Girlfags und Guydykes

Girlfag is a term that developed in queer and pomosexual subcultures. It refers to a woman who feels a strong romantic or erotic attraction towards gay or bisexual men. She might partly or wholly feel like a "gay man trapped in a woman's body". As girlfags feel attraction to gay men and to gay culture for its own sake, they have no interest in “turning gay men straight”. Girlfags might be attracted to other types of people as well. Their self-identification as gay, straight or bisexual, and as female, male or both may vary.

Usage and related terms

The concept of girlfags is known to queer subcultures since authors like Carol Queen and Jill Nagle came out as gay-male identified women in the late 1990s. The term girlfag had been coined for this phenomenon by Jill Nagle, before the GirlFags Discussion Group on YahooGroups was founded in 2000. Since then, the group has gained more than 3000 members and the concept of girlfags became more known. Today, there are resources and groups for girlfags internationally.

While in the past, the term fag hag seems to have referred both to women who were either platonically or romantically and sexually interested in gay men, today, fag hag refers to women who have platonic friendships with gay men, while girlfag refers to women who are romantically and sexually interested in gay men.Vorlage:Fact

As many girlfags identify “as a gay man trapped in a woman’s body”, the term is also connected to transfag, or to female-to-gay-male transsexual.

It has also been suggested by the popular yaoi-style novelist Sakakibara Shihomi, that some fujoshi, or female fans of yaoi might be gay male identified: “In her book Yaoi genron (1998), Sakakibara Shihomi […] describes herself as a gay man in a woman's body (a "female-to-male gay" transsexual). S/he suggests that this condition may be quite common among fans of this genre and may in fact be the reason for its existence.” Bagemihl has shown that there are some similarities between fag hags, female-to-gay-male transsexuals and female fans of slash, another form of gay male erotica by women for women, that has been compared to yaoi: “There is nothing new about women identifying as gay men or eroticising and idealizing sexual relationships between men. In fact, striking parallels to the sentiments expressed by many female-to-gay male transsexuals can be found in two unlikely areas: 'fag-hagging' and K/S [Kirk/Spock] “slash” fanzines.” If that is the case, the terms fujoshi, slash fan, and girlfag might describe related phenomena.

Female-to-gay-male desire in literature and science

There have been several female authors who have specialized on gay male fiction, e.g. Mary Renault. Some, like Poppy Z. Brite, have remarked that they use literature as a means to express a gay male gender identification. Queer studies scholar Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has written extensively about her gay male identification and relationships with gay men, and has stated it as an important motivation for her work: “Probably my own most formative influence from quite an early age has been a viscerally intense, highly speculative (not to say inventive) cross-identification with gay men and gay male cultures as I inferred, imagined, and later came to know them.”

Guydyke

A guydyke is a man who feels a strong romantic or erotic attraction to bi and lesbian women, and who might identify partially or completely as a “lesbian in a man’s body”. The term was coined in about 2001 as an equivalent to girlfag. While guydykes often participate in girlfag forums and groups, so far there is only one forum for guydykes (in German).

The concept became more known when during Season 1 of the American and Canadian co-production television drama series The L-Word a lesbian-identified man called Lisa had a short relationship with a lesbian womanVorlage:Failed verification, though the term guydyke is not mentioned on screen.

Another example for a guydyke in popular fiction is Stuart ("Stu") from the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. Although Stu is biologically male, he is described as "more stereotypically lesbian than many lesbians" and is in a long-term intimate relationship with a lesbian woman.

Literature

• Brite, Poppy Z. (1998) “Enough Rope” in: Tuttle, Lisa [Ed.] Crossing the Border: Tales of Erotic Ambiguity. USA: Indigo Books; http://www.poppyzbrite.com/rope.html
• Queen, Carol u. Schimel, Laurence [Ed.]: PoMosexuals. USA: Cleis Press (1997).
• Meyer, Uli: "ALMOST HOMOSEXUAL" – Schwule Frauen/ Schwule Transgender (GirlFags/Trans*Fags): http://www.liminalis.de/artikel/Liminalis2007_meyer.pdf
• Meyer, Uli: “Hidden in Straight Sight – Transgressing Gender and Sexuality via Boys Love” in: Levi, McHarry, Pagliasotti: Girls Doing Boys Doing Boys: Japanese Boys’ Love Anime and Manga in a Globalized World, McFarland & Company. (in print).
• Nagle, Jill: "MANLY, YES, BUT I LIKE IT TOO: A self-described 'girlfag' reveals the truth behind her yen for sex with gay men", BUST Magazine, Summer 2003
• Rampling, Clare T.: "Who's that girlfag?" BUST Magazine, Summer 2003, p. 65
• Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1993): Tendencies. USA: Duke University Press.
• currently Janet W. Hardy, coauthor of "The Ethical Slut", is nearing completion of a memoir called "Girlfag: A Life Told In Sex and Musicals". see also: http://www.janetwhardy.com/

See also

• Boi
• Fag Hag
• Tomboy

External links

• http://www.girlfags.com
• The GirlFags Community at LifeJournal.com
• Appearance of three girlfags on The Tyra Banks Show
• http://girlfags.chapso.de: German homepage about GirlFags
• Interview with a GirlFag (German)
• German homepage about guydykes

Vorlage:Gender-stub