I have seen Femmes self-identify as Low Femme. It's been several years and maybe they might identify differently now, but at the time, they were saying things like, "I am the opposite of a High Femme; I wear comfortable shoes, jeans, no makeup," to explain the difference.
I've never known a different term for High Femme, but since it's a description of a "glamor girl" type Femme, I usually just say glamor girl.
It has been presented as a hierarchy for a long time and that's a major reason I have had trouble with the idea of being "Femme enough." When I was still fairly new in the community at the Dash site, there were multiple serious threads which proclaimed that one had to be a glamor girl in order to be successful at being Femme. That was before those of us who say "Femme is what we are, not what we wear" outnumbered those who said "Femme is what we wear and what we do."
I think our community has evolved a LOT over the past seven years, and our gender discussions have brought us all much farther along than we might ordinarily notice, without a conversation like this to jog our memories. There was a time that talking about the hierarchy between High and Low Femmes would merely have gotten a "yes, that's the way it should be" answer. I'm glad it doesn't happen like that anymore; I'm glad we're questioning the stereotypes.
I'm sorry that julieisafemme, blush, and apretty have run into such clueless Butches! Sheesh. Well... I suppose I have too, but on the other side of things, Butches who were unhappy that I chose to wear makeup or that I had long hair.... as if those choices were about BUTCHES?
Hello, MY face, MY hair, MY gender expression, MY choice.
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