Experiences of femme identity: coming out, invisibility and femmephobia

Abstract

A qualitative analysis of 146 femme-identified individuals’ responses to questions about sexual identity, femme identity, gender expression and experiences of discrimination were examined in an attempt to better understand the experiences of femme-identified individuals. Specific emphasis was placed on the process of self-identifying as femme, as opposed to being categorised as femme on the basis of gender expression. Femme-identified participants described experiences of coming out femme in contrast to coming out as sexual minorities, processes of femme-identity development that were largely shaped by the prevalence of masculine privileging within queer communities and related experiences of discrimination based on their femme identity or femmephobia. The occurrences of four different types of femmephobia were explored and comparisons were made between participants as a function of their sexual identities. The study demonstrates that femme identity is not limited to individuals in exclusively butch–femme relationships or communities and that there is an important element of agency and self-actualisation associated with femme identity. Furthermore, participants of diverse sexual and gender identities self-identified as femme, indicating that femme is an identity that transgresses gender and sexuality and is not limited solely to cisgender lesbian and bisexual women.

Keywords:

• femme identity
• femmephobia
• stigma consciousness
• queer femininities
• butch/femme

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen L. Blair

Karen L. Blair, PhD, is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and founder of KLB Research. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Dr Blair studies the role that social support for relationships plays in the development, maintenance and dissolution of relationships, LGBTQ Psychology, and the connections between relationships, social prejudices and health.

Rhea Ashley Hoskin

Rhea Ashley Hoskin, MA, is a CGS-SSHRC doctoral scholar in the Sociology Department at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Rhea uses feminist theory and femme theory to study femme identities, femmephobia, social prejudices, and the links between gender, gender expression and health and fitness.