Femme

Femme describes a queer person, often a woman or nonbinary person, who claims a feminine gender expression as a conscious and often political choice rather than a default. The term traces to the butch-femme culture of American lesbian communities in the 1940s and 1950s, which for the first time made lesbian relationships publicly visible. Femme identity is distinct from conventional femininity because it is expressed knowingly inside queer life. Variations include high femme, stone femme, and femme of center. Femmes have historically been rendered invisible or had their queerness questioned because feminine presentation reads as straight to outsiders, so femme writers and organizers have long worked to name its history and power.