Our good friend recently posted another piece of fantasy titled "Butch Lesbians: The BIG Threat" in which she outlines that butch lesbians are not men, don't want to be men, are not masculine, manly, mannish, etc. She's so wrong, it's hilarious.
I can't say whether butch lesbians want to be or don't. I do know that I have been around butch women who reject femininity so strongly, and appear to be imitating male behavior so vehemently, that it seems they are trying really hard to be men. Actually, there's nothing wrong with that. If you choose to have a buzzcut, wear Dickies, Georgia boots and wallet chains everywhere, swill beer and aggressively hit on only feminine presenting women, fine. But denying that your behavior apes that of any traditional male is silly.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Saturday, March 17, 2012
"Intelligent Butch Lesbian"
lol, no you're not.
I had a personal loss recently that made me stop to think about how incredibly precious life is. To even think about why a person would commit hundreds of man hours to digging into the lives of people they disagree with just baffles me.
I can't understand at all why these little cabal of women would dedicate their lives to fighting those who transition. What pleasure do they derive from criticizing others so vehemently?
I had a personal loss recently that made me stop to think about how incredibly precious life is. To even think about why a person would commit hundreds of man hours to digging into the lives of people they disagree with just baffles me.
I can't understand at all why these little cabal of women would dedicate their lives to fighting those who transition. What pleasure do they derive from criticizing others so vehemently?
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
I should write more stuff
But I don't feel like reading all these cackling hens raging against trans-men for no real reason.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Butch Women and Femme-ophobia
Some butch women seem to contradict themselves by sneering at traditional femininity, even as they are railing against society for hating women.
Butch women proudly insist that they were "NEVER feminine" (as if that would be absurd) or that they always preferred "overalls and buzz cuts" over traditionally feminine ways of presenting. The way they talk about femininity insinuates that girly things are silly or inherently less valuable than the traditionally masculine things that they prefer. Which is curious, because they seem to get really angry when the Patriarchy devalues women or feminine things. So which is it? Is it okay to value masculinity over femininity, as long as men don't do it?
Butch women may develop this tough exterior because they spend their lives in a world that is hostile to them based on the way they present. It's kind of like being around an abused animal. An abused animal is snarling and defensive with everyone immediately. They are used to being attacked, are tense and ready to react at any moment, as a defense mechanism to having been hurt in the past. In that situation, it's easy to understand that attitude. That same defensiveness is evident in the way that some butch women interact with people, online and in the world.
To be butch is to present masculinity in a female body. The rejection of feminine things as "silly" and beneath them, is because these women have to constantly assert and re-assert their masculinity to the larger world that either refuses to recognize it, or doesn't take it seriously. They are uncomfortable accepting femininity, because that would bring their fragile presentation of masculinity into question.
A trans-male is also presenting masculinity in a biologically female body. By contrast, however, once a person passes, the world recognizes that masculinity without question. (Passing can be accomplished with hormones or without it.) This fact will make a lot of butch women angry. They will criticize trans-guys for "conforming" or accepting the "gender straight jacket"with righteous indignation. In a way, they are correct. That doesn't change the fact that they are always and will be fighting for acceptance that I, presenting and accepted as male, am granted easily and without question. I value the peace of not having to fight to be who I am over whatever satisfaction they receive from being right.
It wasn't a choice between presenting as butch or presenting as male. Butch women get confused in thinking that trans-guys are just butches who went on testosterone. I have never been butch, or wanted to be.
Butch women proudly insist that they were "NEVER feminine" (as if that would be absurd) or that they always preferred "overalls and buzz cuts" over traditionally feminine ways of presenting. The way they talk about femininity insinuates that girly things are silly or inherently less valuable than the traditionally masculine things that they prefer. Which is curious, because they seem to get really angry when the Patriarchy devalues women or feminine things. So which is it? Is it okay to value masculinity over femininity, as long as men don't do it?
Butch women may develop this tough exterior because they spend their lives in a world that is hostile to them based on the way they present. It's kind of like being around an abused animal. An abused animal is snarling and defensive with everyone immediately. They are used to being attacked, are tense and ready to react at any moment, as a defense mechanism to having been hurt in the past. In that situation, it's easy to understand that attitude. That same defensiveness is evident in the way that some butch women interact with people, online and in the world.
To be butch is to present masculinity in a female body. The rejection of feminine things as "silly" and beneath them, is because these women have to constantly assert and re-assert their masculinity to the larger world that either refuses to recognize it, or doesn't take it seriously. They are uncomfortable accepting femininity, because that would bring their fragile presentation of masculinity into question.
A trans-male is also presenting masculinity in a biologically female body. By contrast, however, once a person passes, the world recognizes that masculinity without question. (Passing can be accomplished with hormones or without it.) This fact will make a lot of butch women angry. They will criticize trans-guys for "conforming" or accepting the "gender straight jacket"with righteous indignation. In a way, they are correct. That doesn't change the fact that they are always and will be fighting for acceptance that I, presenting and accepted as male, am granted easily and without question. I value the peace of not having to fight to be who I am over whatever satisfaction they receive from being right.
It wasn't a choice between presenting as butch or presenting as male. Butch women get confused in thinking that trans-guys are just butches who went on testosterone. I have never been butch, or wanted to be.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
How Transition Affects People Who Don't Transition
...it doesn't.
Arguments that the mere concept of transition is somehow going to destroy all women everywhere are as unfounded and contrived as the arguments religious zealots make against gay marriage.
The common theme between those two issues is someone choosing to involve themselves too deeply in the private lives of others. No one is saying that you have to go out and be friends with every trans-guy and respect their desire to be called he/him if you don't want to. If you don't like trans-men, don't hang out with them. If you disagree with the idea of transition, ....(wait for it)... Don't Transition! Nobody has a gun to anyone's head forcing them to transition or to approve of it as a valid life decision, but some people sure act like it. I have yet to hear even one plausible reason how or why my transition effects anyone outside my family and circle of friends.
I have had the conversation about marriage equality conversation with anti-gay people before. "Ok, say a gay male couple moves next door to you, plants a vegetable garden, engages in hot gay sex everyday within the confines of their own home. How does that effect you?" Their answers are ridiculous:
Arguments that the mere concept of transition is somehow going to destroy all women everywhere are as unfounded and contrived as the arguments religious zealots make against gay marriage.
The common theme between those two issues is someone choosing to involve themselves too deeply in the private lives of others. No one is saying that you have to go out and be friends with every trans-guy and respect their desire to be called he/him if you don't want to. If you don't like trans-men, don't hang out with them. If you disagree with the idea of transition, ....(wait for it)... Don't Transition! Nobody has a gun to anyone's head forcing them to transition or to approve of it as a valid life decision, but some people sure act like it. I have yet to hear even one plausible reason how or why my transition effects anyone outside my family and circle of friends.
I have had the conversation about marriage equality conversation with anti-gay people before. "Ok, say a gay male couple moves next door to you, plants a vegetable garden, engages in hot gay sex everyday within the confines of their own home. How does that effect you?" Their answers are ridiculous:
- my kids will be confused
- God says it's wrong
- Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve
- it will destroy America
They can make up reasons, they're just not good ones. Truth is, no one can ever name one concrete effect that gay marriage would have on their lives. In reality, it won't. It's just better to try to justify your opinion, than come out honestly and say, "Ew, I just don't like it."
Anti-trans internet "activists" are the same way. They make heaps of doomsday predictions about how someone transitioning will empower the Patriarchy/ destroy feminism/ unleash Armageddon, but none of those excuses are real either. If these people were honest with themselves, they would just admit the truth. "Ew, I just don't like it." Some obvious reasons, especially concerning butch lesbians, are jealousy, confusing trans-guys with actually being butch lesbians, embarrassment that transition will make all those people right when they claimed that "lesbians just want to be men".
My transition doesn't affect a single lesbian, butch or otherwise, in the entire world. I don't even know any lesbians.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Most Trans-guys Weren't Butch
Butch women tend to assume that people who choose transition were just butch lesbians that surrendered to "the Patriarchy". After reading a few posts on the blog, it seems like this woman probably blames "the Patriarchy" every time she can't find a good parking space.
I for one never identified as a butch. I was a tomboy, but even as a girl I was attractive. I never looked, dressed, or acted like the butch lesbians I see buying power saws together in the hardware store. Judging by most intro videos on YouTube, most people who transition aren't butch either.
Butch women feel "betrayed" because they are wrongly assuming that their tribe is losing members. They don't realize that the majority of trans-guys were never associated with them in the first place. Actually, among my generation (under 30) and younger, I don't even see many butch identified lesbians around at all.
"Butches" may be relics of history. Queer and lesbian women of my generation (age 20s and younger) are likely to be influenced by the beautiful women portrayed in "the L Word", and don't seem to be interested in adopting tough, burly, butch presentation. Most trans-guys, at least the most visible from the YouTube community, look more like trendy teenage boys than butch lesbians. Even presenting as male, they are too stylish to ever pass as butch. There's not one buzz cut or NASCAR t-shirt among them.
When butch lesbians cry that trans-guys are "selling them out", they are missing the obvious fact that most of us were never even butch to begin with.
I for one never identified as a butch. I was a tomboy, but even as a girl I was attractive. I never looked, dressed, or acted like the butch lesbians I see buying power saws together in the hardware store. Judging by most intro videos on YouTube, most people who transition aren't butch either.
Butch women feel "betrayed" because they are wrongly assuming that their tribe is losing members. They don't realize that the majority of trans-guys were never associated with them in the first place. Actually, among my generation (under 30) and younger, I don't even see many butch identified lesbians around at all.
"Butches" may be relics of history. Queer and lesbian women of my generation (age 20s and younger) are likely to be influenced by the beautiful women portrayed in "the L Word", and don't seem to be interested in adopting tough, burly, butch presentation. Most trans-guys, at least the most visible from the YouTube community, look more like trendy teenage boys than butch lesbians. Even presenting as male, they are too stylish to ever pass as butch. There's not one buzz cut or NASCAR t-shirt among them.
When butch lesbians cry that trans-guys are "selling them out", they are missing the obvious fact that most of us were never even butch to begin with.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Bitter Butch
From this screen shot, you can see the bitterness and feelings of betrayal that butch women have toward people who transition."You [trans-guys] sold us out."
...Sold out who?
Bitter butch lesbians somehow misconstrue the personal decisions of others into an attack on them. I get it. Butch women are used to being on the defensive. It does seem like butch lesbians have the world against them. In popular culture, butch presenting women are universally derided as the butt of jokes and never cast in a favorable light, if they are ever seen at all. When they are, they are dismissed as unattractive and unappealing. (To be fair, this might be a well deserved stereotype.)
On the other hand, every other segment of queer culture is mostly painted in a positive light. In general, gay male culture is glamorized and gay men are lauded as fashion icons. One example of this is "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". Well-coiffed, fit, handsome gays swoop down to teach manners and style to frumpy straight dudes. Lipstick lesbians are glorified as a male fantasy. Androgynous lesbians even had sexy, unattainable Shane to admire. The butch lesbians are still portrayed as hairy, angry, and fat.
I am opposed to anyone treating a butch lesbian badly, just because of the way she chooses to present. However, this is a possible explanation to why they are always so freaking angry. They recognize that society shuns them for presenting masculinity in a female body. Meanwhile, trans-guys who present and pass as male are automatically not just accepted, but granted male privilege, even though, in a way, trans-guys are also presenting masculinity in a biologically female body.
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