Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Female Masculinity Paperback – October 26, 1998
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. She rereads Anne Lister’s diaries and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness as foundational assertions of female masculine identity. She considers the enigma of the stone butch and the politics surrounding butch/femme roles within lesbian communities. She also 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.
Female Masculinity signals a new understanding of masculine behaviors and identities, and a new direction in interdisciplinary queer scholarship. Illustrated with nearly forty photographs, including portraits, film stills, and drag king performance shots, this book provides an extensive record of the wide range of female masculinities. And as Halberstam clearly demonstrates, female masculinity is not some bad imitation of virility, but a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders.
- Print length329 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDuke University Press Books
- Publication dateOctober 26, 1998
- Dimensions6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100822322439
- ISBN-13978-0822322436
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
From Library Journal
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“Thank goodness for the dashing Judith Halberstam! Her new book is a smart, entertaining and informed tour of that most threatening of cultural identities: the masculine female. Oh, yum!”—Kate Bornstein, author of My Gender Workbook
About the Author
Judith Halberstam is Professor of Literature at the University of California in San Diego. She is the author of Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, also published by Duke University Press, and writes a regular film review column for Girlfriends magazine.
Product details
- Publisher : Duke University Press Books; 1st edition (October 26, 1998)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 329 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0822322439
- ISBN-13 : 978-0822322436
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,237,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,950 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies
- #2,600 in General Gender Studies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
J. Jack Halberstam is the author of "Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal" (Beacon Press, 2012), along with four other books, including "Female Masculinity" and "In a Queer Time and Place." Currently a professor of English and gender studies and director of the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California, Halberstam regularly speaks on queer culture, gender studies, and popular culture, and blogs at The Bully Bloggers.
Photo Credit: Assaf Evron, 2012.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The book is not about female masculinity as the title implies. It exclusively addresses masculine lesbianism. Oddly, the author waits until p.57 to inform readers that when it comes to discussing masculine heterosexual women,..”it is not within the scope of this book...”
In its more than 300 pages, I expected the book to document historical challenges to sex stereotypes that brought Western society to where it was in the late 90s - the wide distribution of personalities, styles, mannerisms and presentations observed in women. And while the most masculine and most feminine types would certainly be found toward the tails of the distribution, they’re still very much part of the female distribution. I’m not certain the author of this book would acknowledge that.
While historical masculinities of females were discussed, their identities were defined by same-sex relationships. And the women who loved them were subtly depicted as docile; they were merely available for attention but without a sexual orientation of their own. The author seems to interpret some of these historical masculine women as not actually women - yikes! She reinforces sex stereotypes (clothing, nick names, occupational interests, etc) by using them as evidence that these masculine women may be something else. But what else could they be?
There’s an entire chapter on Transgender FTM which seems to mimic Inversion- a theory born in the late 1800s, explaining homosexuality among masculine females and feminine males. Inversion theory suggested an inborn reversal of traits. In other words- those who embody stereotypes of the opposite sex AND are also homosexual must have an inborn error. Inversion theory is similar to current day transgenderism which espouses a born-in-the-wrong-body mantra. Sadly, the wide range of female expression achieved by the late 90s was almost instantaneously eroded by a distinctly modern combination: off-label use of synthetic male hormones on females plus new technologies to mass promote this use.
The Butches on Film chapter pushed me to watch as many of the mentioned films as I could. Because of this, I’m now a fan of old movies and will be forever grateful.
Overall, it is not the positive message I was expecting for masculine females of any & all orientations. The author’s “stigma into strength” is hard to locate in chapter after chapter of masculine lesbian life depicted as sad and melancholic. At times, the author’s disagreement with other’s writings gets a bit snarky by assigning malicious intent where there is none. There’s also a tendency to “decode” hidden racism among benign works. The book’s organization is great. The Filmography and Index sections are a superb resource.
Top reviews from other countries
It’s a lot easier to read than I expected.
It’s good to know that people are thinking about these things and thinking about them deeply.
Reading some highbrow books I have to make sure I understand every sentence otherwise I just get more lost whereas in this book when I didn’t grasp a sentence the following sentences explained it more fully with examples. (But that doesn’t work if it is the last sentence in the paragraph. 🤣🤣)
Life is such a rich tapestry. And with so many unfulfilled desires, frustrations and suffering.
I look at things through a different lens now I’ve read this book.