So, What About the Butches?

2008-04-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'd like to start a public dialogue with those of you who are interested in talking constructively about the issues around butch oppression, and the current status of butch identities within lesbian and queer communities.

Since 2001, I have been in production on A Persistent Desire, a feature length documentary film about butch and femme identities and dynamics, as director and producer. The film is an illuminating conversation with self identified femmes, butches (studs, etc.) who voice their experiences and thoughts about having gender identity diverse relationships between lesbians that are free of sexism and misogyny. In seeking a diverse range of interview subjects, one of the most difficult demographics to find were white butches under 35. That really struck me, because, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I am based, the subject of butch oppression is being virtually ignored, at a time when I'm seeing many butches, particularly poor butches, and butches of color dying on the streets homeless, or on the verge of it. These butches think they are failures, are at high-risk for substance abuse, oftentimes without realizing that a lot of their problems are systemic, and that they are being oppressed as masculine females in a society that has yet to accept them.

Their survival issues are real, dealing with discrimination in employment, housing, socially in their own communities, being at higher rates of risk for substance abuse, incarceration and physical violence because of their non-conforming gender presentation. Why? Because our society still does not accept masculine females, and the blatant hostility and prejudice that so many people still feel free to express from the grocery store, to the workplace, to even the lesbian bar where many lesbians still hold negative stereotypes, and make no secret about their distaste for butches. I've even seen lesbian personal ads where the lister has felt free to say things like, "No butches or alcoholics need apply." Or, "Looking for a butch, must have and know how to keep a job." Now, my question is, if these women were able to notice an apparent trend with butches having challenges with employment, did they ever stop to wonder why that was?

I live in Oakland, CA, and identify as a black butch. Yet despite the privilege of having a college education, the skills of a photographer and filmmaker and many others, I know and live many of these same survival struggles first hand. I have observed an explosion in the numbers of black queer youth coming out in junior high and high school, in the last ten years, particularly studs (as they call themselves) and femmes. This is a phenomenon, I'm told that is duplicated in almost every major urban area across the country. I have worked professionally, and as a volunteer with queer youth of color for over twenty years. I've talked with black femmes and studs under 25, and I'm very concerned and disturbed by the trends I'm seeing. There is an organization in Oakland called SMAAC that is doing it's best on limited resources, and little community support to provide a wide range of services to queer youth of color. No one else is working with these youth. They are bright and talented, but they have no mentors to teach them survival strategies, show them how to live productively in the world, and no positive role models for re-defining masculinity, and how to participate in non-sexist, non-misogynist relationships. Most of the studs are taking their lead from the worst possible examples of so called masculinity, the misogynist rap videos where feminine women are routinely referred to as hoes and bitches. I've had conversations with a few young studs who told me that they were pimps, (in the old school sense of the word), and they were. They pimp their femme partners, and "slang dope" with the fellas on the corner, and this is how they are surviving in a world where they can see no other alternatives than attempting to pass as and mimic the men who despise them for being women themselves, in order to avoid sexual abuse and hate crimes. They don't know any other way, and they are fixtures in the prison industrial complex. The ones pictured in this blog were the exception. They have a self-awareness about themselves as masculine females, and their unique situation. They have a natural instinct for bonding together and supporting each, and really want information about the history of butches/studs, along with the input and guidance of older butches/studs in their lives.

And outside of the queer of color community, I've talked with masculine females of every class who expressed anxiety and despair around obtaining employment because of their presentation, who had experienced all kinds of workplace discrimination, been left by countless girlfriends who lusted after them, even loved them, but could not see the viability of being in a long term relationship with them because of the loss of privilege, and exposure to homophobia. Yet, even within this context, it is considered transphobic to say, or even think that there are a significant number of butches, who are deciding to transition as a way of dealing with their oppression, when it is simply a fact that that is happening. I have no judgment of individual choice, but it is my opinion that transitioning as a strategy for dealing with butch oppression fails to transform the society into a just one that truly accepts all gender identities, as it does not sufficiently challenge the root of the oppression.

Almost every butch I know personally, has told me she feels marginalized within the lesbian and queer communities. I have spoken with numerous butches under 35 who have recounted stories of tremendous social pressure to transition from both their peers and their girlfriends or potential ones. Has butch identity become obsolete, now that we have the technology to look like males? It seems that we've time traveled back to the 1950's in our attitudes toward masculine females, when mainstream society believed that if a woman was proudly displaying her masculinity, it meant she wanted to be a man. How did we get to this place of not being able to wrap our heads around being masculine, and also being proudly female? Has misogyny become so insidiously entrenched with our society and within us, that it is has become difficult to conceive of a female manifesting masculinity naturally, and being perfectly happy in her female body, while taking pride in her blatantly queer gender presentation?

I know there are many others out there, who are aware of this denial of butch oppression, as well as the refusal to acknowledge and support those who are consciously and fiercely maintaining their female masculine identities, as a courageous and radical resistance to patriarchy. Many are afraid to commit social and political suicide by asserting that all is not as it is purported to be in queer gender identity land. Many lesbians have been hushed into silence for fear of being called transphobic because they have different perspectives and opinions about what butch and trans identities can mean within the context of a racist, sexist, homophobic and misogynist landscape. Do this LGBT community even acknowledge these forces anymore, in the quest for acceptance and assimilation (i.e. marriage rights etc.), or have we given in, given up, and sold our souls, like the rest of society?

Meanwhile, butches and studs continue to be negatively stereotyped, vilified, sexually objectified, and vulnerable to incarceration and violence -- far too many are barely surviving, and this is not being acknowledged by our own queer communities. Are we so busy romanticizing films like the Aggressives, that we are unable to make the connection between the fates of the Sakia Gunn's, or the New Jersey 4 and the reality of butch oppression? All of these women were targeted because they were female with masculine presentations. They fought back against the violence directed toward them, and were punished by death or imprisonment for defending themselves.

I've heard about various Femme and transgender conferences over the last ten years, and I know there's another femme conference coming up in August in Chicago, and I think that's all great. Those conferences are definitely needed as folks navigate and become empowered in their queer gender identities, but wouldn't you agree it's time for a butch/stud conference? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but to my knowledge there hasn't been even one yet. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the issues raised in this blog as they pertain to butch identities. Please, no comments about this blog being transphobic, as they will not be responded to.

A Persistent Desire

2007-07-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

A Persistent Desire, formerly known as Desire: Exploring Butch/Femme is a feature length documentary produced and directed by Lenn Keller about the re-emergence of butch/femme visibility over the last two decades. It goes beneath the surface, beyond the stereotypes, to reveal the essence of what it means to be a butch or femme identified lesbian or bisexual, and how these identities and dynamics have evolved and are being re-defined in the 21st century.
The idea for this film began in 1999, went into production in 2001, and to date has over 70 hours of interview footage. This project has been stuck in limbo for the last four years, due to a variety of circumstances; lack of funding, staff changes, legal complications, etc. With an infusion of new energy, and a small amount of cash that bought some badly needed equipment, this film is moving forward once more with a completion goal of spring 2009.

WHY IT'S IMPERATIVE THIS FILM GET MADE...

•To date there has been no other film that has documented within a political context, this vanguard lesbian sub-culture that has played a huge role in making lesbian communities visible historically.
•This film celebrates and validates femme and butch identities and dynamics, from a feminist perspective, within the spectrum of lesbian and bisexual gender identities.
•This film offers an intimate look into a hyper-marginalized lesbian sub-culture, that is rarely represented in mainstream or LGBT media (including the L Word).
•This film articulates the societal oppression and struggles experienced by self-identified femmes and butches from a widely diverse range of ages, cultures, ethnicities and class backgrounds.
•This film counters butchphobia with radically positive images of butches, in a society (including even the LGBT community) where masculinity is viewed as being an attribute of being male, as being at odds with being a female and a feminist. It asserts that butches can and do model an authentic masculinity that lacks machismo, is anti-sexist and anti-misogynist.
•This film asserts that claiming a femme identity is much more than being a feminine lesbian or bisexual woman. It asserts that making a conscious choice to reclaim and express femininity within a queer context is empowering, radically subversive, and disruptive of sexist and misogynist cultural norms.
•This film is the first to assert that as gender queer identities, femme and butch identities individually and together have the potential to resist and disrupt the traditional gender binary, heterosexist norms, as well as offer role models of equality in relationships between differently gendered people.
•Though apparently visible again, this community -- it's culture and history is in danger of being lost to future generations.

To find out more about this film and how you can get involved with it's completion, go to:
http://www.persistentdesire.com
or contact Magnet Films (415) 789-8477

To support this film with a donation, visit the Women Make Movies website at
http://www.wmm.com/filmmakers/sponsored_projects.shtml
(scroll down to the P's)

You can also visit the Cafe Press store and buy some cool gear (t-shirts, etc)...
http://www.cafepress.com