Neverspeak in her blog posits the question 'What is a Butch?', if a Butch isn't 'masculine' then what is she? Here is my answer:
January 4, 2010 at 5:45 am
For me, according to your analysis above, but that few Butches these days ascribe to, is that Butch=Amazon, the original defiers of male imposed roles, laws, ability to love women, become Warriors, and live their lives as equals to any man alive…with their own strength, power and courage with many of the positive traits men are often ascribed and women are not….so, for me, I’ve come to the conclusion, heart, body, mind and soul, with much study, ritual, affirmation and teaching of Amazon mysteries, as well as years and years in the Martial Arts, and being out as a Dyke brought out by the Dyke Witches, one who greatly influenced me who was Butch, that modern day Butch=Amazon. It fits and works for me, and I am identified and recognized as such.
I am a Female Identified Butch, therefore, for me, because my first love and loyalty is to other Dykes and women, and the Goddess in all Her Forms, and Mother Earth, and recognition of the power of Sisterhood together, in ritual and in friendship, I am Amazon. And I am definitely Butch and have been all my life(from tomboy to Butch), and especially since I entered the martial arts at the tender age of 14, at puberty. I set upon Her Path as Her Female Warrior….little did I know at the time…until I came out at 21, with the Dyke Witches, but didn’t figure it all out till some years later…
This does not preclude those Femmes who also claim an Amazon identity, but for me, first and foremost, those Butches who aren’t male identified, who are strongly Female Identified…they really are truly Amazons in my book..and especially because of all the heat we take for being who and what we are in life. Women who love womyn who won’t be contained by the rules and boxes men would attempt to put us in…we’re wild and free and untamed, like our Amazon sisters before us….
-In Sisterhood,
-M.A.
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You know, I'm not sure if Femmes, or any woman, who celebrates femininity can be said to be an Amazon. I agree that women who have always defied male demands for femininity (Butches) are most certainly possess a purity of femaleness that is well-defined as Amazonian. But I think that a glorification of femininity, which is entirely male-originated, would negate any claim to it.
ReplyDeleteI think all women have a responsibility to reject femininity, regardless of whether or not they did so as girls. That isn't to say that Femmes could ever become Butch; of course we can't after a girlhood spent enjoying the privileges of our femininity at the expense of Butch girls. But I do think the least we could do is to not *celebrate* men's femininity. It's the constant defense of adopting men's vision of the female as an inherent part of their identity that I think does preclude most Femmes from being Amazons.