Steampunk and the Performance of Gender and Sexuality

Abstract

Do performances of gender in steampunk texts and cosplay destabilise or reinforce contemporary ideologies of masculinity and femininity? While claims have been made that neo-Victorian tropes in steampunk are mobilised to both critique Victorian gender norms and dramatise contemporary understanding of gender identity as fluid, this article argues that such performances are contradictory, not because of the motives of the performer but because of contradictions in the wider culture. The depiction of ‘action babes’ in steampunk texts and costumes in particular represents both an image of an active autonomous woman and the female body as an eroticised object. Unlike the ‘hard’ image of masculinity in steampunk, images of women combine ‘hard’ imagery, especially in the use of weapons, and ‘soft’ imagery in the sexualisation of the female body, resorting to both/and rather than either/or in representations of women. Ultimately the threat of female violence and sexuality is contained within the narrative ‘frame’ of heteronormative sexuality steampunk texts, films and cosplay.