Butch
What made you want to look up butch? Please tell us where you read or heard it including the quote, if possible. Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! What origins we bring to you and your kin.
A word with surprisingly literal origins. Do you feel lucky? How we chose 'justice'. And is one way more correct than the others? How to use a word that literally drives some people nuts. The awkward case of 'his or her'. Identify the word pairs with a common ancestor. Test your knowledge - and maybe learn something along the way. Other Words from butch butch noun. Who said only butch gay men should be stars? First Known Use of butch , in the meaning defined at sense 1. History and Etymology for butch probably from Butch , male nickname.
The femme lesbian historian Joan Nestle argues that femme and butch may be seen as distinct genders in and of themselves. A masculine person of any gender can be described as butch, even though it is more common to use the term towards females with more masculine traits. It is not uncommon for women with a butch appearance to face harassment or violence. Like the term "butch," femme can be used as an adjective or a noun. Because they do not express masculine qualities, femmes were particularly vexing to sexologists and psychoanalysts who wanted to argue that all lesbians wished to be men.
In the first half of the twentieth century, when butch-femme gender roles were constrained to the underground bar scene, femmes were considered invisible without a butch partner - that is, they could pass as straight because of their gender conformity. By daring to be publicly attracted to butch women, femmes reflected their own sexual difference and made the butch a known subject of desire. The separatist feminist movement of the late s and s forced butches and femmes underground, as radical lesbian feminists found lesbian gender roles to be a disappointing and oppressive replication of heterosexual lifestyle.
In this new configuration of butch and femme, it was acceptable, even desirable, to have femme-femme sexual and romantic pairings. Femmes gained value as their own lesbian gender, making it possible to exist separately from butches. For example, Susie Bright , the founder of On Our Backs , the first lesbian sex periodical of its kind, identifies as femme.
- .
- Deep Six (Kidnapped by the Billionaire).
- Dr. Norden Bestseller 46 - Arztroman: Ich bin nicht schuldig (German Edition)?
In "Negotiating Dyke Femininity", lesbian scholar Wendy Somerson , explains that women in the lesbian community who are more feminine and do not fit into the "butch" stereotype can pass as straight. She believes the link between appearance and gender performance and one's sexuality should be disrupted, because the way someone looks should not define their sexuality. In her article, Somerson also clearly talks about how within the lesbian community some are considered more masculine than others.
Femmes still combat the invisibility their presentation creates and assert their sexuality through their femininity. Some women in lesbian communities eschew butch or femme classifications, believing that they are inadequate to describe an individual, or that labels are limiting in and of themselves.
Other people within the queer community have tailored the common labels to be more descriptive, such as "soft stud," "hard butch," "gym queen," or "tomboy femme. In the s and s the term chi-chi was used to mean the same thing.
- Exodus.
- Gente de verdad (Contemporánea) (Spanish Edition).
- BUTCH IS NOT A DIRTY WORD – QUEER PUBLICATION.
- Early Retirement in a Nutshell.
- Butch (DJ / Producer) | Free Listening on SoundCloud;
- Principles of Statistical Genomics!
- .
- The Medical Management of Prostate Cancer II: v. 2 (ESO Monographs).
- Treatise on Classical Elasticity: Theory and Related Problems (Mathematical and Analytical Techniques with Applications to Engineering);
- butch | Definition of butch in English by Oxford Dictionaries.
- Der Außenpolitiker Hermann Müller 1919-20 (German Edition).
- In the Loving Fathers Care: Poems of Comfort in Times of Loss (Helen Steiner Rice Collection).
Those who identify as butch and femme today often use the words to define their presentation and gender identity rather than strictly the role they play in a relationship, and that not all butches are attracted exclusively to femmes and not all femmes are exclusively attracted to butches, a departure from the historic norm. The meanings of these terms vary and can evolve over time. A woman who likes to receive and not give sexually is called a "pillow queen".
The term boi is typically used by younger LGBT women. Defining the difference between a butch and a boi, one boi told a reporter: To me, butch is like an adult You're the man of the house. Lesbians who are unisex and neither butch nor femme are called "androgynous" or "andros". Another common term is "Stud". A stud is a dominant lesbian, usually butch.
They tend to be influenced by urban and hip-hop cultures and are often, but not always, Afro-American. In , filmmaker Daniel Peddle chronicled the lives of AGs in his documentary The Aggressives , following six women who went to lengths like binding their breasts to pass as men.
PRE-ORDER ISSUE #2z
But Peddle says that today, very young lesbians of color in New York are creating a new, insular scene that's largely cut off from the rest of the gay and lesbian community. Prior to the middle of the 20th century in Western culture, homosexual societies were mostly underground or secret, making it difficult to determine how long butch and femme roles have been practiced by women. It is known that butch—femme dress codes date back at least to the beginning of the 20th century as photographs have survived of butch—femme couples in the decade of — in the United States; they were then called "transvestites".
Butch and femme lesbian genders were only starting to become apparent in the s, since it started to become common to allow women to enter bars without men. The s saw the rise of a new generation of butches who refused to live double lives and wore butch attire full-time, or as close to full-time as possible. This usually limited them to a few jobs, such as factory work and cab driving, that had no dress codes for women. Although femmes also fought back, it became primarily the role of butches to defend against attacks and hold the bars as gay women's space.
Although butch—femme wasn't the only organizing principle among lesbians in the midth century, it was particularly prominent in the working-class lesbian bar culture of the s, '50s, and '60s, where butch—femme was the norm, while butch—butch and femme—femme relationships were taboo.
Butch and femme - Wikipedia
Rush reported that women held strong opinions, that "role distinctions needed to be sharply drawn," and that not being one or the other earned strong disapproval from both groups. In contrast to ONE, Inc. This was especially true in relation to the butch identity, as the organization held the belief that assimilation into heterosexual society was the goal of the homophile movement. Gender expressions outside of the norm prevented assimilation. In the s, the development of lesbian feminism pushed butch-femme roles out of popularity.
Navigation menu
Lesbian separatists such as Sheila Jeffreys argued that all forms of masculinity, including masculine butch women, were negative and harmful to women. This dress was very similar to butch dress, weakening a key identifier of butch lesbians. While butch-femme roles had previously been the primary way of identifying lesbians and quantifying lesbian relationships in the s, 50s, and 60s, lesbian feminist ideology had turned these roles into a "perversion of lesbian identity".
In these excluded communities, butch-femme roles persisted and grew throughout the s. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations.
Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. May Learn how and when to remove this template message. Effeminacy ; Sissy ; and Top, bottom and versatile. Rutledge International Encyclopaedia of Women. Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. Intellectual Stalemate in the Gay Rights Debate. An Exploration of Lesbian Stereotypes". Journal of Lesbian Studies. Retrieved May 2, Continuum International Publishing Group. All Ways Butch and Femme. Edited by Ivan Coyote and Zena Sharman. Retrieved 31 March Butch is a noun.