Sexual Identity and Gender: Discursive Constructions of ‘Butch’ and ‘Femme’ in Film

Abstract

This chapter continues our examination of representations of sexuality in media discourse. In this chapter, we examine how butch-femme identities and relationships, as particular forms of lesbian identities and relationships, are represented and constructed in fictional film texts. In particular, we focus on the role that language plays in this process of representation and identity construction. The findings presented in this chapter share much in common with those presented in the preceding one. Specifically, the deployment of resources associated with gender and power to create erotic and socially powerful effects are evident in both the corpus of lesbian erotica and in the film texts to be presented here.