Butch and femme
Butch artist Daddy Rhon Drinkwater created a symbol of a black triangle intersecting a red circle to represent butch/femme "passion and love".
Jewelle Gomez mused that butch and femme women in the earlier twentieth century may have been expressing their closeted transgender identity.
[19][20] Scholars such as Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling suggest that butch and femme are not attempts to take up "traditional" gender roles.
[23] The term butch tends to denote a degree of masculinity displayed by a female individual beyond what would be considered typical of a tomboy.
Because they do not express masculine qualities, femmes were particularly vexing to sexologists and psychoanalysts who wanted to argue that all lesbians wished to be men.
[31] Traditionally, the femme in a butch–femme couple was expected to act as a stereotypical feminine woman and provide emotional support for her butch partner.
[35] Beyond depictions in pornography, the neo-butch and neo-femme aesthetic in day-to-day life helped add a sense of visual identity to lesbians who had abandoned these roles in the name of political correctness.
[40][41][42] Labels have been tailored to be more descriptive of an individual's characteristics, such as "hard butch," "gym queen," "tomboy femme," and "soft stud."
[citation needed] In 2005, filmmaker Daniel Peddle chronicled the lives of AGs in his documentary The Aggressives, following six women who went to lengths like binding their breasts to pass as men.
"[54] Comedian Elvira Kurt contributed the term "fellagirly" as a description for LGBT women who are not strictly either femme or butch, but a combination.
Some members of the lesbian community eschew butch or femme classifications, believing that they are inadequate to describe an individual, or that labels are limiting in and of themselves.
Prior to the middle of the 20th century in Western culture, homosexual societies were mostly underground or secret, making it difficult to determine how long butch and femme roles have been practiced by women.
It is known that butch–femme dress codes date back at least to the beginning of the 20th century as photographs from 1900–1920 exist of butch–femme couples in the United States;[55] they were at the time called "transvestites".
Although femmes also fought back, it became primarily the role of butches to defend against attacks and hold the bars as gay women's space.
[61] While in the '40s, the prevailing butch image was severe but gentle, it became increasingly tough and aggressive as violent confrontation became a fact of life.
[62] In 1992, a "groundbreaking" anthology about the butch–femme socialization that took place in working class bars of the 40s and 50s was published—The Persistent Desire: A Femme–Butch Reader, edited by femme Joan Nestle.
[65] It has been noted that, at least in part, kiki women were unwelcome where lesbians gathered because their apparent lack of understanding of the butch–femme dress code might indicate that they were policewomen.
This was especially true in relation to the butch identity, as the organization held the belief that assimilation into heterosexual society was the goal of the homophile movement.
[69] This encouraged the emergence of androgyny in lesbian feminist circles, with many women wearing clothing like T-shirts, jeans, flannels, and boots.
[72] One writer noted that in the increased drive for LGBT 'normalization' and political acceptance, butch lesbians and effeminate gay men seemed to be disappearing.
[75][76][77] The 21st century also saw a re-examination of the meaning of 'femme', with the term being used in a broader and more politically charged way, particularly by women of color, and some critics challenging what is seen as its appropriation by heteronormative culture.
