# Femme
**Femme** is a sexual and gender identity term for a person, most often a lesbian or queer person, whose gender expression and presentation align with culturally defined feminine norms such as dress, makeup, and mannerisms.[1](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190) Borrowed from French *femme* ("woman", from Latin *femina*), the English word entered use in the 1930s and 1940s in working-class lesbian bar culture as one half of the butch-femme pairing, and it has since broadened into a self-description used across LGBTQ+ communities, including by gay men, non-binary people, and transfeminine people.[2](https://gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/en/projects/klargestellt/femme/) • [3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/femme) • [1](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Core meaning | A sexual and gender identity typically associated with gender expression congruent with culturally defined feminine norms[1](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190) |
| Origin | From French *femme*, "woman", from Latin *fēmina*; first recorded in English in 1930–35[3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/femme) • [4](https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=femme) |
| Historical setting | Working-class lesbian bar cultures in the United States in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; the feminine counterpart of butch[5](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/8659/1/PhD_Thesis_Dr_Alexandra_Athelstan_Price_2014.pdf) • [2](https://gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/en/projects/klargestellt/femme/) |
| Grammar | Used as a noun ("a femme") and as an adjective meaning feminine in appearance and behavior, most often about lesbians and sometimes about gay men[6](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/femme_1) |
| Related spelling | Sometimes spelled *fem*, especially in transfeminine usage meaning "to be present in the female role"[1](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190) |
| Broader senses | Any person who adopts a feminine appearance, manner, or persona; slang for a lesbian or gay man exhibiting stereotypical feminine traits[3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/femme) • [4](https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=femme) |
## Etymology and the French word
The French noun *femme* is attested from the 10th century and derives from the Latin *femina*, which meant both "woman" and "female".[7](https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9F0437) Standard French dictionaries define it as a human being of the female sex, an adult woman as opposed to a girl, and, in one sense, a wife.[8](https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/femme/33217) The word also forms many compounds and expressions, such as *femme de chambre* (a chambermaid), *femme de ménage* (a cleaner), *femme au foyer* (a homemaker), and the proverbial *cherchez la femme*, used to suggest that a complex situation has a passionate motive behind it.[7](https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9F0437) • [8](https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/femme/33217)
The word remains a live site of debate in French lexicography. The ninth edition of the *Dictionnaire de l'Académie française*, published in 2024 after ninety years, defines *femme* as a human being defined by sexual characteristics that allow conceiving and bearing children, a wording the Ligue des droits de l'homme criticized by asking whether a sterile or menopausal woman would then not count as one.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2025/05/24/l-histoire-des-dictionnaires-de-langue-francaise-de-l-impossible-inventaire-a-l-epopee-des-mots_6608178_3232.html) In 2019 the Académie had already accepted conclusions on the feminization of names of professions and functions, agreeing to record innovations in usage in its dictionary.[10](https://www.academie-francaise.fr/la-langue-francaise/le-francais-aujourdhui)
## Butch-femme origins, 1940s to 1960s
The term took shape in lesbian bar culture. Research on the term's history locates its origin in USA-based working-class lesbian bar cultures of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, where it most commonly denoted a feminine lesbian who typically coupled with butches and sometimes with other femmes.[5](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/8659/1/PhD_Thesis_Dr_Alexandra_Athelstan_Price_2014.pdf) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender dates the word's entry into usage in Western countries to around the 1940s as part of butch-femme culture in lesbian communities.[1](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190)
The social setting mattered. According to a glossary project at TU Dortmund, the term probably established itself in American subculture in the 1940s, when it became permissible for women to visit bars without a male escort; it initially referred to lesbian women who expressed their gender presentation in a more feminine way, often dressing according to heteronormative expectations in high heels, dresses, or skirts, as counterparts to butches with a more masculine presentation. By the 1950s, butch-femme couples were common in the lesbian subculture.[2](https://gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/en/projects/klargestellt/femme/) The pairing also reached beyond the bars: a dissertation on butch style between the wars describes a "femme witness", a person who functioned as stage manager, typist, travel coordinator, publicist, and emotional support for a butch-styled artist's rise to success.[11](https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2184/)
## Rejection, revival, and femme theory
The labels fell out of favor in the late 1960s and 1970s, when many lesbian feminists rejected [butch and femme](https://www.edgepedia.org/butch-and-femme) roles as imitations of heterosexuality, and suspicion of sexist stereotypes in butch-femme relationships surfaced in the "lesbian sex wars" of the 1980s and 1990s.[12](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539519300822) From the 1990s, queer theory enabled butch and femme to be recontextualized in oppositional and ironic readings of the gender order; in such a reading, femme subjectivity rejects the assumption that feminine behavior predicts desire for the male body.[13](https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65400/1/Thesis-final.pdf)
A distinct body of femme theory has since drawn on historical life writing. Scholars at [York University](https://www.edgepedia.org/york-university) argue that texts including Amber Hollibaugh's *My Dangerous Desires* (2000), Joan Nestle's *A Restricted Country* (1987), Minnie Bruce Pratt's *S/he* (1995), and *The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader*, edited by Nestle in 1992, form a rich resource for femme theory, showing how femmes resisted their cultural and critical marginalization and what femininity meant within the lesbian and feminist communities of their time.[14](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31809661/) [Qualitative research](https://www.edgepedia.org/qualitative-research) also finds that the stereotypes of butches as masculine, assertive, and dominant and femmes as feminine and passive, while sometimes accurate, are often inaccurate.[15](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3189348/)
## Contemporary usage
Today the word operates at several levels. As a noun, it names a subculture and identity; as an adjective, it is a shorter way to describe a more feminine gender presentation, with *fem* available for those who do not identify with the femme subculture.[3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/femme) • [6](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/femme_1) [Dictionary.com](https://www.edgepedia.org/dictionary-com) lists as noun senses a lesbian who embraces identity markers associated with traditional expressions of femininity, a gay man who does the same, and any person who adopts a feminine appearance, manner, or persona; as an adjective it notes or relates to a feminine style or gender expression.[3](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/femme) The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary marks the adjective as sometimes offensive and records that it is most often used about lesbians but sometimes also about gay men.[6](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/femme_1)
Usage has extended into transgender and non-binary communities. In transfeminine communities, *femme* (sometimes spelled *fem*) has meant "to be present in the female role", or refers to one's feminine or female self.[1](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190) A glossary project at TU Dortmund describes femme as a self-description used mostly by lesbian or queer people who express their gender identity in a more feminine way.[2](https://gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/en/projects/klargestellt/femme/) [Community](https://www.edgepedia.org/community) and university glossaries likewise record the term's spread beyond its original lesbian context, with some noting that within older butch and femme communities it carries a more specific historical and cultural meaning than in broad contemporary online use.[16](https://lgbtq.georgetown.edu/glossary-of-lgbtqia-terms/)
## References
1. [Katherine G. Spencer, "Femme", The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender, SAGE](https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384269.n190)
2. ["Femme", #klargestellt glossary, TU Dortmund Gleichstellung](https://gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/en/projects/klargestellt/femme/)
3. ["femme", Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/femme)
4. ["femme", American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition](https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=femme)
5. [Alexandra Athelstan Price, PhD thesis, University of York (2015)](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/8659/1/PhD_Thesis_Dr_Alexandra_Athelstan_Price_2014.pdf)
6. ["femme" adjective, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/femme_1)
7. ["femme", Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9e édition](https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9F0437)
8. ["femme", Dictionnaire de français Larousse](https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/femme/33217)
9. ["L'histoire des dictionnaires de langue française", Le Monde (2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2025/05/24/l-histoire-des-dictionnaires-de-langue-francaise-de-l-impossible-inventaire-a-l-epopee-des-mots_6608178_3232.html)
10. ["Le français aujourd'hui", Académie française](https://www.academie-francaise.fr/la-langue-francaise/le-francais-aujourdhui)
11. [Karen Allison Hammer, "Butch Between the Wars", CUNY Graduate Center dissertation](https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2184/)
12. ["Always endangered, never extinct: Exploring contemporary butch lesbian identity in the UK", ScienceDirect](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539519300822)
13. [PhD thesis, University of Nottingham (2020)](https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65400/1/Thesis-final.pdf)
14. ["Why femme stories matter: Constructing femme theory through historical femme life writing", PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31809661/)
15. ["The Coming-Out Process of Young Lesbian and Bisexual Women", PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3189348/)
16. [Glossary of LGBTQIA+ Terms, LGBTQ Resource Center, Georgetown University](https://lgbtq.georgetown.edu/glossary-of-lgbtqia-terms/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Relationships and social issues › LGBT topics › LGBT — overview*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license