something in your magnetism

butch and femme are a distinct identity framework that developed around certain forms of expression, presentation and interactions between women who loved and had sex with each other and that remains true now. butch falls within the category of gnc womanhood, but there are things specific to butchness that are not shared by every gnc woman. likewise, femme women may be feminine, but are not gender conforming. there are gender nonconformances that femme women share, culturally indicated behaviors, markers of expression etc that femme women engage in that do not read as gender conforming - which is why I can often (not always but often) tell a femme woman from a straight woman. not to say that one can always read an identity from stereotypes, but indicators/signals are a thing.  

the “futch spectrum” post(s) that went ‘high femme, femme, futch, butch, stone butch’ or w/e, was brought up as a lesbian tumblr joke, but ended up confusing a lot of ppl about what butch and femme are. ppl who took that spectrum seriously got this perspective of it as “super girly, girly, in the middle, not girly, really masculine” which is… not at all how butch and femme work as identifiers. if you don’t identify as one or the other you don’t have to pick an awkward spot on a spectrum between them because those things aren’t a spectrum. you’re either butch, femme, or neither and being neither and not identifying with that framework is just fine and not uncommon. 

I think in order for ppl to understand more about how “butch” and “femme” came into use (especially in the gay bar scene among other related places in the 60′s), and what those identities entailed, it’s important to read literature, for example, like Stone Butch Blues. that’s only one title and there are others but that’s the first one that pops into my head. feel free to reblog with others. the way butch and femme developed in the time portrayed in that literature are not necessarily reflective of the exact way they are today, but it does give a background context, and introduces the concept that not every gay woman identifies as butch or femme and that’s been true since the start of their use.

-butch/femme were not only specific to the bar scene but also surrounding / related places like drag shows, ball culture, on the street, in working class jobs where many butch women worked, etcetera. butch/femme was a very working class framework in its origin, and upper class lesbians in academia at the time often fought to distance themselves from it because they saw it as “regressive” or associated with a certain scene. many communities of black gay women also used this framework.

-many butches worked factory or other industry jobs that were mostly male dominated, and were the lifeblood of those workplaces, but were excluded often from unions. 

-there were many femmes in the bar scene, although not all femmes, who were also sex workers, colloquialized as “pros”.  this overlap showed up very visibly in the bar scene.

-butch womanhood was viewed / defined as ppl who were women, who loved other women, and presented themselves in ways that were socially marked as masculine or non-feminine (including clothes, hairstyles, certain coded mannerisms and behaviors, jobs, etc). 

-some butch women made the decision to go on hormones / get top surgery / etc even though they did not view themselves as men, either to pass for safety or to try to alleviate intense dysphoria. this decision was viewed with a lot of complexity in their communities and there was some conflict around it.

-ppl who identified as femmes were women who took pride and care in feminine presentation, but did not do so for the sake of men. they wanted to be seen and interacted with (romantically/sexually) by other women. many went to bars seeking out the specific companionship of butches, or defined their femmeness by “wanting to be with a butch”. the reverse was also true of a lot of butches (going to bars to seek out femmes to interact with). 

-there were butches who saw other butches romantically, and femmes who saw other femmes, but this was rarer in the 60′s, 70′s etc, and some femme/butch women saw those relationships as a defiance of the framework (i.e believed that the butch/femme framework was meant to have that polarity / that polarity was a central piece of it). I think there are still some of these intracommunity issues today but it is more common for butch/butch femme/femme relationships to exist and be looked upon with acceptance.

-police often raided bars at this time looking for people who didn’t meet the minimum requirement of “three or more articles of their “proper” gendered clothing”. this meant that a lot of transfem amab people, drag queens, and butches were the biggest hypervisible targets of police violence and sexual violence. this violence defined and affected butch/femme subculture viscerally. it also brought these groups together in solidarity and shared relationships.