Abstract
Abstract: This article explores how in her novels of the 1880s, Amy Dillwyn uses Welsh flannel to convey a queer female masculinity that is rough, “savage,” working class, and Welsh. Feminine fashions are divested or destroyed: ballgowns go up in flames, corsets are resisted, girls undress to avoid maternally imposed gender constraints. But fine clothes and jewellery are also eroticized proxies for desired women, who are watched voyeuristically from a distance. Dillwyn often pairs her female protagonists with male doubles, and the final section of the essay traces the comic juxtaposition of a masculine woman with an elaborately dressed dandy. Informed by Jack Halberstam’s theories of female masculinity and shadow feminism, this article also draws on Dillwyn’s life writing and her interest in the social and political dimensions of vestimentary codes.
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