“I WILL ROCK SOME GLITTER LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN”: BURLESQUE, FEMME ORGANIZATIONS, AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF THE FEMME MOVEMENT By MAURA RYAN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2009 1 © 2009 Maura Ryan 2 To the femmes 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to begin by thanking my mentor and chair, Kendal Broad-Wright, who awes me with her knowledge of gender, sexuality, and social movement literatures, and her dedication to providing advice about my research, my writing, and my career. I could never have developed as the kind of feminist sociologist I am without her invaluable mentorship. I am also grateful to the other three sociology professors who served on this dissertation committee: William Marsiglio, Milagros Peña, and Constance Shehan. William Marsiglio has taught me invaluable lessons as an expert on qualitative methodology and gender; for the last two years especially, he has gone above and beyond the call of committee duties, extending much of his time offering me advice about teaching, research, and professionalism. Milagros Peña has taught me critical lessons about how to enrich feminist scholarship; I am grateful to her for her approach to sociology, her mentorship on the topic of social movement studies, and her suggestion that even something as “fun” as femme lube wrestling is a social protest. It was her suggestion that GLBT activism may fall under “waves” just as feminist activism does. Constance Shehan served as a kind support system, and an exceptional sociology mentor; I thank her for her feedback and excitement about my work, for nominating me for a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduate student teaching award, and for recommending me for the University of North Florida position I held the academic year of 2008-2009. Finally, I am indebted to Kim Emery, an English professor who served on this dissertation committee, for her kind suggestions and her gentle reminding that I should never be quick to disregard the useful contributions of second wave feminism, lesbian feminism, and “mainstream” gay and lesbian political goals like marriage rights. I would also like to thank Jack Freeland, the first person who helped awaken, validate, and strengthen my femme identity. Not only has he supported my femme identity, he has 4 supported my femme research, taking me into his Seattle home for the summer of 2008. We have known each other for more than ten years and I can truly say that he is the best fag a (queer) hag could have, the most brilliant person I know, and the best bittle in history. I am forever grateful for his humor, his big heart, and his loyal friendship. I also thank his partner, Jayson Peterson, who has read drafts of my work, bought me pink tequila, and taught me beautiful lessons about the expanding possibilities of queer family. Destry Taylor has also earned my respect and gratitude for her unending dedication to make the world right. Not only has she spent years listening to me process personal gender and sexual politics, but she helped make my research possible by allowing me to stay in her Seattle home for the summer of 2007. I am also grateful to Joey Miller in ways she cannot imagine. As my partner through my first years of graduate school, she unselfishly gave me an unexplainable amount of love and support. Thank you to James Alyson for being one of my best friends on this earth, my family, and someone who awes me as a femme ally. I am grateful to my graduate student colleagues who helped me maintain a sense of humor, read my work, argued with me, agreed with me, and helped me understand sociology in ways I could not have without their perceptive points of view. Some of these wonderful people include Deeb-Paul Kitchen, Will Jawde, Billy Jeffries, Meggan Jordan, Clare Walsh, Yuko Fujino, Dana Berkowitz, Colleen Cain, Jeffrianne Wilder, Beau Niles, Rachel Hallum, Louisa Chang, and Georgia Bianchi. I am especially indebted to my colleague Namita Manohar for providing an outstanding example of how to be a feminist scholar, a genuinely good person, and a friend. I thank her for lighting candles for me to write and pass my qualifying exams and to find an academic job. I 5 thank her for reading my work, reminding me that I am smart and capable, and for generally keeping me sane during graduate school. I am also forever grateful to Amanda Moras, a graduate student colleague who has become a dear friend. I thank her for always hearing my point of view even when I am wrong, for always being on my side, and for teaching me new points of view. I am glad that her smarts and her sense of style exist in the world. I thank her for being a wonderful teacher and sociological thinker, who I have largely modeled my own teaching after. I thank her for being kindred, and for being a remarkable kin keeper. Of course, I am grateful to my parents, Christine and Joseph Ryan, for their constant support, love, and willingness to listen to me. They are truly selfless people who have prioritized their child’s happiness in this world. Finally, I am grateful to the femmes and femme allies who trustingly let me into their communities. They have taught me lessons about the power of self identification, femme solidarity, and speaking up when our own community fails us – these are lessons that I will always cherish. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................................................10 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................11 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................13 The Research is Political, The Personal is Political, and the Research is Personal ................17 A Note on What is To Come ..................................................................................................21 LITERATURE REVIEW: FEMININITY, QUEER FEMININITY, AND IDENTITY POLITICS ...............................................................................................................................24 Femininity ...............................................................................................................................24 Queer Femininity and Femmes ...............................................................................................33 Identity Politics .......................................................................................................................38 THEORETICAL SENSITIVITY: NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, CULTURAL POLITICS, AND QUEER POLITICS ...................................................................................42 New Social Movements ..........................................................................................................43 Cultural Politics ......................................................................................................................47 Queer Politics ..........................................................................................................................49 METHOD AND DATA .................................................................................................................52 Feminist Research, Feminist Methodologies ..........................................................................56 Research Design .....................................................................................................................64 An Ethnographic and Interview Project ..........................................................................65 The Ethnography .............................................................................................................66 The Interviews .................................................................................................................73 Profile of Interview Participants .............................................................................................75 Analysis ..................................................................................................................................77 WHAT IS A FEMININE SELF?: QUEER “PARIAH FEMININITIES” AND THE RACE/CLASS DIMENSIONS OF THE FEMININE OTHER .............................................79 Describing A Feminine Self ...................................................................................................79 Pariah Femininities: Queer and Feminine Others ...................................................................88 Queer Selves Create Different Feminine Selves .............................................................90 Queer Communities Create Critical Perspective about Gender ......................................97 Race and Class Dimensions of the Feminine Other .............................................................106 Axes of Oppression: Femininity at an Intersection of Privilege and Oppression .........107 7 Race, Privilege, and Femininity ....................................................................................110 Femininity, Beauty, and Social Class ............................................................................117 FROM FEMININE TO FEMME: THE GROUP CONSTRUCTION OF A QUEER FEMININE