A Butch is a Lesbian who has, from an early age, rejected femininity and its trappings; who has refused to be socialized as a fuck-object for men, and does not dress or carry herself in a way that presents ‘woman’ as what men think women should be. A fem can dress Butch in order to reject male-dominance, but cannot erase a lifetime of internalizing those values, and so her fem-ness will always be apparent. While she can, and should, present herself as much as possible in solidarity with Butches, calling herself Butch when it is little more than a fashion choice for her (albeit a positive one) is an appropriation.
(…)
Being Butch means knowing you were different from other girls from your earliest memories — not because you were male, male-identified, “masculine,” or “male-patterned brained,” but because you were too female, too natural, too close to what all girls would be if it wasn’t for patriarchy, and too threatening. Refusing male rules that define what a “proper” girl is does not make us less female. What we are taught by men and their het women collaborators, who are the femininity police enforcers, is that to be a “real” female means being as unnatural as possible — in movement, feeling, voice, looks, clothing, and how we act in the world with friends and lovers.
(…)
Butches are treated as other, as unnatural, and as freaks from our earliest memories, with no support from the culture, media, schools, family, etc. We often grow up never seeing anyone else like us, yet we persist in staying natural and true to ourselves. We are oppressed even by other Lesbians. We certainly don’t need “radical Lesbian feminists” oppressing us as well, and using the same old male Butch-hating stereotypes against us.
You don’t have to understand a Lesbian is Butch to oppress her, just as you don’t have to know the class background of someone to be classist.
(…)
When a Lesbian Feminist insists that Butches are more male or male-brained, she’s following the old patriarchal tradition of psychiatrists who imprison, torture, experiment on, drug, electro-shock, and kill Butches for daring to say no to men, to patriarchy.
Please don’t re-write our history. We did NOT leave the Lesbian Feminist communty for the “queer” community. We helped CREATE the Lesbian Feminist community and are still here (even though way too many Butches have died young.) We did not “walk away” from Lesbian Feminism or “run” away from radical Lesbian Feminism. Again, Butches CREATED radical Lesbian Feminism. And no, we did not “transition” to “become men.” Most FTMs are fem, and it’s becoming obvious as the years go by that most are actually het or bisexual women since their eventual goal seems to be with gay men (though of course they aren’t gay if they’re with women, so actually they are het/bisexual men with het/bisexual women — just a variant on a regular boring het couple.)
We do not exist for fems either. Substitute another oppressed group being objectified as sexually servicing their oppressor and see the hate here:
“Historically, the lesbian butch has been about giving pleasure. In fact, she defined her pleasure as the giving of pleasure. Her virility, her prowess lay-so to speak-in the satisfying of the fem.”
I’m sorry to disturb the lovely almost-pornographic fantasy of Butches existing only to satisfy you, but that’s not my idea of pleasure. I prefer equality, and ideally, with another Butch.
The level of Butch-hatred in this “sermon” is almost unbelieveable. But obviously, and fortunately, not all fems hate Butches. I do thank my Radical Lesbian Feminist and Separatist friends for their support of Butches, including and especially Val. So why is it so hard for others to understand?
