Abstract
Recent scholarship has highlighted the negative treatment of femme/feminized people (often labeled as anti-femininity or femmephobia) when it comes to social discrimination, gender policing, and dating preferences within the LGBTQ community. Yet, it is unclear if being “femme” is related to an overall increased likelihood of experiencing gender-based discrimination, violence, and/or harassment (DHV). Furthermore, I argue that using the lens of gender-nonconformity prejudice offers an important contribution toward disentangling these relationships. To examine this, I investigate both anti-femininity and gender-nonconformity prejudice under the overarching framework of hetero-cis-normativity violations by focusing on the DHV experiences of femme cis women, twink cis men, and butch cis women. Specifically, I use Norm-Centered Stigma Theory (NCST) and data from adults aged 18–64 stratified by US census categories of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and census region collected from online LGBTQ panelists (N = 1604). Results indicate that gender-nonconformity prejudice may better explain the increased likelihood of discrimination and harassment among twink cis men and butch cis women and the decreased likelihood of DHV experiences among femme cis women. Overall, findings lend support to the use of NCST and hetero-cis-normativity in intersectional explorations of LGBTQ victimization and demonstrate the significance of centering the experiences of LGBTQ people in future queer criminological investigations focused on gender-nonconformity.
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Notes
The stigmatizer lens examines how the stigmatizer’s (i.e., the individual who is potentially expressing negativity or passing judgment on another) own axes of social power impact their feelings about the target of stigma.
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The data collection utilized in this project was funded by the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research via the Faculty Investment Program.
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Worthen, M.G.F. Anti-femininity or Gender-Nonconformity Prejudice? An Investigation of Femme, Twink, and Butch LGBTQ Victimization Using Norm-Centered Stigma Theory. Crit Crim 31, 1043–1061 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-024-09753-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-024-09753-9