Blurred boundaries in womanhood and femininity in today’s feminism: from lesbian theory to Jack Halberstam’s "Gaga" and "Trans"* identities

Resumen

Lesbian and, more recently, queer studies have played an important role in academia for many years. Authors such as Monique Wittig and Adrienne Rich were of major relevance regarding the vindication of the lesbian identity and the role of heterosexuality within the understanding of womanhood and femininity during the seventies and eighties. However, today gender is more fluid and we can observe the multiplication of the man/woman binary into many other different identities. The understanding of womanhood and the role femininity plays in its configuration have changed greatly. Jack Halberstam already broadened those perspectives in his first works — including the assimilation of masculinity in femaleness — , but proposes nowadays a new vision of gender and feminism which embraces queer and trans* experiences within the categories of womanhood and femininity; a more inclusive feminism which fits the twenty-first century.