“Gee, I Didn't Get That Vibe from You”

SUMMARY

This article aims to demystify the notion of a gay vibe from a femme queer woman's perspective. It contextualizes the author's experience of being read by the queer community as straight and of doing femme as a means for placing oneself on the gaydar screen while questioning the role of signifiers in creating a myth that sexuality is always concrete and permanent. This article goes further to argue that femme sexuality, because of its occasional invisible state, has the potential to move between ideological positions in order to destabilize them. This form of differential consciousness has subversive potential because it renders gaydar technology unsubstantial and broken.

Key Words:

• Femme lesbians
• butch lesbians
• queer identity
• femininity
• gay vibe
• gaydar
• differential consciousness
• coming out
• Chela Sandoval
• Judith Butler
• Roland Barthes
• myth
• realness