In this quintessential work of queer theory Jack Halberstam takes aim at the protected status
of male masculinity and shows that female masculinity has offered a distinct alternative to it
for well over two centuries. Demonstrating how female masculinity is not some bad imitation of
virility but a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders Halberstam catalogs
the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from nineteenth-century pre-lesbian
practices to contemporary drag king performances. Through detailed textual readings as well as
empirical research Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities while arguing
for a more nuanced understanding of gender categories that would incorporate rather than
pathologize them. He rereads Anne Lister's diaries and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness
as foundational assertions of female masculine identity considers the enigma of the stone
butch and the politics surrounding butch femme roles within lesbian communities and explores
issues of transsexuality among "transgender dykes"-lesbians who pass as men-and female-to-male
transsexuals who may find the label of "lesbian" a temporary refuge. Halberstam also tackles
such topics as women and boxing butches in Hollywood and independent cinema and the
phenomenon of male impersonators. Featuring a new preface by the author this twentieth
anniversary edition of Female Masculinity remains as insightful timely and necessary as ever.
