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FtF reappropriates the language of transgenderism, particularly the concept of transitioning, to situate femme lesbian identity as a gender identity, not merely a way of dress or appearance. Stark and Chisholm argue that every femme lesbian goes through a transition from an identity as merely “female” to one as “femme,” and that this transition is similar, in many ways, to the transition from female to male. “I really identify with other transgendered peoples' descriptions of having a social misunderstanding of my body,” says Elizabeth Stark.

She explains, “People look at me and they don't know who I am because of what I look like on the outside. FtF as a transition is about remedying those misunderstandings, but FtF as a revolution is about understanding that there are many levels to that remedying of those social misunderstandings.” Those remedies involve teaching others how to interpret the femme body, and how to relate differently to the femme body in both social and sexual situations.

Female to Femme features several femme-identified burlesque dancers and their performances as part of this process of changing the perceptions of femmes. Over the past several years, lesbian burlesque has become a very popular phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay area, and a number of lesbian burlesque troupes have been formed, including ones featuring fat women and women of color.

Many of these troupes perform numbers that on the surface appear to be referencing early 20th-century burlesque, complete with its objectification and exoticization of the female body, but at a deeper level these femme burlesque troupes are performing femininity--and challenging cultural stereotypes about femininity--in the same way that drag kings have challenged and critiqued masculinity.

Unfortunately, Female to Femme does not explicitly draw these connections out of its interview subjects, and the result is a documentary that does celebrate femininity, but doesn't fully place it in a critical context. But Female to Femme is certainly a wonderful launching point for a continued discussion of femininity and its place within the lesbian community.

The progress narratives in Female to Femme are less overt than in Boy I Am, but they are also more effective, if only because they are rare in these kinds of documentaries. A number of femmes talk about their experiences in coming out as femme, which often involved a journey from girlish femininity to a rejection of that femininity as they came out as lesbian, then a gradual return to a femininity as they grew more comfortable in their lesbian identities.

Though some of these stories may seem, on the surface, rather ridiculous (Guinevere Turner, for example, talks about her struggle to allow herself to carry a purse), they are an entry point to a more complex discussion about why femininity is judged as negative--not only within the lesbian community but also within mainstream culture. This is the other side of the coin to the celebration of masculinity that FTMs and the trans movement have achieved.

Both Boy I Am and Female to Femme bring to light issues that have been debated in private within the lesbian community for years, and though neither film can fully resolve these issues, they provide an excellent starting point for opening the dialogue about gender to include femininity.

Get more info about Boy I Am here;
get more info about Female to Femme here

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