New Hero: Femmmeow
Dust off those vintage pulp romances your mother used to read and get ready for Sky of Femmmeow, an artist introducing a modern twist on those cringe covers. Read on as Femmmeow tells us all about how they best navigate hyper-misogynistic imagery, reclaim femininity, and dish out their list of Instagram crushes.
Artist Sky of @Femmmeow and @Femmmeowpulp sits down with Aurore to talk about their pulp covers, queer identity, and Instagram crushes.
There is SO much we want to know about your pulp covers — how did this idea come to you? What does your process look like? How has your artwork evolved as time has gone on and your world has changed?
I started making memes in 2019 on my @femmmeow account during a very dark time in my life as a way to process my childhood trauma and my coming out. I knew I wasn’t the only person who felt the things I was feeling. By sharing memes, I thought I could help myself and others heal through humor and by forming a community online. Over time I grew tired of the standard meme format and was looking for new, creative ways to share my thoughts with people. I taught myself photoshop at the beginning of the pandemic and was drawn to the over-the-top drama of the vintage pulp covers. I always found the melodramatic themes of vintage pulp covers to be humorous, and thought they would be the perfect way to juxtapose modern messages against the incredibly sexist portrayals of women, allowing them to have a more empowered narrative.
The posters you rework are oftentimes very hyper-misogynistic. How do you reclaim that sexuality for a feminist/queer/radical new purpose?
I don’t know if I am ever able to fully reclaim them, to be perfectly frank. I try my best, though. At the end of the day, the illustrations were still created by cishet white men for other cishet white men. However, this makes them the perfect medium with which I am able to discuss my own struggles to unlearn that cishetero-patriarchal brainwashing we were all indoctrinated with. I do relish the fact that the original artists would be outraged seeing how I repurpose their original works. The reason I choose these usually extremely offensive covers is to illustrate that while these covers were created over 70 years ago, women today are still dealing with these same issues. These themes haven’t just magically gone away over time. We have not made as much progress as we think, especially for Black and Brown women.
One of the pulp covers created by Femmmeow, featuring a 50’s-esque figure with the caption: The Unsolicited DICK PIC — Literally no one asked for this.
A lot of your followers (us included) also feel a kinship with your sometimes sharp and always funny IG captions. Tell us about how you’ve found comfort in expressing intimate parts of your life in a social media space.
Well, I’m a Cancer Rising and a Pisces Moon, so sharing every intimate thoughts and emotions comes very easily to me lol. However, my Capricorn Sun likes the anonymity of the internet. I get to show certain parts of myself but not all. On my art account, I like that my art stands on its own. I want people to see the art first instead of seeing me and then viewing the art through the filter of whatever ideas of me they have constructed in their minds. I felt extremely alone and isolated as a kid. But I think many of us, myself included, use comedy as a coping mechanism and a way to heal. Every time I share something personal on my page, I think “Even if this makes one person feel seen and validated, that gives me immense joy.”
Tell us about how you experience the connection between queerness and femininity.
Reclaiming my femininity and feeling comfortable in my gender expression has taken me quite some time. As a bi/ace/femme, I often feel completely invisible even in queer spaces. When I first came out, I really tried to “look gay” but it never felt right or genuine for me. It has only been through connecting with other femmes in real life and on the internet that I was first able to learn that femininity isn’t limited to just cis women. Then building up a community of femmes around me allowed me to finally say, “I am queer enough exactly as I am. Take it or leave it.” I truly feel like femmes are such an integral part of the community that constantly gets overlooked.
What makes you feel sexy? Give us the longlist.
I feel sexy when I am in flow–when I am “in the zone” creating, honoring my inner child. I feel sexy when I am vulnerable with people and they are vulnerable back with me. I feel sexy when I am silly. This has been tough for me, as a kid who had to grow up very early and never really got to be silly. I feel sexy when I’m embodying my higher self. Sometimes I’ll watch back videos of myself and be like “Holy shit, that’s me?! Damn!” Taking sensual selfies of myself has been a pivotal part of healing my sex negative indoctrination and allowed me to even dare to let myself feel sexy or sexual.
Do you have any Instagram crushes you can share with us (other artists, queer ppl, etc.)?
Oh my god so many lol. These are just a few: @clitopatra.png @lovestuckprints @shesbobbylynn @ggggrimes @spunk.rock @veryrealfantasy @rinnyriot @squidvishuss @pigolin @reesabobeesa @fattiesandfeelings @madame_dabi @sarahbarnfart @kim_a_tron @sunshinebyhester @stinegreveilllustration @kamillacollages @joyceartworks @dromsjel
Give us a one sentence description of an erotic encounter that has brought you joy.
A few years ago I met a girl at pride and we danced most of the night and then went into the bathroom and made out and she ripped my fishnets and fingered me. We got kicked out of the club for having two people in the stall, and I never saw her again. I think about it all the time though.
Mentally design a pulp cover that describes you — what would it say? What would you be wearing?
It would probably be me in bed wearing one of my hoodies with my design, kitten on my chest, laptop on my lap, and a cup of tea next to my bed. The title would be “The bisexual introvert.”
Another pulp cover by Femmmeow with caption reading: My Period — Thought I Wanted To Kill Myself But Turns Out It Was Just My Uterus.