What does it mean to be femme
in the 21st century? Through interviews with performers, musicians and academics,
this documentary looks at the construction of femininity and the identity of a
group of lesbians who choose to dress in a way that is not often identified as
"queer" to the dominant culture. In fact, as Cornell English Professor
Masha Raskolnikov laments, femmes are largely invisible, except to other "counter
culture insiders." Several women talk about their transitions into
being femme when expectations may have been that lesbians must be androgynous
or butch. Actress Guinevere Turner (Stray Dogs, Chasing
Amy, The Watermelon Woman,
"The L Word," Kiss Me Guido, Hung, Fabulous!,
Preaching to the Perverted,
Go Fish) brings it home when she talks about starting to carry a small
bag and finally an actual purse (and not being afraid to call it a purse). Discussion
of the lesbian feminist reaction against anything that looked like mainstream
femininity gives the film the historical grounding sometimes missed in other conversations
about lesbian dress. Different types of femmes, like fat femmes and high femmes,
are also topics. Interviews with rock stars Leslie Mah (Tribe 8) and Bitch
(Bitch & Animal), novelist Jewelle Gomez, and many others join femme burlesque
footage and a parodied femme support group to bring a range of issues to light. |