femmeness

femmeness

English

Etymology

femme +‎ -ness

Noun

femmeness (uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being femme.
   • 1989, Sheila Jeffreys, "Butch and Femme: Now and then", in Not a Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985, page 180:

     What is the appeal of femmeness since it doesn't have the obvious attractions of maleness, i.e. power and privilege, associated with it?

   • 1998, Sally Munt & Cherry Smyth, Butch/femme: Inside Lesbian Gender, page 61:

     Some femmes share heterosexual pasts, some pass through butchness before they arrive at femmeness, some move back and forth between boy identities and woman identities.

   • 2019, Morgan Lev Edward Holleb, The A-Z of Gender and Sexuality: From Ace to Ze, page 113:

     I suggest that anyone who is queer and feels an affinity toward femmeness has a legitimate claim to it.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:femmeness.

Coordinate terms

• butchness