g3 JULY 2009

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DING
DONG…
THE
BUTCH
IS DEAD?
Walk into your average gay club these the women I know who call
days, and the chances are you’ll see plenty themselves ‘butch’ are over 40.”
of made-up faces and high heels. Young Jenny, 45, is a case in point: “I
gay women are looking much more would defi nitely say my style is
feminine than they did even 10 years ago, butch. I have identifi ed as such
let alone 20. Even the women at the since I came out 20 years ago.
more boyish end of today’s lesbian Times have changed, though and I
spectrum tend to wear at least a slick of think younger lesbians are looking
mascara. Where once there was a sea of more and more like their straight
35
big boots, ripped jeans and lumberjack counterparts. It’s a shame really, that butch
shirts, now there are girly tops and lip- identity is being lost –
glossed lips. So where have all the true I see subversion of gender roles as a really
butches gone? important part of collective lesbian identity.”
Being a butch lesbian is a powerful way Whilst there are straight women who
of challenging gender stereotypes, dress in a butch style, a masculine
showing that women don’t need to appearance has always been mainly the
subscribe to the established behaviour preserve of the lesbian woman. Dressing
thought appropriate for their sex. The in this way originally made for easier
majority of genuinely butch women seem identifi cation of other lesbians, and
LE
to be older, however, suggesting that the created a sense of belonging to a group.
NG
look is indeed a relic from an earlier era. Maybe the dwindling numbers of proper T
E
DI
T
Susan, 33, says: “I think a lot of women hardcore butches out on the scene can
L
O
don’t like the idea of being butch, and be attributed to the fact that younger
although they are happy to draw on male women feel the battle for equality is
CHAR
style in some respects, they won’t go the largely won. These women feel that S BY
whole hog anymore. The word ‘butch’ has in-yer-face tactics such as donning a
D
R
a stigma attached to it now. I think most of lumberjack shirt and acting like a man are WO
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