You’re Never Too Broken To Be Fixed

I have the same problem with the term ‘butch’, I really like it but I’m not a lesbian so I can’t exactly use it

If butch is the word that fits, then use it. Terfs don’t deserve to shape your life or our community.

And, while I hate to play the “defer to authority” card, when it comes to butch identity, there are few people who would know more about it than Butch Voices, the largest butch activist organization in the world. Which specifically refuses to exclude men, and more than that explicitly includes trans men.

Gay men often describe themselves (check out these personals ads), their partners or their friends in terms of being femme or butch, not just in casual contexts, but in research ones. That’s how deeply these identities are felt. Again and again, the term used to describe all queer masculinity is butch.

And while most definitions by queer organizations welcome and acknowledge the fact that butch was popularized in post-WWII women’s spaces, you’ll note an absence of gender limitations on the definitions themselves.

That’s because butch identity, by its very nature, is a violation of gender norms (one that some people say is outdated and antiquated, though I strongly disagree).

And so, too, are all forms of queerness ultimately a violation of gender normativity, of strict definition and categorization.

That’s why major butch authors, for example, hesitate to even use traditional gender pronouns such as “he” or “she” when writing about the hypothetical butch. Because a butch may be a woman, but womanhood is not a necessary component of butchness. And I do apologize for that link, I know it only shows scraps of the whole book, but it does at least include a couple of the more relevant essays about the complexity of trying to assign a gender to butch identity.

For all queer people–including the men–butch identity is an act of reclamation of masculine performance, in the same way that for all queer people–including the women–femme identity is a reclamation of feminine performance, ripping it out of the hands of the cisheteronormative hegemony and saying, hey, fuck you, you don’t get to decide who counts as what, who gets to do what, get fucked. And this can be fumbled, of course, but so can anything. Performance is what it is, and we all make missteps.

Now, as for the other half of my conclusion: that the constant claims about butch (and femme) being “lesbian exclusive” are TERF propaganda.

The following links require content warnings far in excess of just “these talk about queer history and the evolution of terminology.”

These are links to TERF news articles written and intended for non-TERF audiences. That means they present TERF talking points in positive language. Be careful when you approach them, be careful when you read them.

Since at least the 1980s, when masculinizing medical transition started becoming more accessible on a larger scale, trans-exclusionary feminists and trans-exclusionary lesbian separatists have been going out of their way to erase, shame, and punish their trans brothers and lovers for “betraying” them,.

A great many people who had previously identified as hard-butch lesbians because it was the only word they new moved into identifying as trans men. And because radical feminist, lesbian separatist theory had no place for any kind of men, the only way that kind of act could be frames was as treachery. The men who did so, some of whom had been stalwart feminists for decades, some of whom had even been powerful voices in second wave feminist movements, were suddenly treated as abusers, drug peddlers, and sexual criminals.

Here’s more evidence that TERFs don’t get to define anything in our community, especially not for butch people.

The butch and ftm community pretty much started out as the same community and then diverged slightly when the trans label became a thing. Before the identity existed there were butches using he/him and even taking T. For example Leslie Fienberg, the author of Stone Butch Blues, started out identifying as a butch lesbian which he explained was defined by his lack of connection to womanhood. He now identifies as trans, uses he/him pronouns, and takes T.

Every single butch I’ve ever talked to has said that they have at best an extremely convoluted and challenging relationship with their womanhood. Many experience gender dysphoria to varying degrees. A handful use he/him pronouns or change their names to be more masculine. Every butch I know described wearing femmenine stuff as numbing, humiliating, dishonest, and even painful. They describe masculine expression as empowering, genuine, exhilarating, etc and big leather jackets/boots as armor.

Some of those butches were bisexual, non-binary, trans men, etc. And you know what? Very few of them had issues with other butches but they tended to get a lot of shit from, unsurprisingly, white lesbian feminists.

[ID: A tweet that reads "For my trans friends on testosterone, go check your lot number, there's been a recall due to bacterial contamination." The tweet includes a link to the news source detailing the recall and a screenshot from that source. The link to the news article is:

End ID]

Update: It looks like there may be some additional related recalls. You can check the FDA website. I just searched for Sun as the manufacturer with a timeframe of the last two months.

Multigender people who are men either have to pretend to be monogender men to be seen as men, or ignore the male part of their gender to be accepted as also any other gender.

Genderfluid people who are sometimes men are either seen as completely genderstatic when men, or when they're men they're not really men because they're still genderfluid.

Binary trans men have their genders seen as the exact same gender experience as a cis man, or a man but they don't count because they're trans.

There's a conversation to be had about how this adheres to antimasculism- either trying to push everyone as far away from the big evil man germs as possible, or ignoring any complexity to gender so they can be conveniently demonized. Also exorsexism by deeming any genderqueer person basically a woman. And transmultiphobia by ignoring how people can be both a man and not a man, both a man and a "women and nonbinary people."

I know an old lesbian couple who have been married since the moment they legalized it. One woman can hardly walk anymore but she loves Hallmark ornaments, so her wife supports her against her walker during Christmas so she can look at them more easily.

I know a transgender man who started transitioning only 10 years ago at 60, and he's brilliant and funny and brings his grandchildren by to get sweets.

I know an asexual woman who, beamed and told me she absolutely loved not having a husband, and that she "never once regretted not getting married. I never felt that way about anybody! Why force it?" She lives with her parrot and loves salsa dancing.

The Transfeminist Manifesto by Emi Koyama

Gender Nihilism: An Anti-Manifesto and Beyond Negativity: What Comes After Gender Nihilism? by Alyson Escalante

A Socialist Feminist and Transgender Analysis of Sex Work by Esperanza Fonseca

Transfeminist Perspectives in and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies By Finn Enke

Biology and the Oppression of Women by Alyson Escalante

Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation by Laboria Cuboniks and Xenofeminism by Helen Hester (check out laboriacuboniks.net and DM me if you need me to find a pdf of these books for you)

1. If youre not a lesbian/dont want to buy anything from her store but still want to financially support her, she has a kofi as well!

2. Heres her carrd with more links such as a redbubble shop and a society6 shop, as well as her other social media!

Hi! Wanted to share an important experience I had recently that I think you should know about, especially if you’re a fellow petite trans guy or similar!

I just got an awesome gynecologist who works with all sorts of people, including trans guys and such. She made me feel very safe, comfortable, and heard! One of the things she asked me during my visit was if I had anyone in my family who has/had Osteoporosis - a condition that makes your bones weak and brittle.

I had no idea why that would even matter, but both of my mom’s parents did, and I found out later that my mom has Osteopenia (sort of a halfway point between healthy bones and Osteoporosis). My doctor nodded and then explained that since 1) Osteoporosis runs in my family, 2) I am a trans guy taking weekly testosterone, and 3) I am petite at 5′0″ and 100-110 lbs, I should get a bone density scan done. Huh??? Why???

Did you know that estrogen actually protects your bones by suppressing reabsorption of the bone itself?? It works with the osteoblasts needed to create new bone! She explained that those of us with smaller bodies naturally have less hormones, and thus less estrogen to begin with, and when you start taking testosterone for a long time, it stops the estrogen, which stops protecting your bones. Damn!!!!

Now, because studies on trans bodies, especially over long periods of time, are in a growing field, we become part of the data. There’s not a lot to read on the subject yet, just like the similarities between being on testosterone and going through menopause. 

My doctor looked at me in all my confusion and said, 

“I bring all this up because I have a couple of trans male patients who have developed Osteoporosis by the time they’re 30.”

Let that sink in. (I’m almost 26.)

The scan took all of 5 minutes, completely harmless, got to keep all my clothes on. A few days later and I get a result that my pelvic bones are fine, but that my spine has “MINOR Osteopenia” and that I should do the following things to prevent worsening:

Take Vitamin D3

Take Calcium (preferably with food, but supplements are okay too)

Do weight-bearing exercises (“In regard to weightbearing exercises, we think the best is walking and/or running, hiking, and yoga. Swimming or biking is not recommended as a weightbearing exercise.”)

While this looks like a simple “eat better, get more sunshine, exercise more!” bit, (which I guess it sort of is??) it’s also… a little scary? Research on trans bodies has never before led me to this possible conclusion, and I wanted to make sure other people knew about this possibility as well, so they can ask their doctors questions to stay healthy!!