Understanding body size and bisexuality via femme theory: An investigation of self- and meta-perceptions of gender expression Flora Oswald and Jes L. Matsick Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA ABSTRACT Existing literature fails to address bisexual women’s experiences at the intersection of fem(me)ininity and fatness. Fat fem(me) inine bisexual women experience hyper-visibility in their fatness and hyper-invisibility in their fem(me)inine and queer identities; their concurrent violations of dominant norms of thinness, het- erosexuality, monosexism, and expectations of queer women’s gender expression (as masculine) position them as uniquely and multiply marginalized. Literature on these women’s experiences of fat gendered embodiment is lacking but could inform under- standings of mechanisms of multiple marginalization. In a sample of 188 bisexual women (61% White; M age = 27), we examined relationships between bisexual women’s self-perceived feminin- ity/masculinity, reports of how others perceive their femininity/ masculinity (i.e., meta-perceptions), and their body size. We hypothesized that bisexual women’s self-reported gender expres- sion would not correlate with body size, but that meta- perceptions of bisexual women’s gender expression would. Specifically, we expected others to perceive fatter bisexual women as more masculine given the association of fatness with masculinity and butch lesbians. We found that both self- perceived and meta-perceptions of gender expression were gen- erally unrelated to body size, whether measured via BMI or self- perception. However, moderation analyses revealed that when bisexual women were perceived as sexual minorities, increased BMI was related to decreased meta-perceptions of femininity. The present results suggest perceived sexual orientation may be an important factor in understanding how fatness, gender expres- sion, and sexuality interact to produce the multiple marginaliza- tion faced by bisexual women. We discuss the need for closer examination of bisexual women’s experiences of oppression at the intersection of fatness and fem(me)ininity. KEYWORDS Femme theory; bisexuality; femininity; fat; perceived sexual orientation Fat feminine 1 queer women 2 face multiple marginalization; condemnation via sizeism, heterosexism, and misogyny characterizes some women’s experiences of having unruly bodies (e.g., Taylor 2018). In particular, fat feminine queer women defy boundaries of normativity from expectations of women’s bodies CONTACT feo5020@psu.edu Flora Oswald Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, 527 Moore Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website. FAT STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2021.1970899 © 2021 Taylor & Francis