Meet FM Board Member Josie

My experience with being femme is a little different than some of the other board members. I'm older. I rarely present as High Femme anymore. I don't wear makeup everyday. I must confess, between juggling being a new mom with finishing nursing school, I rarely wear it at all these days.

As time has passed, some of the girly rituals of my youth have fallen by the wayside. I still delight in wearing feminine accessories like filigree dangle earrings, and I'm still perceived as "too feminine" to be a dyke, but I sometimes joke that I've become a "low-maintenance femme". But that's okay. I'm femme not because of what I wear or how I wear it, but because of an internal femme identity that is reflected in how I interact with the world.

I still like to play with my presentation, with my gender performance allowing me to express myself in ever varying ways, reflecting different aspects of who I am. I love to wear costumes or challenge boundaries, and I revel in exploring the outer reaches of my femininity. I want Femme Mafia to be an environment where I can queer femininity to the limits one weekend, and then bask in the glow of shared femme energy while being a low-maintenance femme the next. I want us to provide spaces where we can be as femme as we want, when we want, and how we want.

As a Femme Mafia board member, I'll focus on helping this community grow both outwards, to reach new members, and inwards, to embrace old ones.