Emphasized femininity plays a key role in maintaining gender inequality. Yet, classic conceptualizations of emphasized femininity render it static and inflexible, and obscure women’s agency in reconfiguring their gender performances to fit different contexts. Based on interviews with college women in the United States, we demonstrate that when faced with hookup cultures’ expectations of casualness and emotional detachment, women move between two styles of emotion work to either “do” or “redo” emphasized femininity, stretching its boundaries without disturbing the gender hierarchy. In interactions with undesirable men, women do emphasized femininity by displaying emotional sensitivity, while in interactions with desirable men, women redo emphasized femininity by deploying “hegemonic casualness”—performances of emotional disinterest that provide women greater control over social impressions and allow them to construct empowered social images, but ultimately legitimate men’s privileges to pursue women. Our findings highlight women’s creativity and agency in navigating gender inequality and demonstrate an underrecognized flexibility within emphasized femininity. We discuss implications for gender theory, conversations around post-feminism, and campaigns that seek to promote gender equality in sexual relations on college campuses.

强调女性气质在维持性别不平等方面发挥着关键作用。然而，强调女性气质的经典概念化使其静态和僵化，并模糊了女性在重新配置其性别表现以适应不同背景时的能动性。根据对美国大学女性的采访，我们表明，当面对勾搭文化对随意和情感分离的期望时，女性会在两种情感工作方式之间移动，要么“做”或“重做”，强调女性气质，延伸其界限不扰乱性别等级。在与不受欢迎的男人互动时，女性确实通过表现出情感敏感性来强调女性气质，而在与可取的男人互动时，女性通过部署“霸权随意”来强调女性气质——表现出对情感不感兴趣的表现，使女性能够更好地控制社会印象，并允许她们构建有权力的社会形象，但最终使男性拥有追求女性的特权。我们的研究结果突出了女性在应对性别不平等方面的创造力和能动性，并在强调的女性气质中展示了一种未被充分认识的灵活性。我们讨论了对性别理论的影响，围绕后女权主义的对话，以及旨在促进大学校园性关系中性别平等的运动。我们的研究结果突出了女性在应对性别不平等方面的创造力和能动性，并在强调的女性气质中展示了一种未被充分认识的灵活性。我们讨论了对性别理论的影响，围绕后女权主义的对话，以及旨在促进大学校园性关系中性别平等的运动。我们的研究结果突出了女性在应对性别不平等方面的创造力和能动性，并在强调的女性气质中展示了一种未被充分认识的灵活性。我们讨论了对性别理论的影响，围绕后女权主义的对话，以及旨在促进大学校园性关系中性别平等的运动。