Op-ed: Where Have All the Butches Gone?

[Shana A]

Op-ed: Where Have All the Butches Gone?
In defense of resilient butches or an effeminate fairies.
BY Riki Wilchins
January 14 2013 4:32 AM ET

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/01/14/where-have-all-butches-gone

Where have all the butches gone?

This question was first posed to me by Joan Nestle, who was personally responsible for resuscitating butch/femme in the 1980s after it had fallen into the dust-bin of political correctness (yes, it did seen like nearly all lesbians—urban or country—dressed in plaid shirts and boots for a while).

As a bone-deep femme herself, she was not referring to an absence of butch-identified women, but the sudden disappearance—as in a mass, silent, migration—of vast numbers of them from the lesbian community.

In a sense, she was a victim of both her own success, and the advances of medical science. While she made it safer for tens of thousands to embrace their inner butch, the emergence of transgender activism—and the new proliferation of Vitamin T (testosterone) made it possible for a significant minority to embrace their inner FTM as well.

[Elspeth]

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/01/14/where-have-all-butches-goneThis question was first posed to me by Joan Nestle, who was personally responsible for resuscitating butch/femme in the 1980s after it had fallen into the dust-bin of political correctness (yes, it did seen like nearly all lesbians—urban or country—dressed in plaid shirts and boots for a while).

Flashbacks to my college days... I wore them too in the late 70s.