In Female to Femme, documentary makers Kami Chisholm and Elizabeth Stark interview a variety of famous femmes to explore the ongoing exclusion they feel from the wider lesbian community.  The women all share a common experience of a double ‘coming out’, firstly as a lesbian and secondly as a femme.  At first the women explain they wanted to prove they were lesbians and thus adopted the traditional butch and androgenous attire popular in the lesbian scene.  Later, however, they all realised that they still liked being feminine, although they knew this was frowned upon by most lesbians.

One wonderful sequence in the documentary shows a ‘femme support group’ where women are told it is OK to wear fragrance and they do not have to ashamed of their cleavage.  This sequence would be amusing if not for the fact that these women struggle to be accepted in their femme identity, and many have been hurt and attacked as anti-feminist by the dyed-in-the-wool butch dykes.  Although the glamorous femme look of the women in The L Word seems to suggest being a feminine dyke is now acceptable, the women in this documentary tell a rather different story.

Femininity remains identified with satisfying the fantasies and desires of men, and is often seen as a patriarchal construct that is the antithesis of feminism and queer identity.  Numerous burlesque performer femmes are interviewed, and their sexy shows intersperse the narrative.  The position and meaning of burlesque, in particular, remain hotly debated in the feminist community, with many women seeing it as objectifying women, and therefore anti-feminist.  However, the women who work in burlesque claim to feel empowered by their performances and, since these women in the documentary are all lesbians, none of them are doing burlesque to satisfy or attract men.

For a long time, the lesbian feminist community saw ‘woman’ as a natural look and any attempt at adornment was attacked as conforming to patriarchal ideals.  However, this has now created a new type of conformity in the lesbian community that only allows for a very narrow concept of what it is to be a real woman and therefore a real lesbian.  One femme suggests that women need to stop limiting what is their idea of ‘woman’ and accept that woman is everything from the butchest butch to the most feminine femme and everything in-between.  Certainly it is clear that any limitation on how women may present themselves is another form of oppression, and simply doing the opposite of what patriarchy encourages makes women just as controlled by patriarchy than they would be if they followed its guidelines.

Femmes report being excluded from lesbian bars, put down by other women, and even worse patronised by women who believe themselves to be more liberated than any femme.  This debate over clothing suggests that women are still not as free to choose their own identity as those who suggest we live in a ‘post-feminist’ world would believe.  Although women’s feminine clothing such as corsetry, high heels, and tight skirts can still be seen as constraining, and even misogynist, to take away women’s choice in their garments does not then immediately liberate them.

The femmes in this documentary have no desire to force every lesbian into a pair of stilettos, instead they just want the community to be more tolerant of women’s diversity of choice, and to not assume femmes are not feminists simply because they wear lipstick.  The subjects of Chisholm and Stark are not the mid-twentieth-century stereotype of the butch and femme couples; instead, they are quite radical in their rejection of conforming to the dominant androgenous lesbian look.  By being both feminine and feminist, and ladies and lesbians, they challenge the narrow assumptions inherent in all of these categories.

In the queer community, bisexuality remains one of the most controversial sexual identities.  Due to the prevalence of homophobia in the wider community, a clear homosexual identity has come to be seen integral to a strong and united queer community; being bisexual, then, destabilises the division between the gay and straight communities and often leads to bisexuals being distrusted by both.

Elizabeth Reaser)’s relationship with Philip (Justin Kirk) as simply another form of love and attraction.  However, once Allegra begins to also date Philips’s ex-girlfriend Grace (Gretchen Mol), the movie falls into the territory of confirming all the worst prejudices towards bisexuality.  Allegra is portrayed as greedy for wanting two lovers, and her friends encourage her to stop her two-timing and come clean to her lovers.  This notion of the bisexual having two sexual partners, or at least being more likely to be unfaithful than a ‘pure’ lesbian, acts to create a double level of discrimination for bisexuals as they face stigma in both the gay and straight community.

This film does little to address the discrimination faced by bisexuals; in fact, Allegra never actually identifies as bisexual – instead, she is construed as a ‘confused’ lesbian who has not yet become mature enough to commit to a relationship.  Her bisexuality is portrayed as a symptom of her commitment-phobia, and an aberration on her ‘normal’ lesbianism.

The film opens with Allegra being dumped by her girlfriend Samantha (Julianne Nicholson).  While Allegra is still in the throes of a broken heart, and bingeing on chocolate at a party, she meets the charming Philip who resists her drunken advances and places her in a cab; in turn, earning her respect for being a gentleman and not taking advantage of her in a vulnerable state.  The two accidentally meet up again and become lovers.  Philip is still involved with Grace but he becomes obsessed with the Allegra, dumping his girlfriend in favour of her.

Allegra meets Grace separately and is unaware she is the ex-girlfriend of her lover Philip.  The straight Grace flirts with Allegra and, although Allegra at first rebuffs her, Grace’s post-break-up vulnerability strikes a chord with Allegra and the two become involved.  Naturally, their first lovemaking astounds Grace as she reaches orgasm faster than she ever has with a man and finds herself quickly at ease in a lesbian relationship.  Meanwhile it isn’t long before Allegra discovers that her two lovers were once each other’s lovers.

The cast of Puccini for Beginners all do a fantastic job playing wonderfully amusing and endearing characters, and the film also satisfies all the expectations of the romantic comedy genre.  However, although it touches the debate over how much of our lives is coincidence and how much is subconsciously controlled by ourselves, it never manages to explore this further than posing it as a question.

Despite a stereotypical and derogatory attitude to bisexuality, the film does manage to make Allegra sympathetic enough for viewers to forgive her confusion in love.   Her choice is not really between men or women, but between her head and her heart.  She has never told any of her lovers that she loves them, out of fear of being trapped in a monogamous relationship; because of this attitude, even her male lover says she has the attitude of a ‘man’.

The dialogue in Puccini for Beginners is wonderfully witty, and Allegra’s confusion is hilariously depicted in her imagining the people around her challenging her choices.  The film manages to address many of the debates about gay marriage, heterosexual normality, and lesbian identity with much humour and pathos.  However, it fails to address the negative community attitudes to bisexuality and therefore inadvertently encourages them.


Brisbane Queer Film Festival
Screening at the Brisbane Powerhouse
1st June to 7th June 2007 

Female to Femme
2006

Director: Kami Chisholm, Elizabeth Stark
Cinematographer: Kami Chisholm
Editor: Kami Chisholm, Elizabeth Stark, Vivian Giourousis
Cast: Meliza Banales, Bitch, Veronica C. Combs, Jewelle Gomez, Leslie Mah, Masha Raskolnikov, Guinevere Turner

Puccini for Beginners
2007

Director: Maria Maggenti
Screenwriters: Maria Maggenti
Cinematographer: Mauricio Rubinstein
Editor: Susan Graef
Original Music: Terry Dame
Cast: Elizabeth Reaser, Gretchen Mol, Justin Kirk, Julianne Nicholson