Male Femininities

The collection of essays in "Male Femininities" explores how men perform femininity and challenges the notion that it is an imitation of or an emptying of masculinity. It includes contributions from scholars and rising stars covering topics such as drag queens, cosmetic enhancements, trans fertility, and gender-non-conforming childhoods. The volume pluralizes the concept of male femininities and highlights the possibilities that open up when we critically examine femininity without women.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 21 February 2023
Publisher: New York University Press

What counts as "male femininity"? Is it simply men behaving in effeminate ways, or is it the absence of masculinity?

Male Femininities presents a nuanced, critical collection of essays that highlight the extent to which male femininities are neither an imitation of femaleness nor an emptying of masculinity. These innovative essays focus on both gay and straight men, and transmasculine and genderqueer people in their construction and performance of femininity, thereby revealing the possibilities that open up when we critically examine femininity without women.

Male Femininities asks, "What does femininity look like for men?" The contributors—highly regarded scholars and rising stars—cover a range of topics, including drag queens, cosmetic enhancements, trans fertility, and gender-non-conforming childhoods.

Male Femininities illuminates what happens when we decouple femininity from female bodies and how even the smallest cracks and fissures in the normative order can disrupt, challenge, and in some cases reaffirm our existing sex-gender regime. This volume pluralizes the concept of male femininities and leads readers through an exploration of how gender, sex, and sexuality are manifested in the United States today.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479839612