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c
o v e r s t o r y
Pursuing
the Femme Identity
by
Andrea Spoehrer
f e a t u r
e s
Revealing
the "psuedo-invert"
Una, Lady Troubridge
by
Alison Phipps
Ashes
in the Paint
by
Michelle Bancroft
c o l u m n
s
Health
by
Dr. Lipstick
Wealth
by
Ms. Moneygrrl
Sex
by
SexySuzi
Advice
by
Victoria
Fashion
by
Dara
Femme
Perspective
by
Kenya
Butch
Perspective
by
D
Publisher's
Note
Letter
from the Editor
Contribute
to Femme
|
 by
D
Who
is the femme of 2000 and beyond, who harnesses my heart and stirs
my soul? She is her own special brand of 2-oh-oh-ooohhhh queer.
She lives in my mind, fluid and solid. She has learned to celebrate
her body, herself. She has as many essences as there are sunrises,
and she is true to them all. She is everything I ever wanted and
am too humble to request. She makes me feel stronger somehow,
more vibrant, more creative and more virile. Life with her is
real and surreal. I'm not helpless; I am swept clean and made
more powerful when we meet.
I
am in awe of how femmes make me feel inside and out. The strength
of her power over me, the rush, is as if I am Huck Finn, and all
that is femme is The Mighty Mississippi River. She is my vision
and my vehicle. She whispers and roars. In some places she fits
in a single field of vision, as if barely a stream. In other areas,
she is panoramic. Like the Mississippi, she is fierce, always
moving, and deserves deep respect. She inspires a powerful passion
in me. The fire is as powerful as the magnetism between Antony
and Cleopatra in history, Romeo and Juliet in literature and Garth
and Kim Basinger's characters in Wayne's World; schwing; it's
excellent. I hope to add excitement to how she moves, as if I
could improve what is so incredible naturally.
Femmes
are not the object of my desire, but the subject, and if I'm lucky,
she'll share herself with me. To me, she is not objectified; she
is immortalized. She is precious and strong, beautiful and inviting.
Like a river's current, her essence is dictated by nature's laws.
Like a river flowing upstream, seemingly defying the laws of nature,
the powerful femininity of femmes is also defiant. Femmes are
a special kind of outlaw. She is the backbone of what I consider
civilized, yet often reviled by our culture. Femmes face a unique
oppression, invisible as lesbians and to lesbians. She proudly
wears every minute of her struggle against this stunningly well.
She
is at once familiar and a riveting mystery. There are so many
ways to be near her, and often, she has bathed me with soothing
water in my rawest, most naked moments and places. She is not
at nature's mercy. To me, she is nature. Like the Mississippi,
she commands and demands attention when she believes its due.
Recent the ories held that the Mississippi would change her course
and create new paths. The River herself did not do that. Oddly,
I felt that it was her choice. Similarly, heaven will have to
save the fool who tries to build a dam to hinder or drive the
path of the Femme of the Future.
Why
do I so often feel like Huck Finn in the presence of fabulous
queer femmes? I believe it has to do with the adventurer - afraid
and courageous - who lives beneath the surface of most butches.
We are curious. We have lived for decades yearning for woman we
could not name. We didn't grow up in the company of femmes and
could not imagine that such women existed for us. We dated women
and began to learn about love. We learned to swim, skinny-dip,
skip rocks, navigate rafts and admire glowing moonlight. Maybe
we didn't know why we learned all of that. Perhaps we thought
we were biding time. Perhaps we thought this was the best there
was.
And
then we met our first femme.
continued
on page 2
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