Butch: Difference between revisions

"Butch" can be used as an adjective or a noun<ref name="Bergman 2006">{{cite book|last=Bergman|first=S. Bear|title=Butch is a noun|year=2006|publisher=Suspect Thoughts Press|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0-9771582-5-6|url=https://books.google.com/?id=jmyfdmsWjiEC&dq=butch+is+a+noun|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> to describe an individual's [[gender]] or gender performance. A masculine person of any gender can be described as butch, even though it is more common to use the term towards females with more masculine traits.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Christine A.|last2=Konik|first2=Julie A.|last3= Tuve|first3=Melanie V.|title=In Search of Looks, Status, or Something Else? Partner Preferences Among Butch and Femme Lesbians and Heterosexual Men and Women|date=2011|volume=64|issue=9–10|pages=658–668|journal=Sex Roles|doi=10.1007/s11199-010-9861-8|issn=0360-0025|accessdate=May 1, 2016|url=http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=2bc637f5-dab5-4003-a000-13cf76217d23%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d&preview=false#AN=60686417&db=a9h|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106205438/http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=2bc637f5-dab5-4003-a000-13cf76217d23%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d&preview=false|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> The term butch tends to denote a degree of masculinity displayed by a female individual beyond what would be considered typical of a tomboy. It is not uncommon for women with a butch appearance to face harassment or violence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/our-work/nationalstudy/|title=2014 National Street Harassment Report - Stop Street Harassment|author=|date=|website=stopstreetharassment.org|accessdate=31 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622015320/https://stopstreetharassment.org/our-work/nationalstudy/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> A 1990s survey of butches showed that 50% were primarily attracted to femmes, while 25% reported being usually attracted to other butches.<ref>{{cite book|last=Caramagno|first=Thomas C.|title=Irreconcilable Differences? Intellectual Stalemate in the Gay Rights Debate|year=2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0275977214|pages=138|url=https://books.google.com/?id=IIHQH001Bc8C&dq=faggot+butch|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

BUTCH Voices, a national conference for "individuals who are [[masculine of center]]", including [[gender variant]], was founded in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=About|url=https://www.butchvoices.com/about/|website=BUTCH Voices|date=April 9, 2009|accessdate=11 September 2019|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219140900/http://www.butchvoices.com/about/|archivedate=December 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228035414/https://www.butchvoices.com/about/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=BUTCH Voices Conference Makes Masculine Of Center Womyn Heard|url=http://www.curvemag.com/Events/BUTCH-Voices-Conference-Makes-Masculine-Of-Center-Womyn-Heard-1874/|website=Curve|date=May 8, 2017|accessdate=11 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501001911/https://www.curvemag.com/Events/BUTCH-Voices-Conference-Makes-Masculine-Of-Center-Womyn-Heard-1874/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

There is debate about to whom the terms butch and femme can apply, and particularly whether transgender individuals can be identified in this way. For example, queer theorist [[Jack Halberstam]] argues that [[transgender men]] cannot be considered butch, since it constitutes a conflation of maleness with butchness. He further argues that butch–femme is uniquely geared to work in lesbian relationships.<ref>{{cite book|last=Caramagno|first=Thomas C.|title=Irreconcilable Differences? Intellectual Stalemate in the Gay Rights Debate|year=2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0275977214|pages=137–8|url=https://books.google.com/?id=IIHQH001Bc8C&dq=faggot+butch|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Stereotypes and definitions of butch and femme vary greatly, even within tight-knit [[LGBT]] communities.  On the other hand, the writer Jewelle Gomez muses that butch and femme women in the earlier twentieth century may have been expressing their closeted transgender identity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Munt|first=Sally|title=Butch/Femme: Inside Lesbian Gender|year=1998|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0304339594|page=229|url=https://books.google.com/?id=1G5M13Xida0C&dq=jewelle+gomez+femme|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref name=Coyote>{{cite book|editor1-last=Coyote|editor1-first=Ivan E.|editor2-last=Sharman|editor2-first=Zena|title=Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme|date=2011|pages=67–78|chapter=Femme Butch Feminist, by Jewelle Gomez|publisher=Arsenal Pulp Press|location=Vancouver, B.C., Canada|isbn=978-1551523972}}</ref> Antipathy toward female butches and male femmes has been interpreted by some commentators as [[transphobia]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=xBb55sOOIX4C&dq=Butch+femme+transphobia|title=Female Impersonation|last=Tyler|first=Carol-Ann|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=978-0-415-91688-2|pages=91|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> although female butches and male femmes are not always [[transgender]], and indeed some heterosexuals of both genders display these attributes.<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731093617/http://vagendamagazine.com/2015/01/theres-no-other-georgy-deep-inside-coming-out-as-a-butch-straight-woman/|url=http://vagendamagazine.com/2015/01/theres-no-other-georgy-deep-inside-coming-out-as-a-butch-straight-woman/|title=There's No Other Georgy Deep Inside – Coming Out As A Butch Straight Woman|last=O'Hara|first=Kate|date=7 January 2015|work=The Vagenda|archive-date=31 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-hunt/2015/05/confessions-of-a-feminine-straight-guy/|title=Confessions Of A Feminine Straight Guy |last=Hunt |first=James|date=14 May 2015|website=thoughtcatalog.com|accessdate=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501061159/https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-hunt/2015/05/confessions-of-a-feminine-straight-guy/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

Scholars such as [[Judith Butler]] and Anne Fausto-Sterling suggest that butch and femme are not attempts to take up "traditional" gender roles. Instead, they argue that gender is socially and historically constructed, rather than essential, "natural", or biological. The historian Joan Nestle argues that femme and butch may be seen as distinct genders in and of themselves.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nestle|first=Joan|title=The Persistent Desire: A Femme–Butch Reader|year=1992|publisher=Alyson Publications|isbn=978-1555831905|url=https://books.google.com/?id=3u9ZAAAAMAAJ&q=The+persistent+desire&dq=The+persistent+desire|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

While the term "transgender butch" could apply to a masculine trans person, regardless of [[sex#Gender assigned at birth|gender assigned at birth]], the term is often used in a more specific sense to describe a person who was assigned female at birth, has a masculine gender expression, and experiences [[gender dysphoria]] while identifying as butch rather than male or another gender. Transgender butches may identify as [[genderqueer]] or [[nonbinary]]; some claim butch as a specific nonbinary identity. Transgender butches may also identify as lesbians or dykes independently of their gender identity. A similar term is "stone butch", which describes a butch who prefers to avoid genital stimulation in sexual settings, sometimes due to [[gender dysphoria]].

Some  women in lesbian communities eschew butch or femme classifications, believing that they are inadequate to describe an individual, or that labels are limiting in and of themselves. Other people within the LGBT community have tailored the common labels to be more descriptive, such as "soft stud," "hard butch," "gym queen," or "tomboy femme." Comedian Elvira Kurt contributed the term "fellagirly" as a description for LGBT women who are not strictly either femme or butch, but a combination. From the 1940s to 1990s, the term "kiki" was used for a similar meaning.<ref>{{cite book |editor = Zimmerman |editor-given = Bonnie |title = Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. Vol. I |publisher = Garland Publishing, Inc |year = 2000 |page = [https://books.google.de/books?id=qAZ5AgAAQBAJ&q=KIKI+1940s+lesbian&pg=PA140&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=KIKI%201940s%20lesbian&f=false 140] |quote ="Kiki: a term used from the 1940s through the 1960s for a lesbian who could be either butch or femme."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= What is She Like?: Lesbian Identities from the 1950s to the 1990s |last=Ainley |first=Rosa |year=1995 |url=https://archive.org/details/whatisshelike00rosa/page/152/mode/2up |page=152 |quote=Although kiki has never been a term, or a category, with such currency as butch and femme, and is still far more recognized in the USA than in Britain, it now means someone who is deliberately both, rather than the 'neither fish nor fowl' connotation it used to have.|archive-url=False |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

A '''soft butch''', or '''stem''' ('''stud-fem'''), is a [[lesbian]] who exhibits some stereotypical butch traits without fitting the masculine stereotype associated with butch lesbians. Soft butch is on the spectrum of butch, as are stone butch and masculine, whereas on the contrary, ultra fem, high femme, and lipstick lesbian are some labels on the spectrum of lesbians with a more prominent expression of femininity, also known as [[Femme|femmes]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Christine A.|last2=Stillman|first2=Shannon|title=Do Butch and Femme Still Attract?|journal=The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide|date=2003|volume=X|issue=4}}</ref> Soft butches have gender identities of women, but primarily display masculine characteristics; soft butches predominantly express masculinity with a touch of femininity.<ref name="rose">{{cite journal|last1=Rose|first1=Dawn|last2=Plaskow|first2=Judith|title=Yusuf Come Home: Parashat Miketz (genesis 41:1-44:17)|journal=Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible|date=2009|page=62}}</ref>  

The "hardness", or label depicting one's level of masculine expression as a butch is dependent upon the fluidity of her [[gender expression]].<ref name="halberstam">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=UYAi9OEYRekC&pg=PA123&dq=soft+butch&cd=4#v=onepage&q=%22soft%20butch%22&f=false|title=Female Masculinity|first=Judith|last=Halberstam|authorlink=Judith Halberstam|publisher=Duke University Press|year=1998|edition=5page=123|isbn=978-0-8223-2243-6|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Soft butches might want to express themselves through their clothing and hairstyle in a more masculine way, but their behavior in a more traditionally feminine way.<ref name="rose"/> For example, these traits of a soft butch may or may not include short hair, clothing that was designed for men, and masculine mannerisms and behaviors. Soft butches generally appear [[androgynous]], rather than adhering to strictly feminine or masculine norms and [[gender identity|gender identities.]]<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Coming-Out Process of Young Lesbian and Bisexual Women: Are There Butch/Femme Differences in Sexual Identity Development?|journal = Archives of Sexual Behavior|date = 2007-09-26|issn = 0004-0002|pmc = 3189348|pmid = 17896173|pages = 34–49|volume = 38|issue = 1|doi = 10.1007/s10508-007-9221-0|language = en|first = Margaret|last = Rosario|first2 = Eric W.|last2 = Schrimshaw|first3 = Joyce|last3 = Hunter|first4 = Anna|last4 = Levy-Warren}}</ref> Soft butches generally physically, sexually, and romantically express themselves in more masculine than feminine ways in the majority of those categories.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Carpenter|first1=Karen|last2=McKenzie|first2=Matthew|title=Love on a Continuum|journal=Social and Economic Studies|date=2011|volume=60|issue=1|page=118}}</ref>

In addition to a soft butch's gender expression through her outward appearance, she also has a distinctive way of sexually expressing herself. Soft butch women might want to have a more passive role sexually or romantically in their relationships, which is generally associated with feminine sexual behavior.<ref name="rose"/> This is an example of how a soft butch's sexuality and outward appearance are not completely masculine, but have some feminine traits. Conversely, stone butches are less fluid in their sexuality and do not want to receive sexual contact from their sexual partners.<ref name="halberstam"/> This desire to express both masculinity and femininity through one's gender and sexuality is clearly seen in soft butch women, but also across many people of a variety of sexual orientations.<ref name="rose"/>

File:Butch_by_dorian--rutherford.png|By tumblr user dorian--rutherford.

File:Butch by FOLIELOADED - tweaked version.png|By twitter user FOLIELOADED.  

*[http://www.butchtastic.net/butch-genderqueer-genderfluid-genderfuck-and-trans-blogs-to-watch-out-for/ Butchtastic: Butch, Genderqueer, Genderfluid, Genderfuck and Trans Blogs to watch out for]

*[http://debonairgeek.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/deep-thoughts/ Debonair Geek's Blog: Deep Thoughts]

*[https://susans.org/wiki/Butch_and_femme Susan's Place Transgender Resource Wiki: Butch and Femme]

*[https://susans.org/wiki/Soft_butch Susan's Place Transgender Resource Wiki: Soft Butch]

*[https://susans.org/wiki/Stone_butch Susan's Place Transgender Resources Wiki: Stone Butch]

*[http://www.butchvoices.com/ Butch Voices], "a grassroots organization dedicated to all self-identified [[Masculine of center|Masculine of Center]] people and our Allies"