Ebook: Bad Girls, Dirty Bodies: Sex, Performance and Safe Femininity

What makes a woman ‘bad’ is commonly linked to certain ‘qualities’ or behaviours seen as morally or socially corrosive, dirty and disgusting. In Bad Girls, Dirty Bodies, Gemma Commane critically explores the social, sexual and political significance of women who are labelled ‘bad,’ sluts or dirty. Through a variety of case studies drawn from qualitative and original ethnographic research, she argues that ‘bad girls’ disrupt heterosexual normativity and contribute new embodied knowledge. From neo-burlesque, sex-positive and queer performance art, to explicit entertainment and areas of popular culture; Commane situates ‘bad’ women as sites of power, possibility and success. The case studies (for example, Rockbitch, Empress Stah, RubberDoll and others) offer an important insight into a history, where alternative women and femininities have continued a legacy of challenging societal expectations surrounding what makes a good/bad woman.
Significantly, Commane develops a much-needed unpicking of the issues generated by women who are complicit in the subjugation, policing and marginalization of ‘other’ women, both in popular culture and in sites of subcultural resistance.