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 Jack Halberstam talks to Gretchen Riordan about his gender theory work and queer animation.
Jack (formerly Judith) Halberstam is Professor of English and Director for the Center for Feminist Research at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Female Masculinity and The Drag King Book with photographer Del LaGrace Volcano.
Female Masculinity (1998) broke new ground by analysing the spectrum of masculinities that are performed by females (though not necessarily women) or as Halberstam explains, “masculinity without men”.
The book highlights the spectacular range of possibilities available to females, from pre-20th century figures such as the androgyne, the tribade and the female husband to more contemporary figures such as butch lesbians, female-to-male men and drag kings. But what are the differences between male masculinities and female ones? Are female masculinities simply copies of male ones or is something more intriguing going on?
“Far from being an imitation of maleness, female masculinity actually affords us a glimpse of how maleness is constructed as masculinity,” Halberstam tells CHERRIE. Masculinity without men suggests that male masculinities and the social, sexual and economic privileges that masculinities afford men are not their natural right but a product of a gender system that arbitrarily privileges certain expressions of gender over others, he proffers. If male masculinities tend to define themselves as ‘naturally’ opposed to and superior to female femininities then female masculinities jam the gender machine by suggesting other possibilities – queer constellations of sex, gender and desire that need not be tied to normative assumptions about what is ‘natural’ and therefore ‘right’. And we don’t need queer theory to explain that the mismatch between female bodies and masculinity is hot!
Historically, butch/femme sexuality has been a favorite target for feminist critique – as in the oft touted assumption that butches and FTM’s repeat the traits that are oppressive to women, such as sexually objectifying femmes and/or participating in social structures that privilege men at the expense of women. Halberstam asserts that this criticism is “based on an antiquated notion of gender in terms of copy and original”. In other words, it’s not that female masculinities are copies of male masculinities. Through the mismatch between femaleness and masculinity, female masculinities destroy the entire concept of the original (male masculinity) and copy (female masculinity) and the hierarchy that implicitly structures it.
Halberstam’s latest work maintains his long-standing interest in spaces where the relations between sex, gender and desire are imagined differently from the norm, this time turning towards the almost limitless creative possibilities afforded by animation. Halberstam is interested in ‘pixarvolt’, a new format for animation-driven computer generated image technology that enables animators to foreground themes of revolution and transformation. Pixarvolt animation forges clear links between communitarian revolt and queer embodiment, queerness and socialist struggle. Pixarvolt animation posits “alternative forms of embodiment and desire [as] central to the struggle against corporate domination”, Halberstam explains.
Jack Halberstam will give a public lecture on queer animation on Friday 1 August from 6pm at the Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo, Sydney. $25/$20. Bookings: www.ticketek.com.au
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