“Butches who desire other butches are difficult to theorize in accordance with traditional lesbian imagery for writers like Rubin, Brown, and others, because the numerous social restrictions on acceptable forms of desire make it hard to come to grips with something as multiply transgressive as the butch who desires other butches. Two female bodies having sex violates the myth of “natural” heterosexuality, female bodies in men’s clothing violates gender restrictions, and female bodies in (or out of) men’s clothing having sex with each other constitutes a triple whammy. The butch-butch couple confounds all of these conventions, which is why butch-butch makes even some lesbians uncomfortable. Trish Thomas describes what can happen when a butch pursues another butch: “She wonders if I’ve mistaken her for femme…. She becomes concerned that she’s throwing off femme vibes without even knowing it…. And suddenly she gets this overwhelming urge to arm wrestle” (22). Butch-butch sexuality is constantly being assimilated back into familiar categories, as with the butch who worries Thomas must be picking up “femme vibes” or Brown’s description of butches having sex with other butches as “faggots.” Despite such overwhelming conceptual resistance, butches, unconcerned with theoretical disputes, continue to desire other butches. Look down Castro Street any Saturday evening, and you are likely to notice a number of butch couples strolling by. Visit a chic lesbian bar in San Francisco, and you are apt to see two leather-jacketed, buzz-cut young women clinging to each other on the dance floor-and they will be far from alone”
— Inness, Sherrie A., and Michele Lloyd. “‘G.I. Joes in Barbie Land’: Recontextualizing Butch in Twentieth-Century Lesbian Culture.”
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