But how can Butch women exemplify when even within Butch/Femme spaces many remain ignorant of the tried and true blue female masculine? When we have andro dykes, and softball dykes and dykey dykes now IDing as Butch because they believe it to be a default ID since they do not fit the patriarchal prescribed male gazed IDEA of woman!
So what then exactly is a female masculine (Butch)??? She is a natural occurrence, first and foremost. She came into the world a tiny masculine creature, as masculinity can ONLY be created within our mother's gifted wombs. As man has desperately tried to distance himself from nature's superiority, so man has generated artifice where he has found himself lacking, this includes masculinity-male or female.
Since it is nature who decided the female masculine, we should remember that Descartes much touted Cogito ergo sum need NOT apply here! I could call/ID myself the second coming of Christ and have copious amounts of whores drying my wet feet with their hair, but I still aint no Jesus! Yet this is exactly what we have filling up our Butch/Femme communities everywhere!
In the same way and for the very same reason the lesbian community has found itself steeped in the occupancy of bisexual women, straight women and disorder males, so to the Butch/Femme community has been with the straw Jesus and Marys. Play nice girls, be good girls, accept, tolerate, consent, share, even it is to our own sweet demise.
To be honest I dont blame these straw butches, I blame misogyny and a skewed patriarchal male gaze of women which together equals Butch invisibility. The female masculine is very much a visible invisible. And by that I mean when one generally thinks of dyke/lesbian they most often think of the "mannish" dyke/lesbian. There exist a visual idea in society's(the lesbian community as well) minds eye of who she is and what she's after. Yet in reality, the female masculine, because of her visible masculinity and society's ignorant belief that men have cornered the market on masculinity, the female masculine easily "passes" as male rather than the sex she is, rendering her invisible to society and often times even to her lesbian peers.
This Butch "passing" is partly due to masculine attire combined with society's casual eye, but more specifically it is due to the female masculine body. Yes the female body can be (and sometimes is) masculine. While the female masculine's masculinity often times is described in terms of her "masculine energy", and thats not to say there isnt a decided difference between masculine and feminine energies, there exist also a distinct and distinguishable female masculine physical presence, build and gait.
The Butches ability to easily "pass" has much more to do with her masculine physical presence than it has to do with what she is wearing. Even as little girls young Butches stand out in feminine attire. As adults it is literally impossible for the female masculine to don feminine attire in any way, shape or form and not look absolutely ridiculous and out of place doing so. This is because her masculinity is a physical property of her masculine nature which cannot be changed or disguised in efforts to appear as anything other than masculine.
Does female masculinity dictate the female masculine's sexual attraction? No and yes. Female masculinity in and of itself does not prescribe sexual attraction. But the female masculine, Butch with a capitol B, of which this is truely written about, does. The female masculine Butch's romantic and sexual attractions are primordialy and powerfully tied to Butch/Femme pairings. At first glance it may seem to some the Butch/Femme pairing to be nothing more than hetero mimicry because of a visual masculine and feminine similarity. But NEVER forget both parties here are WOMEN and there isnt anything within this very special, very delicate lesbian Butch/Femme union that resembles MALE/female bonds.
In closing it isnt until the female masculine has a modicum of visibility in which to solidify her soma reflecting her Butch image to all, the Butch ID will continue to be appropriated by the unknowing.
dirt
