Rhea Ashley Hoskin

Experiences of femme identity: coming out, invisibility and femmephobia

A qualitative analysis of 146 femme-identified individuals’ responses to questions about sexual identity, femme identity, gender expression and experiences of discrimination were examined in an attempt to better understand the experiences of femme-identified individuals. Specific emphasis was placed on the process of self-identifying as femme, as opposed to being categorised as femme on the basis of gender expression. Femme-identified participants described experiences of coming out femme in contrast to coming out as sexual minorities, processes of femme-identity development that were largely shaped by the prevalence of masculine privileging within queer communities and related experiences of discrimination based on their femme identity or femmephobia. The occurrences of four different types of femmephobia were explored and comparisons were made between participants as a function of their sexual identities. The study demonstrates that femme identity is not limited to individuals in exclusively butch–femme relationships or communities and that there is an important element of agency and self-actualisation associated with femme identity. Furthermore, participants of diverse sexual and gender identities self-identified as femme, indicating that femme is an identity that transgresses gender and sexuality and is not limited solely to cisgender lesbian and bisexual women.

Contemporary understandings of femme identities and related experiences of discrimination

Although the term ‘femme’ is most often used to describe feminine lesbians or bisexual cisgender women, recent femme theorists have argued that this definition is insufficient and fails to account for the sexual and gender diversity of those who self-identify as femme. The current study sought to examine the multiplicities of femme identity by exploring who identifies as femme and whether femme-identified individuals experience in-group discrimination as a function of their femme identity (i.e., femme-negativity). Femme-identified individuals in the study were diverse with respect to both gender and sexual identity, and queer identification was highlighted as an important element of femme identity. Many of the femme-identified individuals reported experiences of femme-negativity and femme-related stigma consciousness. In contrast to previous research, femme-identified individuals in the current study were not found to have higher levels of internalised homophobia or identity concealment when compared to butch and androgynous identified sexual minority participants.

Is our feminism bullshit? The importance of intersectionality in adopting a feminist identity

Abstract For nearly 50 years, social researchers have chronicled the continued stigmatization of feminism. Past research has evidenced the reluctance of individuals to adopt a feminist identity, despite their agreement with feminist ideals—otherwise known as the Feminist Paradox. The current study drew from a diverse sample (N = 355) and asked participants to provide their definition of feminism. Using a mixed methods approach, the current study aimed to understand how thematic differences in participants’ definitions of feminism were associated with adopting a feminist identity. Participants who emphasized the importance of integrating intersectionality in defining feminism were more likely to identify as a feminist. Conversely, those who defined feminism as exclusively attending to the needs of women were less likely to identify as feminists. The current study found very little negativity towards feminism, by feminists and non-feminists alike. As such, the current study may be indicative of a new Feminist Paradox: one that is more heavily influenced by the incorporation of intersectional politics in addition to negativity or stigmatization. Implications for the broader context of feminist identity and how feminist objectives are represented within mainstream perceptions are discussed.

Ameliorating transnegativity: assessing the immediate and extended efficacy of a pedagogic prejudice reduction intervention

ABSTRACT We demonstrate that pedagogic interventions utilising mediated contact and the parasocial contact hypothesis provide an effective means of instantiating both an immediate and long-term reduction in prejudice towards transgender people. Through application of the parasocial contact hypothesis, our quasi-experiment demonstrates that exposure to the combined intervention of a panel presentation and a trans-themed film resulted in a significant reduction of self-reported prejudice immediately after exposure and this effect persisted up to 6 weeks later in a sample of 66 female university students. In addition to testing this effect, we also assess the relationship between prejudice towards transgender people and other forms of prejudice, including old-fashioned and modern prejudice towards gay men and lesbian women. In doing so we demonstrate that prejudice towards trans people appears to be conceptually related to prejudice towards gay men and not lesbian women. Limitations and directions for future research are explored.

Femme interventions and the proper feminist subject: Critical approaches to decolonizing western feminist pedagogies

AbstractAs it currently stands, little academic attention has been paid to the systematic devaluation of femininity or femmephobia. By adopting “femme” as a critical analytic, this paper dislocates femininity from its ascribed Otherness and demonstrates how empowered femininities have been overlooked within gender studies. Femme, as the failure or refusal to approximate the patriarchal norms of femininity, serves as the conceptual anchor of this study and is used to examine how femmephobic sentiments are perpetuated within Contemporary Western Feminist (CWF) theory. This perpetuation is propped up by the thematic marginalization of empowered femininities from the texts chosen for gender studies courses, revealing a normative feminist body constructed through the privileging of identities that maintains femininity as white, middle-class, normatively bodied, and without agency. The excavation of an empowered feminine subject from the margins reveals the foothold of normative whiteness embedded within femini...

What do two men kissing and a bucket of maggots have in common? Heterosexual men’s indistinguishable salivary α-amylase responses to photos of two men kissing and disgusting images

ABSTRACT The current study sought to examine how Utah men’s physiological reactions to viewing same-sex public displays of affection (PDA), measured through salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), differ as a function of sexual prejudice, as assessed using the Attitudes Towards Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (ATLG) and the Modern Homonegativity Scale. In examining physiological responses to same-sex PDA, the present study hoped to assist in explaining current levels of anti-gay hate crimes despite growing positive public opinion for the LGBTQ community. Participants in the current study viewed six different slide shows depicting same-sex PDA, mixed-sex PDA, everyday items, and disgusting images, while providing saliva samples in the lab. A series of paired-samples t-tests was performed and found that sAA responses to images of same-sex kissing (t(98) = 3.124, p = .002) and universally disgusting images (t(98) = 2.128, p = .036) were significantly greater than sAA responses to the slide show depicting everyday items. This result held across the full sample, regardless of individual levels of prejudice. The results of the current study suggest that all individuals, not just highly sexually prejudiced individuals, may experience a physiological response indicative of stress when witnessing a male same-sex couple kissing. The possibility of a socialised disgust response to same-sex PDA is discussed.

Obesity in Canada: Critical Perspectives, by Jenny Ellison, Deborah McPhail, and Wendy Mitchinson

impossible becomes possible: through everyday, relentless participation in contrarian practices of self-care and community building, we can push past exclusion and blame, and effect resistance. Although the book focuses on “obesity” and lifestyle choices, these are really just examples to substantiate Mayes’s concept of the enabling network, which is an extension of Foucauldian thought for 21st century forms of power, technology, and knowledge. In this way, those without particular interest in fat studies but who employ the work of Foucault will be keen to see the innovative examinations of biopolitics in this book. In attracting diverse readers of Foucault, I hope the book will push them to question their own conscious or subconscious participation in weightism.

Dignity versus diagnosis: sexual orientation and gender identity differences in reports of one’s greatest concern about receiving a sexual health exam

Timely sexual health exams are important healthcare behaviours that contribute to the early detection of cancer and health promotion. Sexual and gender minorities have been shown in past research to be significantly less likely to access healthcare services. Consequently, the current study included participants of diverse sexual and gender identities in order to gain greater insight into their concerns and potential reasons for avoiding healthcare services. The current study asked participants to describe their greatest concerns about visiting the doctor for a sexual health exam. Sexual and gender minorities were more likely to mention their identities as being central to their concerns about visiting the doctor. In contrast, the primary concerns mentioned by non-minority participants were related to their actual health, such as the potential diagnosis of cancer or STIs. The current study presents the self-reported reasons that individuals avoid visiting their doctors for sexual health exams as a function of sexual and gender identity. Through understanding how sexual and gender identity are related to the prevalence of specific concerns related to sexual health exams, it becomes possible to determine areas of improvement for increasing healthcare utilisation among marginalised populations. Implications for minority health and recommendations on improving healthcare support for sexual and gender minorities are discussed.

Transgender exclusion from the world of dating: Patterns of acceptance and rejection of hypothetical trans dating partners as a function of sexual and gender identity

The current study sought to describe the demographic characteristics of individuals who are willing to consider a transgender individual as a potential dating partner. Participants (N = 958) from a larger study on relationship decision-making processes were asked to select all potential genders that they would consider dating if ever seeking a future romantic partner. The options provided included cisgender men, cisgender women, trans men, trans women, and genderqueer individuals. Across a sample of heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and trans individuals, 87.5% indicated that they would not consider dating a trans person, with cisgender heterosexual men and women being most likely to exclude trans persons from their potential dating pool. Individuals identifying as bisexual, queer, trans, or non-binary were most likely to indicate a willingness to date a trans person. However, even among those willing to date trans persons, a pattern of masculine privileging and transfeminine exclusion appeared, such that participants were disproportionately willing to date trans men, but not trans women, even if doing so was counter to their self-identified sexual and gender identity (e.g., a lesbian dating a trans man but not a trans woman). The results are discussed within the context of the implications for trans persons seeking romantic relationships and the pervasiveness of cisgenderism and transmisogyny.