Female Masculinity

De: Jack Halberstam

Narrado por: Lea DeLaria

In this quintessential work of queer theory, Jack Halberstam takes aim at the protected status of male masculinity and shows that female masculinity has offered a distinct alternative to it for well over two centuries. Demonstrating how female masculinity is not some bad imitation of virility, but a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders, Halberstam catalogs the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from 19th-century pre-lesbian practices to contemporary drag-king performances.

Through detailed textual readings as well as empirical research, Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities while arguing for a more nuanced understanding of gender categories that would incorporate rather than pathologize them. He rereads Anne Lister's diaries and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness as foundational assertions of female masculine identity; considers the enigma of the stone butch and the politics surrounding butch/femme roles within lesbian communities; and explores issues of transsexuality among “transgender dykes”—lesbians who pass as men—and female-to-male transsexuals who may find the label of “lesbian” a temporary refuge. Halberstam also tackles such topics as women and boxing, butches in Hollywood and independent cinema, and the phenomenon of male impersonators.

Featuring a new preface by the author, this 20th anniversary edition of Female Masculinity remains as insightful, timely, and necessary as ever.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©1998 Duke University Press (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Very Informative!

You’ll just have to listen to know what I mean when I say this thing is packed to the BRIM with information

Very Informative Book

I liked the author’s approach with enthusiasm for the subject while inserting their own personal experiences. I learned so much from this book.

Iconic & necessary if a bit outdated

An amazing history of female masculinity in the West! Def need to reread this in the future. Disappointed by the claim “gender is not fluid” but also I was listening to this at work so maybe I misheard/misinterpreted that bit.

yes!

Jack is brilliant and this work instigates deep thought
Don’t love DeLaria’s “performance”
Indeed it is too much if a performance, often punctuated and emphasized in a way that messes with the integrity and lucidity of the writing.

trans perspective

very good overall. the trans related stuff was about what you would expect from s cis person, but surprisingly good. its still a cis person and you can really tell its a cis person, but considering it was in 1990. hell it isnt even that bad by today standards. other than that yeah its 10/10