{"id":27349,"date":"2024-10-17T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/?p=27349"},"modified":"2024-10-17T12:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:37:45","slug":"the-future-is-femme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/the-future-is-femme\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future is Femme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

hit it like rom-pom-pom-pom
(Get it hot) get it hot like Papa John
(Make a bitch) make a bitch go on and on
(It’s a fem) it’s a femininomenon<\/p>

– Chappell Roan, 2023<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my book Smashing the Patriarchy<\/em>, I announced that the future is female. But I\u2019ve changed my mind since; now I think the future is femme. Here\u2019s why. Patriarchal superstructures have been built on a solid foundation of masculine thinking. Femininity has been fetishised and forbidden. It is othered. The hypermasculine cis-heterosexual male body is the norm. Masculine female bodies, feminine male bodies, overtly femme bodies of any sex, sexually agentive bodies, trans & queer bodies, and non-binary bodies are all considered anomalies. Only the perfect, coy, submissive feminine body that the patriarchy can instrumentalise is acceptable. \u201cBut femininity, allow me to holler, can be both sensitive and fierce\u2026 [It] is a complex and prismatic phenomenon that\u2019s constantly transforming within each one of us, irrespective of our sexual orientation or gender identity. It doesn\u2019t always exist in isolation and melds with masculinity to form newer expressions of androgyny\u2026 Femininity is and always has been a source of transcendental power\u201d (Rajasekaran, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was amazed by how readers of all genders wrote to me saying that these ideas resonated with them. The subtitle of Smashing the Patriarchy<\/em> reads A Guide for the 21st-century Indian Woman<\/em>. But really, smashing the patriarchy is necessary for all of us \u2013 be we mxn, womxn, non[1]<\/a><\/sup>. People see that truth. And the fact that mxn, womxn, and queer folks from across the spectrum are equally invested in dismantling the patriarchy has propelled me to expand my own thoughts on the subject. A learning curve, another realisation. Now, as queer icon Chappell Roan sings: \u201cI heard that there\u2019s a special place where boys and girls can all be queens every single day.\u201d I hear that, and that\u2019s the sort of world that I want, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, the sceptics might say, are you then saying that the category of \u201cwoman\u201d is not a real category? Contemporary queer theorists have complicated the ideas of sex, gender and sexuality over decades. The acclaimed philosopher Judith Butler argues that sex is an idea, a notion that is brought into being over time, and that by acting in particular ways we \u201cperform\u201d gender (Butler, 2007). Like, we think we are male\/men<\/em> or female\/women<\/em> because society tells us we are so. We are only performing the role of \u201cmen\u201d or \u201cwomen\u201d in particular ways because we are expected to do so. Sex isn\u2019t essential to gender. So, when we think this way, it may appear that gender binaries are altogether incompatible with a queer futurity that seeks to erase all boundaries and inklings of essentialism. However, at the same time, I\u2019m reluctant to let go of the category of \u201cwoman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a queer womxn who wants to bear witness to the transhistorical subjectivities of my foremothers that have been passed down to me through time via song and story, and reimagine their sexual agency against a history of shame and invisibility (this is the theme of my PhD research, I\u2019m looking at queer womxn\u2019s lives from the late 19th century in the Madras Presidency) \u2013 I find that my Tamil foremothers\u2019 stories of resilience and survival are womxn\u2019s histories as much as they are queer. The \u201chistory of silence is central to women\u2019s history\u201d (Solnit, 2017) as the patriarchy has continually erased womxn\u2019s desires and marginalised their narratives. The \u201cfemale body that threatens to confuse gender boundaries\u201d (Creed, 2007) has historically been violated, while \u201cpathologising women who were unmarried or lesbian\u201d (Funke, 2016) was common practice across phallocentric societies. Colonial authorities in India stigmatised a wide range of womxn \u201cas sexual deviants, marked as aberrant, sexually unchaste, outside of respectable society, socially ill, criminally dangerous, or sexually unbound\u201d (Mitra, 2020) when they performed gender in manners that resisted Victorian norms. The long shadow of the patriarchal past still affects womxn today and female sexuality is a highly contentious issue. It seems to me that to abandon the category of \u201cwoman\u201d is akin to once again silencing their\/our voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, there is a need to challenge the universalisation of queer pasts and futures, and to establish \u201cgender and sexuality as multiple\u201d (Mikdashi & Puar, 2016). I want to renegotiate several categories and consider contradictions \u2013 which go \u201cbeyond, but not without, \u2018women\u2019\u201d (Giunta, 2018). And in my post\/decolonial queer feminist imagination, \u201cexpressions such as \u2018trans woman\u2019 do not simply refer to controversial instances of \u2018woman,\u2019 and being a trans woman is not a strange type of woman, but a woman, period\u201d (Bettcher, 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The patriarchy is petrified of gender fluidity. Not only does the femininomenon threaten the modes of sex-based binaries, but it also undermines sexist hierarchies. The idea that we can be as feminine as we want, or as masculine as we want, irrespective of our sex, queers everything everywhere. It unleashes our innermost desires. Questions the very idea of power. As diversity evangelist and TEDx speaker Amita Karadkhedkar once told me when I interviewed her: \u201cWe all need to reflect upon ourselves as to why we equate womanhood to weakness. Does wearing bangles take away one\u2019s courage and strength? Does wearing red lipstick malign one\u2019s character? Is only the privileged gender expected to be ambitious? This is for all women \u2013 trans and otherwise\u201d (Rajasekaran, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when I say the future is femme, I\u2019m talking about a world where womxn have diverse ambitions, gender identities, and sexual orientations. This is a future where everyone is free to channel the femininity within them and express themselves in a manner that reflects their true selves. Mxn can be womxn here, womxn can be mxn here, or they can be neither. We can all be queens. We can all be bitchy. Androgynous. Call out hypermasculine androcentric BS. Smash patriarchal superstructures. Love who we want. Be with who we will. Own our bodies and our minds. Speak our truths. Create a world that nurtures and cares. But also, one that fiercely protects. In a feminist feminine femme future, perhaps, we will make space for all sorts of diversity. A fabulous sorority where we\u2019re all invested in the femininomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n