Author(s): Ulrika Dahl & Del LaGrace Volcano (photos)

Non-Fiction

What is femme? French for woman? A feminine lesbian? A queer girl who loves to dress up? Think again!

Going beyond identity politics and the pleasures of plumage, Femmes of Power captures a diverse range of queerly feminine subjects whose powerful and intentional redress explodes the meaning of femme for the 21st century.
Femmes of Power features both every-day heroines and many queer feminist icons, including Michelle Tea, Virginie Despentes, Amber Hollibaugh, Itziar Ziga, Lydia Lunch, Kate Bornstein and Valerie Mason-John.
Femmes of Power unsettles the objectifying "male" gaze on femininity and presents femmes as speaking subjects and high heeled theorists. Look closer - these powerful, sexy and sincerely ironic feminine figures are larger than life, bravely challenging femininity's negative connotations and replacing femme invisibility with a fresh new face for femme-inism. First published 2008.