Soft Femme Theory: Femme Internet Aesthetics and the Politics of “Softness”

Abstract

Twenty years ago, the figure of the femme appeared on a book cover wielding a knife; more recently, the femme has appeared on Instagram crying in a Polly Pocket skirt. Online, femme is increasingly called “tender,” “radically vulnerable,” and “soft.” In this article, I examine soft femme digital culture on Instagram, and argue that the discourse of “softness” is used to articulate belonging and to resist neoliberal, masculinist logics. Through an analysis of Instagram images and interviews with femmes, I develop an understanding of softness as a combination of emotionality, vulnerability, relationality, and hyperfemininity. I argue that soft femme is an aesthetic form and a theoretical position that expands the category of femme to be more inclusive of diverse subjects. Soft femme theory fills the gaps in femme theory left by critiques of existing femme identity theory that centers performance, irony, and the figure of the hard femme. Through the discourse of softness, femme becomes something one can be like, rather than something one just looks like.