Butch

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Butch
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Butch is an identity - within the community - to refer to a person whose outward gender expression matches their culture's understanding of masculinity. Most often the person takes on masculine roles and careers that are typically designated to males within their culture and time period.

It has similarities with boi, transmasculine, and other masculine of center identities. Butch is often associated with the lesbian community, although not exclusively, and is often understood on a spectrum of butch to femme. One variation is "soft butch," a masculine expression that is closer to neutrality than extreme masculinity.

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Etymology

Elaborate on the origins of the name.

Community

History

In the United States, butch/femme roles were common in lesbian communities during the first half of the 20th century.

Flag

The butch flag, made by tumblr user butchspace in 2017.

On June 27th 2017, Mod Q of the Tumblr blog butch positivity (butchspace) and princechaotic posted a seven-striped orange and yellow butch flag design. The color meanings (posted June 30th 2017):

• Red: Passion and sexuality; inspired by the meaning of red in Gilbert Baker’s pride flag and the complicated yet passionate ways butches relate to their sexualities
• Red Orange: Courage; being butch is often stigmatized--it symbolizes the strength butches share in learning to find and love themselves
• Light Orange: Joy; light and soft and symbolizes the joy of being butch that comes despite the hardships
• White: Renewal; discovering oneself as butch is a sort of rebirth and marks the beginning of a new existence
• Beige: Chivalry; butches have a kind and chivalrous nature--they seek to protect others
• Orange: Warmth; how warm butches and butchness can be; finding comfort in being butch
• Brown: Honesty; butches admitting to themselves it is who they are

Distinction

Optional section: If the topic has similarities to another gender/orientation, use this section to highlight the differences between them.

Perceptions and discrimination

Although working class butch/femme culture of the 1940s and 1950s was not a simple imitation of heterosexuality, that assumption led to stereotyping and dismissal by many lesbian feminists, the medical establishment, and more affluent lesbians and gay men. The dominant discourse of feminism and lesbian feminism in the 1970s and early 1980s regarded butch/femme communities as incompatible with feminism and marginalized them in lesbian history. From that perspective, butch/femme roles were criticized as reproducing patriarchy and hierarchies within women's relationships; they were not seen as being distinct, transformative, or a form of resistance to the oppression of women.

In the 20th anniversary edition of Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community co-author Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy noted that there is more work to be done regarding the history of transgender men. Masculine-presenting people who were assumed to be butch women may have been trans men or otherwise had a different understanding of their gender. The assumptions of gender led to mistakes in documentation, oversimplifying a history that is more complicated.

Media

Literature

• Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
• Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan E. Coyote
• Female Masculinity by J. Jack Halberstam