Just a few of
The Femmes

 Rachael 
 Mafia Founding Donna
Patent Leather. High heels. Pink guns and pencil skirts. Oats to sow. Whole grain biscuits to eat. Eyes to line and shadow. Lips for sticking. Heels for licking. Wine to sip, drink and gulp. Girls to love and bois to leave. Committed to my curls. Shoulders back, chin up. Frequently falls down flights of stairs. I have little patience for cowardice, especially my own. It is extraordinarily good to be me. My queer and multiracial identities have led me to a fascination with and commitment to living a non-binary life. Owner and soulmate to one Red-tailed Guyanese Boa Constrictor named Jezebel "Delicious" Demerara. Fire eater. Resistantly human. First generation American.

Practical. Powerful. Vain. Intelligent. Carnivorous. Judgmental. Anxious. Sentimental. Blessed, personally and specifically, by the Goddesses who love and guide me.

Rachael Smith is a multiracial high femme turned deep south queer magnolia. She is the founder, organizer and Mafia Donna of Femme Mafia International, a dominatrix by the name of Mistress Medusa, and a professional event planner by day. A burlesque performer, writer, community organizer, fire artist and the sex correspondent for Femme Cast: The Queer Fat Femme Guide to Life, she was voted Local Female Hero 2007 by the readers of Southern Voice magazine.

 Debby 
 Mafia Donna
My feminine identity is a culmination of all of the cultures in my life, Cuban, Middle Eastern, Jewish and Southern. That means that passion runs through my blood, I can strut in 4 inch heels all night, dance til the sun comes up, and throw down some food like no body's business. Not to mention being protective of all of the people I love. I'm not afraid to break a nail or "get latin" on someone if they're messing with someone I love. I don't confuse being femme with being catty. I love other femmes, other women in general, but if you can talk "girl", then I want to know you. I love getting dressed to the nines... glitter, heels, fishnets, big gaudy accessories, perfume, a full face of makeup, and did I mention GLITTER. It's an honor for me to be Co-Donna of the Atlanta Femme Mafia. I do not take this position lightly and my first and foremost priority to find out what other femmes in the community want to see and do. I want to know what's important to you. Making you happy will inevitably make me happy. I want you to feel welcome here. Femme Mafia is about you and your needs. I'm here to make sure as much of it as possible comes true.

 Jen 
 Mafia Donna
To be femme is to cause a stir when you walk into a room; creating second glances so strong it gives someone whiplash. It is the epitome of the womanly essence; the highest feminine order of a female driven world. It is realizing that the sweetest drop of strawberry nectar doesn't come close to the effect of just one of my kisses. It is knowing every one of my curves and appreciating them even if I'm the only one to do so. It is dressing up for the girls that I call my sisters because they'll notice the glittery belt that matches my earrings for the evening. It is projecting my Queerness in a pretty package with one hell of a bow on top. It is admiring other femmes for having the guts to wear a skirt out to the dyke bar, and then inviting them to join me for a drink. It is a never ending battle to describe my sexuality as fluid and that I have the right to love whomever I want without having to cut my hair and join the softball team. It is wearing war paint everyday that sparkles on my eyelids and glistens my lips with a lusty sheen. It is simply and unapologetically me.

 Amanda 
 Mafia Board Member

Being a Southern Femme means more than just being girly. It's about your attitude and how you present yourself to others. I feel that I exude this attitude no matter if I am wearing jeans and a t-shirt or a bombshell outfit. I do love the girly things.. makeup, pearls, pink, purple etc... I just love being a Southern Femme. I now have the opportunity to use my skills for the greater good of Femme Mafia by taking a position on the board. I am organizing Femme Mafia events that serve the LGBTQ community as well as the Atlanta community.

 Amy 
 Mafia Board Member
My outward appearance has always been an interpretation of my inner feelings. This need to present myself in a unique way started at a very young age. When all of the kids at school were wearing leggings, I was wearing leggings with a skating leotard and combat boots. In high school, when my classmates talked about The Great Gatsby, I was dressed like Daisy. I’ve always liked deliberately taking what is accepted and pushing it just a bit further. And, it is this consistent desire and need to express myself past the point of most other feminine identified persons that truly defines High Femme for me. It is taking what is typically accepted as feminine, and subverting it in such a way that it is unexpected, deliberate, and obvious. And, for me, my desire to do all of that is so profound that I wouldn’t be myself without it. Yet, I wasn’t always comfortable being unabashedly high femme and queer until I saw another high femme. This is mostly because even with all of the deliberate subversion, femme identities are still somewhat subtle and harder to recognize. For instance, I thought I was the only high femme (I didn’t know the terminology at the time) queer in existence when I was a teenager. My gender identity was my own dirty secret; and that was rather unfortunate. Which is why I am so proud to be a part of the Femme Mafia; this group has so much to offer all femmes, but especially it offers a community for femmes to learn more about themselves in a safe and welcoming environment.

 Josie 
 Mafia Board Member

My experience with being femme is a little different than some of the other board members. I'm older. I rarely present as High Femme anymore. I don't wear makeup everyday. I must confess, between juggling being a new mom with finishing nursing school, I rarely wear it at all these days.

As time has passed, some of the girly rituals of my youth have fallen by the wayside. I still delight in wearing feminine accessories like filigree dangle earrings, and I'm still perceived as "too feminine" to be a dyke, but I sometimes joke that I've become a "low-maintenance femme". But that's okay. I'm femme not because of what I wear or how I wear it, but because of an internal femme identity that is reflected in how I interact with the world.

I still like to play with my presentation, with my gender performance allowing me to express myself in ever varying ways, reflecting different aspects of who I am. I love to wear costumes or challenge boundaries, and I revel in exploring the outer reaches of my femininity. I want Femme Mafia to be an environment where I can queer femininity to the limits one weekend, and then bask in the glow of shared femme energy while being a low-maintenance femme the next. I want us to provide spaces where we can be as femme as we want, when we want, and how we want.

 Aly 
 Mafia Femme 

Mom to five bad dogs and three terrible cats, I really enjoy birds, glittery heels, Craigslist missed connections, dance-offs, and the New South. Also, red wine. Mmm. Dolly Parton saves my life every day. And like Virginia Woolf, "I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art," which I interpret as eyeshadow and tattoos and all kinds of other tools my people use to consciously construct and queer gender and identity. Oh yes.

Andi  
 Mafia Femme  

I'm Andi.
I am Femme.
I am Femme because I love shoes and social activism.
Oh, and queer lovin'. And lots of eyeliner.
I'm Jamaican, but I look white. I'm queer, but I look straight.
I can be bad but I look like a good girl.
My dog Savannah is my princess and together we live in a cute little trolley on top of a hill. I would have been the perfect 1950s housewife because I am an excellent hostess and my cooking is divine, however I curse like a sailor and have read way too much Feminist theory.
I'm a Modern Femme Queer who's independent, sassy, spicy, smart, and sometimes even sweet.

 Andrea 
 Mafia Femme
“If I have any agency, it is opened up by the fact that I am constituted by a social world I never chose.” (Judith Butler) I am a self-professed nerd on a mission to shake things up in the ivory tower. I have a love-hate relationship with Judith Butler, queer theory and the academy in general. I put my faith in the integrity of my allies as well as the predictability of my enemies. I have not given up hope on the Left despite its severe case of schizophrenia. I am a whore for good wine and postmodern observations. I love to watch irony unfold. I think humor is one of the most powerful weapons we have left. My femme role models include Gwen Stefani, Buffy (yes, the fictional vampire slayer) and my stylish little sister. I predict that what Judith Halberstam did to raise awareness of female masculinities Femme Mafia will do for femme/female femininities. My hair changes as frequently as my strategies for fighting the Religious Right. I love books but take the greatest pleasure in discussing them with others, preferably over cocktails. I do not think that the production of knowledge(s) should be the purview of the few. I despise elitism in its various guises. Likewise, I do not believe that categories such as queer or feminine/femme are the property of a single, homogenous group/identity. To be femme, for me, is to be self-aware of one’s own subject performance (as queer, as feminine, as feminist, etc.) while also being open to dialogue with the performances, with the lives of those around us both friend and foe.
 

 Carey 
 Mafia Femme

Last year, I finally overcame my fear and judgment of the color pink – it had been a symbol of restriction for me. Ironically, my pink submersion has freed me in ways I find difficult to articulate...
I am stubborn. I am in love with the rituals of all gendered presentations, but I don’t think any one is big enough to contain me. Let me be clear that I do not claim any rights to a genderqueer experience. I do however recognize, and love, that my gender is complicated in terms of roles, expectations and expressions. I look at my life as 27 years of traipsing (sometimes prancing, sometimes stomping) along a spectrum of presentations. My friends know (and for the most part accept) that they may not recognize me the next time I walk into the room. I love playing with and changing my image - the performance of my soul at that moment in time. My kind of femme is sometimes raw, sometimes dirty, sometimes bourgie, sometimes silly – and almost always, over the top. Right now my soul calls for a femme wardrobe, but I reserve the right to once again trade these sequined stilettos in for combat boots.
FYI: To me, the most astounding invention of the 20th century was the bobby pin.

 Christina 
 Mafia Femme

The word obsessed does not even begin to describe my passion for hot pink. I love make-up (especially sassy eyeshadow and lipgloss), super cheesy romantic comedy movies, 80s music, big earrings, short skirts, candles that smell like flowers, purses, electronics and appliances that come in pink, trivia games, hardback books. I manage to have a closet just for my shoes in my one bedroom apartment that usually shocks my friends with the amount of pink heels. To date I own 32 pairs of pink shoes. I have a fascination with mermaids. I want more tattoos someday. When I grow up I want to be an actor. My mom and my sister are my top two favorite people in the world. My girlfriend coordinates her outfits to mine when we go out for special occasions, which makes me love her all the more. And I am proud to say I have turned her into a shopaholic. I wish people broke into song and dance all the time, perfectly choreographed. I like to pretend I have a soundtrack to my life. I forget how old I am most of the time. I love femme and everything about it.

 Joelle 
  Mafia Femme
I’m J-O-E-L-L-E, the beer-drinking, nudist, femme extraordinaire! I am a new transplant to Atlanta, by way of Milwaukee and I am so glad to be in a fabulous new city where femmes have truly made their place. I’m a sassy, voluptuous, confident, and well-adjusted lady-lover. However, coming to terms with my lesbian identity has been a quite a journey. As I look back on my childhood, I showed all the signs of a lesbian-in-the-making - the strange games I played with my childhood girl friends, the tomboy experience, the lengthy vegetarian phase, the thrift store/hippy phase, my incessant love for sleepovers, and the fact that I went to my first Pride Fest at the age of 12 (because of my "love for experiencing other cultures" of course). All pretty obvious signs. I think I always knew, but it wasn't solidified until college. Nonetheless, I'm here, I'm queer and I'm proud.
I believe the best people in the world are nudists. Don’t be surprised if you come over and I answer the door in only a feather boa and flashy gold heels (LOL)! I’m constantly trying to convert more ladies to my world! I love talking about and embracing my sexuality and that of others. I believe that if everyone in the world just had a few more orgasms on a regular basis, we'd have a better world. I believe in the possibility of polyamory. I get really excited about lesbians who do not fit into the mainstream expectations within queer culture. I'm a femme, but that doesn't reveal all that much about me aside from the fact that I like the way my legs and ass look in a pair of stilettos; I like for the shape of my curves to NOT be a figment of the imagination; and I feel extraordinarily uncomfortable when I can't find my bronzy lip gloss. However, I sure as hell can't cook, I’m far from domestic, I’m rarely submissive and I can't live without my stash of Miller Lite in my fridge. I certainly identify as a dominant femme, but I'm versatile. All in all, I regularly bask in my femme fabulousness, I’m just not your ordinary femme!
 

Kathleen 
 Mafia Femme

 Mimie 
 Mafia Femme

 Rian 
 Mafia Femme

after years of denying my inner femme for reasons embedded in stereotype, i am so proud to be the loud, sassy, blossoming MAC fiend that i have become. the day i realized i was a tomboi femme was the day i realized that i had too much nail polish, seven too many pair of pumps, and a too strong affinity for the song "One Time for the Big Girls" to deny the femme part of myself any longer. you can recognize me by my big ass silver hoops, track jackets and too tight for T.V. denim jeans. through my clothing i blend my inner boi and my grown ass woman all in one. my legs are the sexiest part of my body and when i wear skirts i demand that you pay attention to them. the best thing that has ever happened to me was realizing that i could command respect and attention all while wearing a pair of fuck me good pumps, a mini skirt, and bursting cleavage and still be a bad bitch. i'm learning to become comfortable with that fact that i sometimes feel sexiest when i have on baggy cargo shorts, vintage tees and chuck taylors with a nice matching lace bra and panty set from Vicky's secret underneath. until i can find the words to express all i have the potential to become, i will continue taking hours to get ready for a night out on the town, continue spending unreasonable (by some standards) amounts of money on makeup, designer sunglasses, shoes, hair products and of course NAIL POLISH to express this all too fine Big girl femme within...

 Saliena 
 Mafia Femme 

I am a 32 year old devilish femme. I am at an amazing point in my life and in my personal growth. I find both complete comfort and complete understanding in my femme energy. While at different points in my life I have left my beloved city of Atlanta GA there is something so special about this city that she keeps me coming back. She entangles me like a lover and she gives me the support of my best friend.
I don’t know where my life will take me but Atlanta will always be home.
I am a professional woman who attended Ga Tech and my work is very important to me. But, it does not rule my life. I have been on the board for the Femme Mafia for about a year and I have really enjoyed the growth and personal relationships that I developed with other Femmes. I would not exchange the experience for anything in the world.

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