Mara Ittel: Meet Me Where the Lesbian Femmes and Drag Kings Meet

 

Thesis Advisor: Grant Watson

Thesis: Meet Me Where the Lesbian Femmes and Drag Kings Meet

July 2023

Abstract

Clothes and makeup can define the way we look and want to be seen. Especially lesbian femmes and drag kings are experts at playing with humor, irony and questioning gendered norms in their ways of dressing. Femme and femininity often take on more of a side role to support masculinity, while in relation to lesbianism, femme is more culturally accepted because it doesn’t look too deviant, or does it? What DOES femme fashion look like, how does it feel, and when does it fail? Does it need a messy eyeliner as proof of failure? This thesis is reflecting those questions while taking into account how labels like butch and femme have been used throughout the past and how people are using them now, also thinking about fashion as a form of queer communication. While we are questioning the use of labels, or not wanting anybody else define us, we are also re-using them over and over again in memes, articles, and conversations. Labels are the shape shifters in our deviant communities, ever changing and ever evolving, and this thesis looks at them through pink heart-shaped glasses, or, in other words, through a femme focused perspective. 

Author: Mara Ittel