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>

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>

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>