New Books in Critical Theory Femmephilia: Love Letters to Trans Mermaids, Queer Mothers, and Marilyn Monroe with Sophie Lewis
Sep 26, 2026
Sophie Lewis, feminist theorist and author of Femmephilia, explores femme pleasure, Marilyn Monroe’s agency, and the radical possibilities of mermaids. She examines trans exclusion, colonial gender norms, Andrea Dworkin’s anti-utopian turn, the limits of misandry, and the contradictions of tradwife culture. Across these essays, queer longing meets anticapitalist and abolitionist feminism.
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Femme Separates Care From Capitalist Discipline
- Sophie Lewis distinguishes capitalist femininity as imposed labor from femme as chosen, pleasurable, creative relationality.
- She links this distinction to wages-for-housework feminism and the possibility of freely shared care after patriarchy.
Marilyn Monroe Made Pleasure Political
- Sophie Lewis reinterprets Marilyn Monroe as an intellectually ambitious worker who actively crafted pleasure and public connection.
- Monroe’s self-made identities, communist sympathies, and refusal to “yield” before giving herself complicate the victim-only image.
How Liberal Feminism Defangs Radical History
- Sophie Lewis argues that liberal feminist histories assimilate radical movements into patriotic, capitalist citizenship narratives.
- She identifies this pattern in Lillian Faderman’s exclusion of transfeminine figures and rejection of care-centered, anti-property feminism.
