Butch-fem

Butch and fem is two social and sexual identity S lesbians of the 20th century.

History

The words “butch”, abbreviation of “butcher” (to stop) in English, and “woman” or “fem”, taken again French word or abbreviation of " feminine" , with the the United States in the Années 1940 to designate the lesbians male appears are and female be. In the beginning, the word “butch” can designate a particularly virile man. These identities have as a precedent the vogue of the garçonnes in France in the years 1920, and especially the current of the lesbians equipped as men, like Mathilde de Morny or Radclyffe Hall, opposed to female the Djuna Barnes or the Amazon Natalie Barney. The couple formed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas belongs to the precursors.

Studied in the community lesbian of Buffalo, these identities meet the need to affirm the specificity of the community of the lesbians and model the behaviors. They extended during the Années 1950 and structured the Sous-culture bars lesbians in the United States and Canada, taken again under this name with the Quebec. While transgressing to them sexual Kind and by their claiming attitude, the “butches” made visible the community lesbian, but suffered more from the violences and discriminations. On their side, the “fems” could support the “butches” while benefitting from the indifference which they caused (see Placard).

In the Années 1970, some feminist radical discredit the male identities for their culture machist and like imitation of the men, and tackle sexuality “butch-fem” as caricatures heterosexual couple (one can see a representation of this discredit in the central part of the film Sex Revelations ). These attacks led to the homogenization of the appearance of the lesbians, and to the mode of the lesbians Androgyne S, then that of the lesbians “ lipstick ” which was diffused by the means of the Publicité.

It is in the Années 1980 that rises a defense and a rehabilitation of these historical identities and these modes of identification (with Joan Nestle then the theorists Queer). The Drag king S know a new favor, the singer K.d. Lang does not fear to appear in male costume, and a group of singers names even the Butchies. These words arrive only in the Années 1990 to France, where existed already words for the male lesbians (“camionneuse”), and for the couple “Jules”/“chick”, and where personalities such as Helene Azenor or Monique Wittig lived.

Practical social

The “butches” correspond to the “real tomboys”: she have paces, occupations, tastes and/or a clothing that the companies sexists or machists reserve to the boys. Some Transgenre S can be identified with the “butches”. But the “butches” are to be distinguished from the transsexuals woman towards man, which are identified as men (for example Brandon Teena).

The “fems”, as for them, cultivate a female pace but do not adhere to their sexual Genre by their sexuality. They are seldom seen like homosexual, but can give an indication of the lesbians more varied and better accepted. The “smart lesbian ” recovers the identity of female lesbians to the comfortable incomes, well placed socially (one can see of it the representation in the film She Hate Me or the series The L Word ). These identities were used for construction of its own image, like presentation of oneself and mode of seduction, and with the construction of the image of the other lesbians, like means of recognition and erotic support.

The identities “butch-fem” can extend to sexuality to imply the sexual practices and the role in the couple. The association of these names suggests a complementarity of the roles. She points out the popular prejudice which wants that the homosexual ones are male women seeking to allure the hétérosexuelles female ones. But they do not function like model of couple: there are couples “fem-fem” and “butch-butch” like couples “fem-butch”. The “ stone butch ” represents the extreme case of the very male woman who allures the women and pleasure without reciprocity brings to them. In other companies, the couples of women were formed according to a requirement of complementarity of kind, generally conditioned by the age, for example at the Nuer of the Sudan or at the Yoruba.

These rigid identities of appearance are counterbalanced by the tastes and the individual differences, and the redefinition of the identities. According to the context, the people can adopt or reject one or the other of these identities, or both. They represented identities alternatively to be defended and preserve or to criticize and exceed. Strongly historicized, they took part in the social Construction of the sexual identities.

The homosexual men since recovered the term “butch” to designate a very male gay. In the “gay community”, 2 stereotypes can categorize the gays:

the “butch”, man between 30 and 40 years, the voice engraves, the short hair, the very muscular body, and often equipped with sport clothing or paramilitaries. The “ bear/musclebear ” (“English bear”) is its hairy, coated or muscular variation;
the “hairdresser”, often an young man with the finer body, the acuter voice, with the more worked hairstyle and the refined behaviors.

In Paris, Eric & Michael have inity, in the Années 1990, a concept of evening clubbing weekly only reserved to the men, with a darkroom. The communication insists on testosterone and wants to dissociate usual stereotype of the effeminate gay.

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