"INTERVIEWER. What does being butch mean to you?

The word that's coming to mind is "caretaker," which is [laughs] funny.

INT. Why is it funny?

Because it's like the most traditional, I guess, feminine trait.

INT. I guess so. Do you feel like it's ironic, in a sense?

Not at all. I think many people would, though. They equate butch with this cold, hard aggression. But butches are the softest people I know. We take care.

INT. How do you take care?

Of everyone? Or [laughs]

INT. You have a partner, right?

Yeah.

INT. How do you take care of them?

I-uh-I give her massages. I write her poems. I hold the door open for her. I put my hand on her lower back walking down the street. I rub her stomach on her period. I wash the dishes after she cooks us both dinner. I buy her pastries from her favourite bakery. I fill her water. I tell her she's beautiful. I tell her she's strong. I tell her stories to help her sleep at night. I go with her to the hospital and hold her hand in the waiting room. I ask her how she feels. I hold her while she cries. I remind her to eat. I eat her out. I listen to her every word. I give her what she wants. I give her what she needs.

INT. And what about her?

How does she take care of you?

[long pause]

I was in a shell before I met her. She cracked me open.

She made me actually see the world I was living in. She makes me see myself. And every day she takes my gooey egg-yolk heart that I've spent my whole life protecting, and-she holds it.

In the palm of her hand. And she never lets it spill.

INT. She holds your heart.

She holds my heart."

end description.]

See, when I started driving, I would get irritated by people who drove Soooo Slowly... like, the ones who slow down to 10 MPH to take a turn kind of slow. And then one day I was taking a vase of flowers to an event, and even though I'd strapped it in carefully you can bet I was taking the turns extra carefully to keep it from tipping over, slowing way down, and... oh.