Queer Legibility in Everyday Life: Appearance, Sexual Identity Performance and Intra-Community Norms Among Queer-Identified Women in Germany

Abstract

This thesis qualitatively examines how queer-identified women in Berlin and Schleswig- Holstein navigate appearance norms of local queer communities and the wider Queer Community in their everyday life. For this purpose, I conducted narrative interviews with four queer women from Berlin and five from Schleswig-Holstein. The findings show that in making themselves legible as queer through clothing, hairstyle, body shape and gestures, the participants draw on a queer sub-cultural knowledge system that shapes which appearances are understood as queer-coded and make a woman legible as queer to other queer women. While the participants acknowledge this shared understanding, they do not experience it as a prescriptive queer appearance norm. The participants frame queer legibility primarily in terms of practical relevance, rather than as something they associate with pressure. Nevertheless, they recall experiences of legibility pressure across queer and non-queer social spaces. Safety concerns are another factor that influences their legibility practices and the participants assess carefully where to be legible as queer and by which means of appearance. Public spaces, especially at night, are associated with particular concerns, shaped by the intersection of a female sex and a queer sexual identity....