Butch en femme zijn genderexpressies die geworteld zijn in de lesbische en queer cultuur: butch put uit masculiniteit, femme uit femininiteit, en beide zijn volwaardige identiteiten op zich, geen kopieën van heterorollen.
Definitie
Both are more than style descriptions: for many people they are core identities with their own history, culture and codes, and neither one is an imitation of a straight role.
Butch names a masculine way of being in the world that developed inside lesbian and queer communities. It can describe how someone dresses and carries themselves, and for many butches it is closer to a gender than a style: something that would still be true if nobody else were looking.
Femme names femininity claimed on queer terms. The distinction femmes usually draw is between femininity performed for men and femininity that exists inside a queer context and is directed at other queer people. Femme is not the same as simply being a feminine woman who happens to be a lesbian, and femmes have spent decades explaining that difference.
Neither word requires the other. Butch/butch and femme/femme relationships are ordinary, and plenty of people are neither.
Flags
Distinct community flags exist for butch and femme, neither with a single universally adopted version. The butch flag in circulation is a five-stripe design in oranges, tan, white and dark blue, generally dated to 2019. The femme flag in circulation is a five-stripe design running from dark pink through white to purple, generally dated to 2017. Documented designers are not reliably established for either.
Butch/femme ontstond als zichtbare sociale dynamiek in de lesbische barcultuur van de arbeidersklasse in de jaren veertig en vijftig in de VS en het VK - overlevingsstrategieën en gemeenschapsstructuren voor vrouwen die geen ander zichtbaar kader voor een queer identiteit hadden. De Daughters of Bilitis (opgericht in 1955) ontmoedigden butch/femme-expressie aanvankelijk omdat die de aandacht van de politie trok; het lesbisch feminisme van de jaren zeventig bekritiseerde het ook als een herhaling van heteroseksuele genderrollen. In de jaren tachtig en negentig werd butch/femme heroverd en gevierd als een authentieke uiting van queer gendercultuur.
Veelvoorkomende mythes
Myth: butch lesbians want to be men
Gender expression and gender identity are separate. Most butches are women and identify firmly as such. Some butches are non-binary, and some trans men have a butch history they still claim. None of that makes masculinity in a woman a sign of anything.
Myth: butch/femme copies straight roles
The similarity is surface. A butch is not a stand-in for a husband, and femmes have historically been the ones with the social cover and often the ones doing the protecting. Both roles developed inside a community organising itself, not by borrowing from outside.
Myth: femmes are not visibly queer, so they have it easier
Femme invisibility cuts both ways: less street harassment, and also being read as straight inside queer spaces and having to come out repeatedly to your own community. Femmes have written about this for forty years.
Myth: butch/femme is outdated
It is older than most identity vocabulary in this guide and still in active use, which is roughly the opposite of outdated.
Bekende personen
Leslie Feinberg (1949-2014) - Auteur van Stone Butch Blues (1993); een fundamentele tekst over butch lesbische identiteit
Joan Nestle (1940-) - Medeoprichter van de Lesbian Herstory Archives; essays over femme-identiteit en butch/femme-cultuur in A Restricted Country
Amber Hollibaugh - Femme-activist en filmmaker; zette zich in voor femme-zichtbaarheid binnen het feminisme
