Heteronormativity made me lesbian

Femme, butch and the production of sexual embodiment projects

Bibliographic Data

ID2393528
AuthorsSara L Crawley (University of South Florida), L Crawley (0000-0002-8715-5309, University of South Florida, corresponding author), Rebecca K Willman (University of South Florida)
Year2018
Volume21
Issue1-2
Pages156-173
Publication date2018-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363460716677484
OpenAlexW2586302606
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited46

Queer theory argues that ruling heteronormative discourses are productive of sexualities. How then does heteronormativity produce lesbians? We theorize femme and butch as sexual embodiment projects-processual, relational responses to patriarchal heteronormativity incessantly textually threaded throughout our lives. Drawing on radical feminisms updated with Foucault and Dorothy Smith, we offer autoethnographic accounts of our sexual embodiments of butch and femme, arguing not that rape experiences, but the constant threat of rape in everyday life can produce lesbian desire and embodiment. Ultimately, we understand sexual embodiment as not based on a fixed ontological ground but always in the relational, everyday doings of people and, hence, malleable within the social context, discursive moment, and individual intersections of one's life within relations of power (gender, race, class, religiosity, nationality, and so on

Context (archaeology · Heteronormativity · Human sexuality · Lesbian · Oppression · Politics · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

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