Feminine Power: A New Articulation

ABSTRACT

Consider the messages that Western, patriarchal cultures create and disseminate about femininity: that it is weak, passive, deceitful, and manipulative. Systems of male domination devalue femininity relative to hegemonic masculinity by framing feminine attributes as opposite and in service to men and masculinity, and naturalising these characteristics to female and feminine bodies. Much gender studies scholarship critiques the constraints of feminine socialisation in patriarchy. While such feminist critiques are important and necessary, they also unwittingly uphold the second-class status of femininity, reduce the complexity of all femininities, and erase the presence and power of multiple types of femininity. In this article, the authors situate their analysis in femme theory to show how, under specific conditions, feminine ways of being are powerful on their own terms. Drawing on data from exotic dancers and bedside nurses, the authors operationalise four types of feminine power: yielding, re-direction, vulnerability, and establishing connections, arguing that feminine strategies do not universally serve hegemonic masculinity, do yield success, and do increase joy.

KEYWORDS:

• Femininity
• power
• androsexism
• exotic dancers
• nurses
• femme theory

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Anna Blanton, Liz Crockett, Rhea Ashley Hoskin, anonymous reviewers at Psychology and Sexuality, and our interview participants. We also appreciate and recognize one another for many years of conversation on powerful femininity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bernadette Barton

Dr.Bernadette Barton is Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender Studies at Morehead State University.  She is the author of Stripped: More Stories from Exotic Dancers (2017), Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays (2014), and The Pornification of America: How Raunch Culture is Ruining Our Society (forthcoming).  Barton writes and lectures on contemporary issues of gender, sexuality, religion, culture, and the sex industry.

Lisa Huebner

Dr. Lisa C. (Ruchti) Huebner is a feminist sociologist and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Catheters, Slurs, and Pick-up Lines: Professional Intimacy in Hospital Nursing (2012). Huebner writes, teaches, and appears in media about issues related to intersectionality, care work, sexual harassment and other forms of power-based violence.