Event Title
And if You Don't Know, Now You Know: Dress in Queer Female Communities at Colby
Location
Diamond 223
Start Date
30-4-2015 3:12 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 3:55 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
In my research this semester, I want to explore the question, How do queer-identified women and feminine-of-center (FOC) individuals use dress as a way to navigate and signal their sexual identities on Colbys Campus? I use the term queer to cover broadly the identities lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, et. cetera. I use the term FOC to mean individuals who identify with femininity but do not fully define themselves as being female, such as gender queer individuals. I first became interested in this topic because of my own sexual identity- I am queer/bisexual, but am consistently viewed by both queer and hetero communities as straight. It is often confusing to have such an important part of my identity erased. I wondered how other women/FOCs on campus dealt with similar issues- was there a way of dressing queer on campus? Are there signals we send each other without even realizing it? This campus is perfect for studying a queer female/FOC community- it is small enough that I can tackle it in 3 months, yet large and diverse enough that I will have plenty of material.
Faculty Sponsor
Winifred Tate
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Anthropology Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Social Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1573
And if You Don't Know, Now You Know: Dress in Queer Female Communities at Colby
Diamond 223
In my research this semester, I want to explore the question, How do queer-identified women and feminine-of-center (FOC) individuals use dress as a way to navigate and signal their sexual identities on Colbys Campus? I use the term queer to cover broadly the identities lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, et. cetera. I use the term FOC to mean individuals who identify with femininity but do not fully define themselves as being female, such as gender queer individuals. I first became interested in this topic because of my own sexual identity- I am queer/bisexual, but am consistently viewed by both queer and hetero communities as straight. It is often confusing to have such an important part of my identity erased. I wondered how other women/FOCs on campus dealt with similar issues- was there a way of dressing queer on campus? Are there signals we send each other without even realizing it? This campus is perfect for studying a queer female/FOC community- it is small enough that I can tackle it in 3 months, yet large and diverse enough that I will have plenty of material.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/219