To Health with Femininity

The 9Health Fair wrapped up around noon, but Medical Site Coordinator Johnna Jaynes stayed until 2pm to ensure everything wrapped up nicely. Jaynes is a certified physician assistant and the woman responsible for managing more than 180 medical volunteers including phlebotomists, nurses, other physician assistants, and, much to her intrigue, a bone density machine donated for the day by Walgreens.

“I wish I hadn’t been so busy,” says Jaynes. “I was really curious about it”

Her task was no easy one. She and her crew have been planning the health fair since last October. With the fair dubbed a huge success, Jaynes has catapulted herself as an up-and-coming medical leader in the greater Denver community. On top of it all, she is a happily married lesbian whom others refer to as ‘femme.’

“I’ve always had long hair and long nails, so I guess that’s what you’d call feminine,” says Jaynes. The notion of feminine is naturally subjective, so she doesn’t fault others for making snap judgments about her traits.

“I have a difficult time understanding the definition of femininity outside of those social constructs,” she says. “[They’re] created to help people understand each other. Psychologists do this a lot with diagnoses, and people do it everyday without thinking — it doesn’t mean they’re right or wrong.”

“I’m a Libra with a bit of Scorpio,” she laughs, referring to her masculine and feminine attributes. “I like to get dressed up and take pride in my appearance, so I guess that’s feminine, but my strongest feminine trait would be that I’m a nurturer.”

When it comes to the marginalization of feminine lesbians within the LGBT community, Jaynes feels that things have vastly improved over time. “When I was younger, I had a lot of people question my sexuality because of my femininity. Not so much from men — gay men totally accepted and embraced me — but from older lesbian women,” she says. “Nowadays, I see a lot of younger feminine lesbians and they are celebrated within the community. A lot of butch lesbians are thrilled that feminine attributes are becoming more abundant.”

Jaynes says there is a quiet strength to the power of femininity. “It’s like the French language and how it uses gendered words. The French word for ‘leadership’ is masculine, while the French word for ‘influence’ is feminine, and I think that really rings true for me,” says Jaynes. “Feminine power manifests itself in communication and influence rather than a more forceful masculine power.”

While Jaynes admits her femininity might show more often than her masculinity, she remarks that these are just simple ways to label people.

“What we’re talking about are [constructed] roles that don’t fit anyone perfectly. My wife and I get asked all the time who the man of the relationship is and what the askers don’t realize is that they don’t fit into the perfect masculine or feminine stereotype, either. Everyone dabbles in a bit of both.”