Performing Femininity : Rewriting Gender Identity

As a woman whose brand of feminism is suspect, Lesa Lockford places herself in the most shameful, the most abject circumstances: an image obsessed weight-watcher, an exotic dancer, and a theatrical performer. This experimental autoethnography provides a model to the ethnographer and rewards the student of gender studies with a rare perspective.

A personal, revealing, and sometimes humorous exploration of female experience, Performing Femininity challenges traditional and feminist perspectives on gender roles. Using ethnographic method, Lesa Lockford transforms herself into an image-obsessed weight watcher, an exotic dancer, and a theatrical performer. In several evocative narratives, Lockford uses this experimental methodology to rupture the conventional dichotomy of patriarchal versus feminist points of view, goading and challenging her audience as she breaches the borders of these typically opposed ideologies. She explores how both paradigms constrain women, but also how they are simultaneously enacted and subverted in the "performances" women play in their daily lives. Performing Femininity will be a provocative read for the student of feminist thought and for those researchers looking at innovative ways to produce and present their research.