i keep seeing discourse about femme lesbians online for some reason? there is no subversive hyper femininity for women period. there isnât some spiritual magical difference between a lesbian performing femininity and a straight woman performing femininity. and itâs misogynistic to think that the way that osa women perform femininity is lesser or beneath the way that lesbians do. and this is coming from a femme lesbian
I don't know what's going on with regards to femme lesbian discourse, but I do want to point out that there are many examples of subversive hyper femininity around the world
All of the following are extreme performances of femininity that have faced backlash and caused discourse around what it means to be an acceptable feminine woman in society by undermining what is typically expected or accepted from hyper feminine women
Examples of subversive hyper femininity:
1. Lolita fashion in Japan: This form of dress specifically developed to resist the stifling pressure of Japanese society to grow up into a mature, reasonable, and picturesque woman
2. The emergence of Goth culture in the UK: Goth culture has caused various moral panics as it was considered sexually deviant due to its emphasis on hyper femininity and androgyny when it first emerged
3. Bimbocore in the US: Bimbocore fashion is obnoxiously and ridiculously feminine while also loudly (sometimes using violent rhetoric) taking strong political stances against capitalism and misogyny and embracing female sexuality and violence
Named after a book about a paedophile that served as an early example of how any work of the âweâre not going to say why this manâs actions were bad; you have to look at what he says and recognise that for yourselfâ persuasion will inevitably lead to people taking the narrative at face value.
People hate goth girls and women for not being feminine enough. They might hate goth men and boys for being too feminine, but OP was explicitly talking about hyperfemininity in women.
This framing of whatâs happening with the bimbo thing straight up chilled me to my core. Yâall will just lie and lie and lie to endorse shit that harms women and girls and you have absolutely no conscience about it whatsoever.
My discussion of each of these subcultures will only be limited to the contexts they exist within rather than the universal superficial take people might have just off of the names. I think that in order for something to be hyper feminine, it must embrace feminine aesthetics wholeheartedly. In order for something to be considered subversive, it must challenge norms within which the subculture exists in
1. Within Japan, the use of the word Lolita for Lolita fashion has long been acknowledged as a superficial borrowing of the aesthetic of the word itself rather than any allegiance to the material text. The fashion itself developed, not out of inspiration from the book, but as a way to disgust others and/or rebel against growing up by embracing the childish. This is particularly subversive and a big deal in Japan where, at the time of Lolita's development, there was tremendous pressure on women to dress modestly and present a practical, dependable image.
2. Within the UK, when the goth subculture arose, the men did dress androgynously but were not the only ones who faced backlash for their performance of femininity. Goth women, in a similar fashion, were associated with hyper feminine aesthetics considered sexually deviant and provocative like corsets and fishnets. It was scandalous for them to embrace their sexuality openly and in ways considered "scary" in their presentation. The goth scene was particularly associated with things like polyamory and BDSM and often cultivated spaces that empowered women to be sexual in ways that were not expected or accepted
3. I did not talk about the Bimbo movement which is an anti-intellectual feminist movement. I talked about an offshoot called Bimbocore which was coined by Scene Queen, an American pop metal musician. Her work is dominated by themes of violence against men and rampant sex between lesbians. Her music videos also frequently take the time to uplift disabled lesbians, lesbians of color, and other marginalized lesbians
Based on the histories and contexts within which these movements exist, as well as the reactions that they cultivate from their target audiences, I feel that each are both hyper feminine and subversive even when participated in by women, men, or both












