#on butch and femme

[androgynealienfemme]

"Faggy butch was good. It accurately described my pink button-down shirts, my giggles, the fact that I talked with my hands. I once saw a tape of myself in which I made a gesture that looked more like it belonged in A Chorus Line than in the middle of an interview. Faggy butch was like genderqueer -- not quite this or that, a little of both, maybe. A friend once said to me, "I access my femininity through my masculinity."

I feel lucky to have grown up in a world with butch pioneers, and I feel lucky that I had an idea about what being butch might have meant. But instead of making me feel part of the community, these constructions of what butch was -- stereotypes really-- pushed me away from the word and identity. Instead I chose a newer term, genderqueer, which had yet to be defined; it was in flux, it was a new frontier. I may not have been butch "enough", but genderqueer was all mine to rewrite and redefine.

I still like the word "genderqueer," still claim it and own it and love the way it makes room for me, in all my complexities. But I'm coming back around to butch. Maybe its because the years of pink prom dresses are further and further behind me, maybe its because i'm learning from butch elders who talk in terms that make room for me, giggles and all. Maybe its because the people i know have no idea (unless I tell them) that i was never a tomboy. They only know me -- my short hair tightly bound chest, and button down shirts.

I think that every new generation feels the need to reject their elders, reject what came before them, and feel that they are knew gender rebels. We invent terms, we create new spaces, and sometimes, we come back to where our big brothers started -- home."

“PERSISTENCE: All Ways Butch and Femme, Coming Back Around to Butch” Miriam Zoila Pérez, On Butch and Femme: Compiled Readings, (edited by I.M. Epstein) (2017)

#on butch and femme: compiled readings #on butch and femme #lesbian #gender-fluid #genderqueer #butch #butch lesbian #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq+ #lesbian lit #queer lit #trans lit

[venusmage]

Shout out to the cashier at Aldi that made me and my wife malfunction

#butch #femme #lesbian #lgbt art #lgbt comic #artists on tumblr #my art #pride #comic

[urmumhaha]

I wish butch n femme balls existed. Not to b a fucking sap n a massive dyke but wow. Ugh even. Just wanna wear a gown n stilettos n have my honey greet me w a bouquet before we leave n we wear matching or complimentary jewelry n spend hours on my hair and makeup to impress. N then when we get there my honey will spin me around the room for a brief dance before grabbing something to drink, wine for me n whiskey for her, as we chat w other dykes n celebrate butchfemmeness. Or whatever

#thinkin thots #sorry everyone I’m tired n a lil high after work n feeling DRAB so we r imagining #n listen I know balls r just a flaunting wrath bourgeois thing #wealth #this is just a simple indulgence for the Eve #lesbian #i #femme lesbian #butch/femme #butch lesbian #womp womp

[murderonthedullexpress]

“Trapped”

Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg

@/lilboyblueish on Instagram

Poem by Keaton St. James (@boykeats)

I/Me/Myself - Will Wood

We Both Laughed In Pleasure by Lou Sullivan

cis people asking cis questions by Silas Denver Melvin (@sweatermuppet)

Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote

#we are trapped in what other people see #trans #transgender #transsexual #nonbinary #butch #femme #stone butch blues #leslie feinberg #boykeats #poetry #trans poetry #will wood #lou sullivan #we both laughed in pleasure #silas denver melvin #sweatermuppet #ivan coyote #queer #gay #lgbt #lgbtq #web weaving #parallels

[blvddyvvalentine]

Y’all we have to stop making eachother feel bad for having sexual attraction. Lesbians are allowed to be horny we don’t have to be sexless pastel princesses holding hands in a field or smth. Be horny, it’s frankly revolutionary to be a sweaty horny dyke.

#lesbianism #butch #femme #lesbian #dyke

[butchesanddykesandqueersohmy]

I am once again furious there isn't a dyke version of grindr

#butch dyke #t4t #femme lesbian #butch lesbian #lesbian

[iwasarob0t]

doberman femme bulldog butch what’s better than this

#my art #furry #lesbian #femme #butch #bulldog #doberman #femme4butch #butch4femme #art #drawing #procreate

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

craving pathetic wet old women characters. where is the feminism

#give me middle aged butches w anxiety & cats. older femmes w/ arm flab who refuse to age 'gracefully' #gimme a bilingual bisexual with a trench coat & crows feet & and no retirement savings #i want them bitter & jaded & dysfunctional & menopausal #i want to watch them make poor financial dietary romantic decisions (and probably commit crimes) where are they?????

[androgynealienfemme]

"What is butch? Rebellion against women's lot, against gender-role imperatives that pit boyness against girlness and then assign you-know-who the short straw. Butch is a giant fuck YOU! to compulsory femininity, just as lesbianism says the same to compulsory heterosexuality. I do not associate respect for compulsory anything with butchness, though perhaps some butch bottoms will disagree. I first gravitated toward butch women because they were the easiest female allies to recognize in my war against the compulsory world.

In the 1970s, when I came out in the dyke community, butch was dead and androgyny was practically an imperative. I didn't mind at first; girliness as a way of life hadn't worked out for me, and though I had always exhibited distinctly femme sexuality, I wasn't presenting myself to the world that way: I hadn't really grown into the image. I was young; the men I had fucked played "Me Tarzan, You Jane." I couldn't figure out how to get them to play the game by different rules. As soon as sex with them was over (or even while it was still going on) the whole thing felt stupid. Men who didn't play Tarzan were fine, but I couldn't figure out how to get them to fuck me. No doubt they were contending with their own straight (or not-so-straight) boy version of femme sexuality and were waiting for me to make the first move. Some men don't play Tarzan so as not to appear sexist; others just want you to do it-- grab their neckties and out them where you want them -- but I didn't know that at the time.

With some relief then, I retired the Jane I never wanted to be, reconstructed myself as an androgyne, and forsook my vain attempt to present my femininity to the world. The Uniform, actually, was Butch Lite. Jeans or chinos, flannel shirts or tees, sensible shoes-- either boots, athletic shoes, or Birkenstocks (it turns out the latter were incredibly subversive if you wore them with scarlet toenail polish, but that's another story). Almost the whole dyke community dressed this way: if a woman didn't, her politics and her sexual orientation were automatically up for debate.

The butches who were left over from the era before the purge also dressed this way. We had renamed the identity, it seemed, but kept the look. That way we could say we'd vanquished it, even as we kept it around to turn us on.

The unschooled eye couldn't tell the two sorts of women -- butches and androgynes-- apart. Butchness had been so thoroughly declared passe that an entire generation of dykes could dress in what was essentially butch-woman drag and evoke defensive responses only from conservative straight people (and very straight-identified "gay women").

At first I believed the mythos of the Vanished Butch (and her symbiotic sister-species, the Vanished Femme). But certain women wearing the Uniform made my nostrils flare, my tongue tie, my skin prickle like an electrical storm had passed. They filled the clothes differently. It took me some years to begin to understand why I wanted to chew on some women's thick brown leather belts and not on others.

Non-butch women wore the Uniform like librarians who had just come in from gardening. It was not clothes that made the woman. It was stance. It was attitude-- it was impossible to picture one of the librarians wearing a tux, or myself dressing in silk or lace to present myself to her. It was impossible to think of presenting myself to her at all, to offer her that mixture of allure and willingness that I desired to give a butch woman."

“Why I Love Butch Women” by Carol A. Queen, On Butch and Femme: Compiled Readings, (edited by I.M. Epstein) (2017)

#why I love butch women #dagger: on butch women #on butch and femme: compiled readings #on butch and femme #Carol queen #lesbian lit #lesbian #butch lesbian #butch #lesbian history #butch history #queer history #lgbtq+ history

[ripleylarue]

Carabiners are for lovers <3

#lesbian #femme4butch #butch femme #lesbian art #flagging

[littlefwreak]

its almost “fuck me in your hoodie on the countertop while we bake cookies” season.

[infraredss]

never gonna argue with an butch lesbian. whatever u say handsome. wanna make out

#lesbian #butch lesbian #wlw #sapphic #lgbtq #shitpost #im technically butch but im also in love with butches #i wrote this from a butch 4 butch perspective but femmes and others who appreciate butches r so welcome #butch lesbians should kiss me on the mouth #i love you guys

[passionpeachy]

whatever. bug yuri ok?

#artists on tumblr #digital art #weevil #leafhopper #artsypeachy #they’re butch/femme

[alicitas]

cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other

#butchfemme #femme #butch #femme4butch #butch4femme #butch bait #femme bait #cowboy like me #if a butch sees this hiii im single and the ass on the right is actually from a picture of myself #lesbian #labrys

[staff]

Tumblr Tuesday: Women Loving Women in Art

It's Lesbian Visibility Week, an excellent time to be celebrating women who love women. Give it up for the sapphics, their muses, and the gorgeous art that honors them.

@greenfinchg:

@ripleylarue:

@femmegrey:

@mimimar:

@onzze:

@yinza:

@emiuli:

@flora-valleyy:

@karlovycross:

@circusbutch:

@jaxalope:

@drizzledrawings:

@suwisuwii:

@gibbarts:

@bearybutch:

#tumblr tuesday #women loving women in art #lgbtqia+ art #artists on tumblr #wlw #sapphics #lesbian pride #butch pride #femme pride #dimension 20 #dungeon meshi #farcille #revolutionary girl utena #lesbian vampires #bubbline #long post

[jasontoddssuper]

Diversity win!Hot girl is also a pretty boy!

#multigender rights babie <333 #bigender #genderfluid #transmasc #transmasculine #trans men #transfem #trans women #demigirl #demiboy #demigender #trans #transgender #trans pride #trans rights #gnc #femme #butch #nonbinary #genderqueer #xenogender #neopronouns #t4t #transmasc4transmasc #transfem4transfem #transmasc4transfem #transfem4transmasc #💌 #letters from summer #pop post 🌟