Butch and femme are subcultures and identities denoting a sapphic woman's style, behavior, and oftentimes role in sapphic relationships.
Firstly, let's discuss the words "sapphic" and "lesbian." Sapphic refers to a relationship or attraction involving only women. Both modern day lesbians and bisexual women are sapphic. However, when "lesbian" was first coined, it encompassed bisexual women as well—since "bisexual" did not yet exist as an identity—unless stated otherwise. "Lesbian" meant in the past what sapphic/sapphist still means today, although it began as a term to describe a tribade (a woman who has sex with other women via rubbing). This is why writing about history from this era is tricky. We're using a word that did not have the same meaning in the time period that we're discussing. It is imperative to disclose the antiquated definition in order to avoid miscommunication.
Before the mid-twentieth century, LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) societies were underground and thus very little LGB history was recorded. While "butch" and "femme" were either nonexistent or unknown terms back then, it is evident that butch–femme relationships have been around longer than the subcultures. The risque 1903 photograph above tells us that butch–femme-resembling relationships existed in those times. The 1928 novel The Well of Lonliness by Radclyffe Hall tells the tale of a woman who wishes to live a gentleman's life in order to fight in World War I as well as marry the woman she loves.
If we go back farther, in Charles Gilbert Chaddock's 1892 translation of Richard Von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis, there are many accounts from patients included. Fun fact: it is the first book to coin terms for homosexuality and bi[-]sexuality in the English language! It is of my personal belief that not only does the book contain accounts of transgender people existing back then but also roles that patients take on that can be compared to butch–femme dynamics.
The popularization and possible creation of the butch and femme roles are directly tied to working-class gay/lesbian bar culture. Before the 1940s, it was particularly hard for sapphic women to socialize. Not only could they not go in bars alone or with another woman, but many gay bars also had methods of excluding women. The gay bars that did allow women had small female populations anyway. Bars finally opened in the 1940s specifically for sapphic women and the butch–femme subcultures thrived between the 1940s and 1960s.
Keeping in mind the old terminology that we're working with, it is then clear that lesbian bars were never exclusive to lesbians of modern day meaning. It is the same as if we called them sapphic bars today. Further evidence of bisexuals attending gay and lesbian bars can be found in the book Creating a Place For Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories. Lesbian and female bisexual histories have always been intertwined. Ultimately, butch–femme dynamics were often used for survival in a heteronormative society and, ultimately, women in sapphic relationships were in danger whether or not they also had the potential to be attracted to men.
Bisexuality was reclaimed as an identity somewhere around or before the 1960s (but definitely after 1948) which also happened to be when lesbian separatism began to rise in the United States (while it developed in other countries typically in the 1970s). Radical/separatist lesbianism began in order to address lesbians being excluded from the gay liberation movement and feminism although it can't wholly be defined. Women like Louise Turcotte used the movement to oppose men and anything to do with them, including women who were involved with men. This was called feminist separatism.
These separatist lesbians saw men and heterosexuality as the enemy with lesbianism as the goal. That was when political lesbianism started. Not only is there an issue in implying that you can choose your orientation, but this also isolated many women. Bisexual people have often been considered too straight to be in gay/lesbian communities and they were too gay/lesbian to be accepted by straight society. There is a chance that the movement was also an attempt to distance the lesbian community from transgender inclusivity, something that the bisexual community often embraced. However, they didn't only attack other communities. Radical lesbian feminists in the 1970s pushed butch–femme dynamics underground for a decade or two by enforcing the claim that they are heteronormative and cannot coexist with their idea of feminism.
While it is true that sapphic couples have had to mimic heterosexuality plenty in the past, the equal relationships between androgynous women that the movement encouraged was not for everyone. To say that a masculine–feminine dynamic is regressive is ignorant of the fact that butches and femmes both challenge heteronormativity. Butches are masculine sapphics who challenge the gender roles and expectations of their culture. In the 19th century, their butchness was a signal of desire for other women. Femmes are feminine sapphic women who subvert heteronormativity in that they defy others' perceptions of them as straight women. They undermine the stereotypes and expectations that a heteronormative society holds for sapphic women.
When butch–femme relationships became more accepted in the LGBT community again in the 1990s, a lot had changed. Sapphic women were no longer seen as confused—"kiki"—if they weren't butch or femme. It was no longer as taboo for femme–femme and butch–butch relationships to exist. Communities separated, giving way to a new definition of lesbianism and a new identity for those forced out. While lesbianism is different now from what it used to be, the butch–femme dynamic has not magically altered itself to be lesbian-exclusive because it doesn't need to change. Bisexual women are just as much a part of the subcultures as lesbians because the subcultures were created and utilized by both groups for the same reasons—from survival to simply having an identity to describe how you express your womanhood to other women.
