Butch: Difference between revisions
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International Butch Appreciation Day is celebrated on August 18 annually.<ref name="ButchDay">{{Cite web |title=Happy Butch Appreciation Day – here's to all the butches! |author= |work=Stonewall |date=16 August 2019 |access-date=22 June 2020 |url= https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/happy-butch-appreciation-day-%E2%80%93-heres-all-butches}}</ref><ref name="QE">{{Cite web |title=Lesbian Culture & Visibility |author= |work=QueerEvents.ca |date= |access-date=22 June 2020 |url= https://queerevents.ca/queer-culture/lesbian-visibility}}</ref> | International Butch Appreciation Day is celebrated on August 18 annually.<ref name="ButchDay">{{Cite web |title=Happy Butch Appreciation Day – here's to all the butches! |author= |work=Stonewall |date=16 August 2019 |access-date=22 June 2020 |url= https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/happy-butch-appreciation-day-%E2%80%93-heres-all-butches}}</ref><ref name="QE">{{Cite web |title=Lesbian Culture & Visibility |author= |work=QueerEvents.ca |date= |access-date=22 June 2020 |url= https://queerevents.ca/queer-culture/lesbian-visibility}}</ref> | ||
In a 2015 survey of non-[[cis]] people in the USA, 5% of respondents (about 1,385 people) were butch.<ref name="2015USTS-44">{{Cite web |title=2015 U.S. Transgender Survey Complete Report |date= |access-date=23 October 2020 |url= https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS-Full-Report-Dec17.pdf|page=44}}</ref> | |||
==Etymology== | ==Etymology== | ||
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"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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</ref> | "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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</ref> | ||
==Attributes== | ==Attributes== | ||
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 [[ | 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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</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}}</ref> | ||