Abstract
This chapter contains both a description of the circumstances under which this ethnographic research was conducted and an exploration into the class dynamics of Tunisian gender and sexuality ideologies and norms. The normative and queer constructions of femininity are explored here, with a focus on female masculinity. In this chapter, the author introduces readers to important activities and rituals in girls’ and women’s lives. The author provides ethnographic portraits of engagement and marital rituals, beauty ideals, and beautification, and an ethnographic portrait of women’s interactions in the public bathhouses. All of this ethnographic detail provides a depiction of the context in which women’s waged labor takes place.