Femmephilia

<p><strong>From the author of </strong><strong><em>Enemy Feminisms </em></strong><strong>and </strong><strong><em>Abolish the Family</em></strong><strong>, a fierce critique of femmephobia within feminism, and a vision of a life-giving femme</strong> <strong>feminism for all.<br/><br/></strong>For two centuries, feminists have tried to be respectable and serious. In <em>Femmephilia</em>, Sophie Lewis makes the case for the vital political importance of “femmeness”: a femininity that is self-consciously artificial, a femininity whose erotic and political appetites are considered unacceptable and unnatural. Being femme is a kind of work that merits love and respect—but femmes instead face criticism from antagonists and feminist allies alike. <br/><br/>Where neoliberal women’s empowerment has failed to combat the eruption of right-wing, anti-trans, and anti-feminist attacks, Lewis argues that femmephilia can help us imagine a radical future. In essays on the high femme genius of Marilyn Monroe and trans yearning in the myth of Apollo and Daphne; on tradwives and girlbosses, reluctant heterosexuals, lesbian separatists, and anti-work cats; and on a mother on strike from maternity and a poet who mothered against motherhood, <em>Femmephilia </em>offers a new logic of liberation for <em>all </em>feminized people. </p>