The Femme Guild of Sydney

Mardi Gras Parade

2011-02-16T08:57:00.002+11:00

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE:

SCARLET ALLIANCE, SWOP NSW, FEMME GUILD, FAT EMPIRE and STILL FIERCE
2011 MARDI GRAS FLOAT

“OUR BODIES SAY SOMETHING…”
A BODY POSITIVE FLOAT

RSVP NOW TO admin at scarletalliance dot org dot au or 02 9326 9455

WORKING BEES SOON!

BRING:
YOUR POISON,
OUTFITS,
SPARKLES,
SUPPORTERS,
LOVERS,
FAMILY
& FRIENDS

Mardi Gras Update

2011-02-01T08:27:00.004+11:00

Thats right Femmes and SOFAs, its nearly Sydney Mardi Gras time...

Femme Guild is having a stall again at Fair Day on 20 February, between 8.30am and 4.30pm. Our theme is 'Femme Fantasy Island' - whats your fantasy of Femme? Why not cruise on by and say hi!

Fair Day is a great time to sit on the grass, chill out, gorge on food and catch up with friends.

Don't forget your sunscreen and water, cos its always a scorcher!

**********

We are going ahead with marching in the Parade on 5 March (this year's theme is "Say Something...") - we've combined forces with the Scarlett Alliance, Fat Femme Front and Still Fierce to say something about bodies and body politics.

If you'd like to march in the Parade with us, please email parade@femmeguild.com or you can register on the day at Fair Day. Registrations close 20 February.

All Femmes and Allies are welcome to march under our entry.

**********

Finally.... Femme Guild is holding a Mardi Gras recovery party on 6 March at the Red Rattler.

"The Love Boat: A gay recovery cruise cabaret."Presented by the Femme Guild of SydneySunday 6th March, 6pm - Midnight

The Red Rattler.$30/$20 valid concession card.

www.daisytickets.com Tickets on sale February 10th

The Femme Guild of Sydney is proud to present a high-quality recovery party packed with some of Australia's best entertainment. Good, cheap food, cock/mocktails, deck games.

With Tobin Saunders (AKA Vanessa Wagner)

Glitta Supernova

Fancy Piece

Drew Fairley

Kira Hu La La

Jayvante Swing

Pacific Heat (debut)

Furlesque (debut)

DJ Sveta

DJ Charlie VillasPlus more to be announced
Dress code: Gay Cruise.

Femme Conference Timetable

2010-10-05T13:50:00.002+11:00

after many late nights and brainstorming sessions, the timetable is finally online here!

A weekend of Femme-fabulousness, discussions, food, music and dance - come along and celebrate all things Femme!

Article on the Sydney Femme Guild, in the latest Cherrie Magazine

2010-09-23T09:02:00.003+10:00

Click on the images to embiggen...

Femme Conference

2010-09-15T08:33:00.000+10:00

Femme Conference Update

2010-09-06T10:12:00.000+10:00

At the last conference meeting we made the decision to cut the conference down from 4 to 2 days due to time restraints and a shrinkage in the number of persons presently able to commit their time.

The conference will now be held Saturday 9th October & Sunday 10th. The Saturday will comprise of a day program of speakers, panelists and workshops. The Saturday night will be the 'Checker Ball' party. Sunday, a potluck food-share wind down/social gathering. All 3 events will still be held at the Rattler.
We have extended speaker/panelist/workshop submissions until Friday 10th September then we can move forward, finalise the program and get this show on the road.

We are also looking for volunteers to help with conference registration, door biatch duties, bar staff with RSAs, bump-in/bump-out, etc for both days (Saturday in particular). You will be compensated for your time with free entry to the given event and with FEMME LOVE!!!

x Femme Solidarity and Love x

Sydney Femme Conference 2010 Call Out

2010-07-30T10:21:00.001+10:00

The Inaugural Sydney Femme Conference
Presented by the Sydney Femme Guild.
Femme in the Frame

The Red Rattler Theatre
6 Faversham Street Marrickville
7th- 10th October 2010
www.femmeguild.com

Callout for Presentations, Workshops, Panels, Visual art and Performance.

The Sydney Femme Guild is a moving feast of Femmes committed to fostering Femme friendships, building Femme community and raising Femme visibility in the queer and wider communities. Formed in early 2009, the Femme Guild has been creating community spaces, activism, parties, education, hospitality and networking for Femmes in the Sydney area and reaching out to Femme groups across Australia and the world.

Alongside the momentum of the international Femme community and conferences, the Sydney Femme Guild is excited to present a 4 day symposium covering a wide and inspiring spectrum of the Femme experience.

We are inviting Femmes, Activists, Artists, Academics and Organisers from Australia and around the world to contribute:

Workshops
Skill shares
Panel Presentations
Visual Art and Performance
Activist & organizational topics.

We welcome submissions from particularly from Femmes and Femme Elders, and also from Femme allies. We support submissions from Indigenous Australians, People of Colour, Fat Folks, Working Class folks, People with Disabilities, Queer Youth and hope to create a space that we can explore the intersection of Femme with other identities and experiences, privileges and access around the topic of “Femme in the Frame.”

Please send a summary of your submission to conference@femmeguild.com before August 30th, 2010.

National Femme Conference - Sydney 2010

2010-06-07T12:16:00.000+10:00

SAVE THESE DATES!

The Sydney Femme Guild is hosting the inaugural National Femme Conference, October 7 - October 10, 2010.

'Femme in the Frame'

Red Rattler Theatre, 6 Faversham St, Marrickville NSW Australia. Four days of all things Femme-centric: workshops, food, art, networking and of course - a party!

Sydney GLBTQI Mardi Gras round-up

2010-06-07T12:02:00.000+10:00

Just some gratuitous photos from Sydney GLBTQI Mardi Gras and Fair Day 2010...

The Parade....

Party photos - Hanky Panky and Save the Butch

2010-06-02T11:58:00.020+10:00

Phew. What a year its been!

Hard to believe Hanky Panky was a year ago, and people are still talking about it!

As the Sydney Femme Guild's first party, it went off amazingly!

A big thanks to all the volunteers, people who submitted art works and Nelly X for the photos)

Sydney also played host to Bird la Bird, from Bird Club in November 2009 (a London based performance/cabaret celebrating Queer Femininity in all its forms). She put on Save the Butch! (tongue in cheek) as a night for Butches to feel some love from the community, and Femme Guild gladly volunteered to help her run it.

Femme Guild: (a brazen celebratory un-manifesto on gender & desire)

2009-01-26T15:00:00.001+11:00

“Femmes need to do a lot more work – finding the language, the political positions, the thinking that is unique to us… There was a time in my life when I didn’t consider myself femme unless I was on the arm of a butch. Now I know that I have a whole world I carry with me.”

-Joan Nestle, (2004)

Femme is not a dirty word. It is not reducible to aprons and muffins. Femme is not an afterthought. It is not a footnote in the encyclopedia of Queer Studies. It is not the forgone conclusion to the sentence that starts “butch and”.

As femmes we do carry ‘whole worlds’ within us…. And our unique realities can sometimes be misunderstood. Femme sexual agency goes along way beyond desiring to be desired. We shrug off the association of any oppressive equation of femme with retrograde anti-feminist politics, with presumptive submissiveness, with any whiff of so-called “straight-acting” disguise.

There is a strength in femme that refuses to be rubbed out or overwritten. What unites Femme Guild is a celebratory passion for femme power; a power that is rich and formidable. Femme is a gender performance crystallized into a deep-seated identity. It is a radical, queer embodiment of femininity camping out in bodies regardless of sex or race or class.

Femme Guild does not seek to privilege a femme identity above any other. Nor do we wish to ascribe characteristics to ‘what femme is’ that might homogenise or exclude diverse or dissident experiences. Think you’re femme? You probably are.

We actively recognise the generations of activism that have challenged traditional gender roles and struggled to explode the die-hard myth of the sex/gender binary. Femme Guild peacefully co-exists with other radical ways to play with gender, or to be a woman. There is no one way to be a woman, to be Trans, to be queer, or to be a man.

Femme Guild encapsulates itself with three words: Solidarity. Celebration. Visibility. It is this and more. Femme Guild becomes a forum in which we can discuss amongst ourselves, and engage with everybody:

How do we read femme? How can a femme on her own, be radical or even subversive? Is the femme presumed to be heterosexual without the visibility of the object of her desire? What queers femme, and how do femmes inhabit and express their own queer bodies?

There are no proscriptions as to how to embody a femme identity, nor are there proscriptions as to the objects of femme desire: (inclusive of, but not restricted to) femmes loving butches, loving other femmes, loving trans-guys, MTFs, bois, men, and those who choose not to identify under any labels.

Femmes stand in solidarity with the broad, diverse and welcoming queer community; and with each other, in creating a supportive and safe space for femmes’ ‘coming-outs’, stories, rants and friendships. Femme Guild is positive and beautiful. With our visibility in Mardi Gras, and with events in Sydney and global collaboration with other femme networks, we are manifesting an awareness, understanding, and ultimately a celebration of femme identity and the worlds we contain within us.