Im writing a short story involving a butch/femme couple - femme is mixed race while butch is black and uses he/him or they/them pronouns. I've tried to be careful as to not portray my butch as aggressive (he is playful, energetic, rarely gets angry, etc) but my questions are - as a nonblack person, how to avoid desexualizing them (specifically butch, bc i know that is a prominent problem still in the lgbt community), or portraying butch as an unhealthily masculine character? Thank you v much!
Black Butch & Femme couple, avoiding desexualizing
I’m not Black, but I am a lesbian of color in the butch/femme community. I’m not going to speak much on this, because Black wlw experiences aren’t something I’ve ever experienced, but I do know a lot of the time wlwoc are often placed in a more masculine/ag/dom role in relationships when dating a white person, as racial bias often sees women of color as more aggressive or angrier than white women. Since the femme you mention is mixed, I think you could avoid that, but there is a trope that comes to mind where the feminine, delicate character is often more light-skinned than the masculine character--again attaching characteristics subconsciously to skin tone. Something to keep in mind.
--Sophia
I agree with Sophia, while the butch can obviously be Black, try not to play into very overly masculine stereotypes because that is also a damaging trope associated with women with darker skin. Since butch uses he/they pronouns and is the darker one in the relationship, even though the femme is mixed, if the femme has the more socially desired eurocentric features, this could fall into the trope of light woman/dark man or partner. I would just try not to portray the butch as overly masculine. That is, in a way as though he/they are trying to prove something, as that an issue in both the Black community as Black men, especially the youth, are often pressured into being the most masculine they can be (very toxic).
— Acacia
