, the pains of manhood, and the fear of female empowerment” (2541).

"The Bathroom Problem"

pp. 2542-2549

She references a story about her being misgendered in the correct bathroom for not looking “female enough” and how many women deal with this issue. She mentions multiple films where masculine women were misgendered/ or made fun of for not conforming into the typical stereotypes just for using the bathroom. Either open-access bathrooms need to be created or multi-gendered bathrooms. She also critiques Garbor for the men's room problem because biological men are almost never deemed out of place whereas biological women in the women’s designated restroom are.