Are denigrated as looking like “a drag queen” (which they often are) or as “hard” or other ways of saying “unfeminine” it’s essentially about delegitimizing working class women’s status as women and thus invalidating their feminine performance. To perform working class femininity is weird and paradoxical because it’s opposed to the construction of “true femininity” (soft, delicate, passive, subtle bourgeois femininity). Like true femininity as it is constructed is distinctly opposed to looking like a barbie doll, bourgeois femininity is considered natural and real, whereas working class women are considered to be only masquerading as feminine, and they are seen either as mindless objects, “only an appearance” without any true femininity (or anything else) behind it, or as pretenders to femininity, non-women to whom it does not naturally come.
The hyperfeminine appearing hypersexual “uncultured” non-woman is often contrasted with the refined, virtuous, pure “true woman”. Bourgeois men are culturally chastised for marrying the “bit o’ fluff bimbo” but the same stereotype is used as a boogey man to keep bourgeois women invested in pleasing their men
like I get this and I agree with you but I have this sinking feeling that this is a very very white-exclusive phenomenon
where I come from you don’t get told you look like a drag queen you get told you look like a Mexican
I think “status as women” is the thing I’m keying on here and I wanna unpack what we mean as white cisfeminine ppl when we talk about “status as women” because I know what you mean but oh god I’m so hungover and my house is going to fill up with Army Trash here in an hour
I’m pretty sure we’re legit cousins tho so I mean if you wanna displace the inlaws I got a 12 pound turkey
Like the cultural agreement that that yr womanhood is legitimate, WOC are often denied status as “legitimate women” by white society. (I’m genderfluid tho) and heh probably I’m with my fam and hanging out with my awesome baby cousin
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 