This document discusses concepts of masculinity and femininity. It explores how masculinity is typically associated with dominance and power, while femininity is defined in relation and opposition to masculinity. The document also examines how characters like James Bond and Agent Q from popular culture embody and challenge notions of masculinity. It questions why society more easily accepts displays of masculinity in girls/women (e.g. tomboys) during childhood but enforces strict gender conformity at puberty. Overall, the document critically analyzes gender roles and performance to better understand how our views of masculinity and femininity are socially constructed.

1. Female Masculinity
By: Audrey Allyn& Skylar Smith

2. Masculinity
Dominant masculinity
Naturalized relation between maleness and power
Excessive masculinity
Focused on black bodies, Latino bodies or
working class bodies
Insufficient masculinity
Figured by Asian bodies or upper class bodies
Why is it that we have trouble defining
masculinity but have no trouble recognizing it?

3. Female Masculinities
“Female masculinities are framed as rejected
scraps of dominant masculinity in order that ml
masculinity may appear to be the real thing”
Why is masculinity most associated with men?
What do you think female masculinity is?

4. James Bond
Which characters would you consider
masculine?
James Bond
M
Agent Q
Miss Moneypenny

5. James Bond cont.
Agent Q
Seen as interpretation of queer and dominant
regimes
M
Chastises him for being a misogynist and a sexist
Exposes sham of Bond’s own performance
Most convincingly performs masculinity
These 2 characters provide a remarkable
representation of absolute dependence of
dominant masculinities on minority masculinities

6. Tomboys
Extended childhood period of female masculinity
“Female gender deviance more tolerated than
male gender deviance” (pg. 358)
Is this because, as a society, we fear it is a threat
to masculinity?
As soon as puberty hits, the full force of gender
conformity descends on girls
Why is this?

7. The Bathroom Problem
“Ambiguous gender, when and where it does
appear, is inevitable transformed into
deviance, thirdness, or a blurred version of either
male or female” (pg. 365)
Women’s bathrooms an arena for enforcement of
gender conformity
Sanctuary of enhanced femininity
Why is femininity easily impersonated or
performed while masculinity seems resistant to
imitation?

8. SNL Skit “It’s Pat”
Produced laughs by sidestepping gender fixity
Pat’s partner had a neutral name
Everything Pat did or said could be read either
way
Why, as a society, are we committed to maintain
a binary gender system?
http://w`ww.youtube.com/watch?v=VwT1kp0C3S
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