MIAMI UNIVERSITY the Graduate School Certificate for Approving The
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MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Erin Douglas Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________ Director Dr. Madelyn M. Detloff _____________________________________ Reader Dr. Kathleen N. Johnson _____________________________________ Reader Dr. Stefanie Kyle Dunning _____________________________________ Graduate School Representative Dr. Ronald Paul Becker ABSTRACT QUEER MAKINGS OF FEMININITIES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Erin Douglas My dissertation explores the intersections of femininities and sexualities and how these intersections are made to appear natural and normal. My historical charting of queering femininities begins with different key historical and discursive moments in twentieth- century British Culture that shape how we now think about femininity. Femininity becomes a key area of contestation in early twentieth-century Britain, as Britain attempts to redefine femininity with the emergence of categories of lesbian sexuality. Because of this cultural shift in how femininity and sexuality are conceptualized, I analyze how different modernists and contemporary British literatures represent a historical trajectory of femme femininities and how this literature offers us a space to queer femininity. My dissertation project theorizes the resistant and transformative possibilities of the pleasures of femme femininities. My goals for this project are to question damaging and destructive assumptions about femininity, and then to show pleasurable resistant possibilities of queer makings of femininities to force people to confront, question, be aware, and change their preconceptions. As my dissertation traces the intersections of femininity, lesbian sexuality, and heteronormativity, it also reclaims femininities as queer, positive, optimistic, and resistant. To reclaim femininity, I show how various queer narratives challenge dominant definitions of femininity by offering us scripts and performances of pleasurable, critical, and political femme femininities. In other words, not only do I explore what femininity might do for the individual who reclaims it, but I also explore how this reclamation can enhance all of our lives. I also reassert femmes as agents of pleasure, political, and princesses who rescue themselves. Femmes’ performances show how dangerous and damaging a dominant understanding of femininity can be; and at the same time, they show us that we are not stuck with such scripts. Stories can be rewritten offering us new queer scripts that signify femininities and femmes as intelligent, resistant, self-sufficient, strong, powerful, and assertive. It is necessary to reclaim femininities if we hope to change how gender is perceived, performed, and lived to imagine the pleasurable possibilities of femininities. QUEER MAKINGS OF FEMININITIES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English by Erin Douglas Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2010 Director: Dr. Madelyn M. Detloff © Erin Douglas 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures iv-v Dedication vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction “Queering Femininities” 1 Chapter One “The Making of Lesbian Definitions in Twentieth Century Britain: 33 Mobilizing Desires and Pleasures of Femininity” Chapter Two “Fairytale Femme Femininities: Queering Femininity, Queering Pleasure 68 in Jeanette Winterson’s The PowerBook and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando” Chapter Three “Feminine Spectacles of Genders, Races, Sexualities, and Imperialism 91 in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus” Chapter Four “Femininity at War in Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch and Virginia Woolf’s 117 Between the Acts” Chapter Five “Resisting the Surveillance of Feminine Pleasure in Caryl Churchill’s 142 Vinegar Tom and Cloud Nine” Works Cited and Consulted 182 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Del LeGrace Volcano’s Kath Moonan, London 2006. Femmes of Power: 20 Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: page 69. Figure 2: Del LeGrace Volcano’s Itziar Ziaga, Barcelona 2007. Femmes of Power: 23 Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: pages 22, 75. Figure 3: Del LeGrace Volcano’s Itziar Ziaga, Barcelona 2007 in Femmes of Power: 24 Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: pages 22, 75. Figure 4: Del LeGrace Volcano’s Shawna Virago @ The Lexington, San Francisco 2006. 25 Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: page 166. Figure 5: Del LeGrace Volcano’s The 3 faces of Morgana Maye, San Francisco 2006. 27 Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: pages 18-19. Figure 6: Del LeGrace Volcano’s Marla Stewart, Atlanta 2007. Femmes of Power: 29 Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: page 102. Figure 7: Del LeGrace Volcano’s Jun Wizelius, Malmö, Sweeden 2007. Femmes of Power: 68 Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: page 78. Figure 8: “Botany Lanolin,” Harper’s Bazaar 1943 75 Figure 9: “Display Ad 62.” Chicago Tribune 12 Apr. 1965 76 iv Figure 10: “Display Ad 41.” New York Times (1923); Mar 15, 1964 (42). 78 Figure 11: Display Ad 37.” Chicago Tribune (1963); Mar 30, 1964 (B8). 79 Figure 12: Del LaGrace’s Volcano’s Valerie Mason-John, London 2007. Femmes of Power: 91 Exploding Queer Femininities. Eds. Dahl, Ulrika, and Del LaGrace Volcano. Serpent’s Tail, 2009: page 34. Figure 13: “Keep Your Beauty on Duty!” advertisement for Ivory Soap from 122 Procter & Gamble Co. in Woman’s Home Companion (1942). Figure 14: “Keep Your Best Face Forward” advertisement for Bond Street Beauty 123 Preparations from Yardley of London, Inc., in McCall’s (1942) Figure 15: “Keep Your Best Face Forward” advertisement for Bond Street Beauty 124 Preparations from Yardley of London, Inc., in New Yorker (1942) Figure 16: “Simple Secret” advertisement for Bond Street Perfume and Beauty 125 Preparations from Yardley of London, Inc. in Mademoiselle (1942) Figure 17: “Military Objective” advertisement for Evening in Paris Cosmetics 125 from Bourjois in Ladies Home Journal (1943) Figure 18: “it’s new…it’s trim…it’s essential” advertisement for Permanent hair 127 wave from Elizabeth Arden in New York Sun (1942) Figure 19: “Frankly, hew was Fascinated…” advertisement for Burnt Sugar Lipstick 129 from Elizabeth Arden in Vogue (1942) v Dedication: To those who have the courage to perform and revel in their femininity even when at times it might be difficult to do so and to those who love, admire, and find pleasure in varieties of femme femininities for their strength, intelligence, and assurance. Particularly my dissertation is dedicated to Jenise Bauman who continually reminds and encourages me to find strength and pleasure in my femme femininity forcing the world to imagine femininity anew. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to begin by thanking Miami University’s Department of English and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program for not only their financial support, which made my graduate work and dissertation possible, but also for their intellectual support and encouragement helping me to thrive as a scholar, teacher, and person. A special thank you to the Department of English for awarding me the Academic Challenge Dissertation Fellowship, 2008-2009 supporting my dissertation endeavors. Much thanks to the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Program for fostering my intellectual growth, funding my participation in the Duke Feminist Theory Workshop, and for giving me the chance to teach WMS 201, all of which have forever changed the direction of my teaching and scholarship. To Debbie Morner, Loretta Elm, and Cathie Isaacs your support has been instrumental to my success and made my life much easier! Thank you to my dissertation committee Dr. Madelyn Detloff, Dr. Stefanie Dunning, Dr. Katie Johnson, and Dr. Ron Becker whose wonderful comments encouraged me to transform my dissertation anew. Jamie Calhoun and Susan Pelle, our dynamic trio made graduate school one of the best experiences of my life in terms of friendship, professional support, and intellectual conversations. Lynn Hall, your friendship and kindness touch my life, and your comments on my dissertation were invaluable. To Lisa Weems who pushed me through the last leg of revisions and whose intelligence, conversations, generosity, support, and queer femininity continually inspire me. Thank you to Madelyn Detloff and Susan Pelle whose conversations over the years have influenced and shaped not only my scholarship and teaching but also my life. Mad your encouragement, guidance, support, and mentorship touch my life and move me as a scholar, teacher, activist, and person. To my family, specially my parents Janet and Bob Douglas who have shown me so much love, encouragement, and support throughout my life that none of this would be possible without both of you. Finally, thank you to Jenise Bauman who makes wherever we are home. Your love, support, strength, and kindness foster me as a person as well as my scholarship. Jenise you have changed and inspired my life showing me just how precious, wonderful, happy, and beautiful everyday can be and for that