ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that femininity can be an anchor for rethinking gender identity, expression, and subjectivity. It helps us imagine other sexual futures that center what is marginalized, erased, and / or excessive. Regardless of the work in Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) to render femininity more complex and worthy of historical and theoretical challenges, the concept continues to be positioned as a mere reflection of traditional notions of femininity. This flattening out or simplification of femininity in WGS implies that those of us who embrace various forms of femininity are somehow unfeminist-like: less than feminist, not fully feminist, or worse, patriarchal. Femininity as embodied and performed by Black porn performers articulates the complexity and contingency in the ability to resist traditional forms of femininity in hopes of creating new ones. The Black femme, while a subject of disrespectability, is also a metaphor for hope.
