What does fem mean in the gay community
Last updated on July 22nd, 2021 at 06:10 pm
There are as many ways to construct and stay a femme identity as there are femmes. Some femmes wear long hair, others shave their heads, and still others undertake both. Some wear heels every time they exit the house and others wear sneakers. Some are CEOs and some are welders and some function in pink-collar fields. Some are “girly” and many are not. Some associate their femme-ness with their appearance, while others associate it with spirituality or energy or emotion or politics or care or strength.
Femme isn’t any one presentation or deed or way of moving through the world, and it’s definitely not simply “being feminine.” It’s an intentional, self-aware, and lgbtq+ twist on feminine force and presentation that transcends the sum of its parts. Or as Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha writes in “FEMME SHARK MANIFESTO!, “WE’RE YOUR BEST GIRLFRIEND AND YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE.”
If you are femme, date femmes, both, or neither, here’s a quick primer on the myths and truth around being femme.
Myth: Only Lesbian Women Can Be Femme
Lesbian women – trans and cis, duh – can b
Out On The Couch
By Briana Shewan, MFT
In order to prioritize femme voices, all quotes in this article are from femmes.
Positionality makes a big difference in femme identity: Please record I am a cisgender, white, thin, millenial femme from an upper-middle class background formally trained as a psychotherapist.
Have you ever wondered if you’re femme? Have you been circling around femme identity for a while without knowing if it fits? Are you unsure if you get to call yourself femme? Maybe you’ve heard “femme” more and more and you’re curious about it?
Femme is a gorgeous, complex identity. What it looks like, means, and encompasses is different for each of us. I’m sure for many femmes there’s a sense of resistance at my try to categorize the culture here. I don’t imply to imply that creature femme fits into one specific box! In truth, quite the opposite is true. Femme is all about stepping outside of traditional femininity. Spoiler! I’m getting ahead of myself.
Rather, this article is intended to broadly clarify femme identity by exploring its common themes. As the term “femme” becomes more widely known than ever before, it’s helpful to distinguish what it isn’t, and w
LGBTQIA+ Glossary
The following is a list of LGBTQIA+ definitions that have been pulled together in consultation with the HUTH LGBTQ+ Staff Network to help in the education and broader understanding of staff, patients and visitors.
We continue our progress to become a more inclusive organisation so we are raising education in order to be able to better sustain the full range of our staff and service users. As with all lists this is not exhaustive.
Abro (sexual and romantic)
A word used to portray people who have a fluid sexual and/or amorous orientation which changes over time, or the course of their life. They may use different terms to describe themselves over time.
Asexual or Ace
An umbrella term used specifically to describe a lack of, varying, or occasional experiences of sexual attraction. This encompasses asexual people as well as those who identify as demisexual and grey-sexual. Some asexual people experience romantic attraction, while others do not. Ace people who experience intimate attraction or occasional sexual attraction might also apply terms such as lgbtq+, bi, lesbian, straight and queer in conjunction with asexual to describe the direction of their intimate
Abbreviated from the synonyms feminine, fem refers to a person on the LGBT spectrum who demonstrates behaviors that are stereotypically associated with women. Most often, these behaviors are exaggerated in an effort to fetishize femininity. For instance, a fem queer man might wear makeup or utilize animated hand gestures. A fem queer woman might make a point to wear dresses or transport a purse.
The leverage of the fem label may be used within the gay community to insult one's manhood or lack of masculinity.
Antonym (opposite) of the word masc
"Honey, those nails are on point, the face is defeat, and the hair is snatched. Fem queen is stunting tonight."
"No fats, no fems, no asians" (derogatory usage)
"So you're lesbians, right? Which one is the fem and which is the guy?" (unintentionally derogatory usage)
by BlackDiamondMint December 31, 2018
The more feminane lesbian. Usually the girlier one in the relationship. Usually dating a dominant female that is either butch, stud, androgynous or some times even a drag king. Although some times fems do prefer other fems.
My friend Leidy prefers a fem chick even though she is fem hers
Queer Cultures 101
There are many ways to be a femme, so it’s leading not to confine oneself to a specific definitionbut below is an abstarct of how it was defined in the literature I read. Femme is a term used in LGBT tradition to describe someone who expresses themselves in a typically feminine way. With that said, femme differs from feminine, and the differences are key in understanding why the terminology femme is necessary. The familiar threads amongst all femmes are their expression of femininity and their place on the Homosexual spectrum. Many individuals use it to embrace and redefine the stereotypes and expectations that are often placed on women.
Femme & Femininity
- Many people outside the queer society may not fully understand what femme means and how it differs from feminine, but the differences are why the terminology femme is necessary.
- Femme describes a lgbtq+ person who presents and behaves in a traditionally feminine way with the inclusion of cisgender individuals who love a more passive role in intimate relationships, asexual transsexual women, or genderfluid individuals who distinguish as gay.
- The common threads amongst all femmes are their e