June 20, 2011 3:45 PM
MasterAmazon said...
Another good post Dirt, and glad to see Double Ax joining us. I DO agree that trans is about the destruction of Butch Dykedom. I am DREADING SF Dyke March because I will be saddened to see more of my own now announce how proud they are that they are becoming FTM...yeah crashing the Dyke March party sporting their beards, flat chests, hormone induced attitudes, even though there was a Trans March(always copying us Dykes) the night before in the same space! And then they'll want to bring the parallels between the two communities together now that so many Butches consider themselves some version of male, whether 'Genderqueer' or full FTM(sans the bottom surgery most of 'em).
Most that I've known were originally handsome Butch Dykes, but as soon as they transition, with the whole narcissitic obsession with their changing bodies they begin to start fucking gay males, partly because they don't want to leave the 'queer' community, partly because they now are worshipping maleness within their own personhood/body, whereas being a true blue Butch Dyke is all about LOVING or LEARNING TO LOVE ONESELF as the handsome, strong powerful take up our space Amazon womyn we are and as lovers of womyn!
This is one reason I probably won't be going to Butch Voices in Oakland either, because they are the voices of 'butches' who really are 'genderqueer, FTM, or male worshipping' and NOT Female identified Butches...in fact SEVERAL of us Locals tried to put on specifically a Female Identified Butch workshop from diverse points of view, and ALL OF US FEMALE IDENTIFIED BUTCHES had our workshops shot down, in favor of Sasha Goldberg who is a failed FTM, had her breasts cut off, and even bragged about it at the time, and with that male appearing hormone induced voice, now deciding, she really is a 'female identified' Butch...yeah....and their little Genderqueer darling.
Unless Female Identified and Female Loving Butches begin to SERIOUSLY organize and develope alternatives, and TAKE BACK OUR RICH AND PROUD BUTCH DYKE HERSTORY, we will be neigh invisible,and indeed it will be the'genocide of the butch' as I see every time I go back to San Francisco...and am dreading on Saturday and Sunday seeing who else has jumped on the trans/genderqueer/call me by male pronouns/cut off my breasts and take male hormones and sport a beart/stache bandwagon...WHILE STILL INFILTRATING AND COOPTING DYKE COMMUNITIES!
-MasterAmazon
June 21, 2011 5:56 PM
MasterAmazon said...
Also wanted to add this:
"Not one items above cannot be explained away by narrow gender norms society seeks to enforce and reinforce on a multitude of levels everyday. That the male medical machine is utilized in this endeavor is hardly surprising, they have been utilized to maintain "normality" for centuries using similar mechanism of torture." From Dirt
I SO AGREE with the above statement. Butches throughout history when found out they were living as men and loving women, assuming male privileges were often banished, murdered or put to death. In the 50's and before up until at least the 1980's Butches have been put in mental institutions and sometimes treated horribly with attempts to feminize them before they'd be allowed to be released, aversion therapy, electroshocked, and in the 1920's having their clitorises removed for being too sexually active and independent. Talk about trying to make someone not just feminine, and 'fit into' perfect ladylike roles, but also attempting to make them an 'ex-gay', and then there IS the 'ex-gay' movement which deliberately tries to feminize Butches, shame them, as well as try to get them to have sexual feelings to men. The psychiatric has never been kind to ANYONE with homosexual inclinations, and ESPECIALLY those who didn't conform to the feminine straitjacket and were too Butchy or tomboyish in the case of females, or too effeminate in the case of males.
So now the trans movement leans upon both psychiatry, psychology and medical doctors, the very institutions that have oppressed ALL homosexuals, and especially those NOT in the 'gender straitjacket' for hundreds of years, to help them NOW CONFORM to another 'gender binary' as they are so comfortable saying....that whole 'gender binary' crap is all a load of bullshit, used to silence Butch Dykes, other Lesbians and even some gay men now who object to how the trans movement is destroying our communities and abilities to relate to one another whether as Lesbian women loving women who LOVE or are learning to LOVE our own born female bodies, no matter our expressions, whether Butch, Femme or Androgynous or anything inbetween, or infiltrating the gay community with those with hetero/bi tendencies who don't have dicks but consider themselves 'gay'.
Maybe I DON'T want to hear discussions of hormones, surgeries, whining, villification of Lesbians, or being assumed I or my partner as a default because we are Butch are assumed to LIKE being called by male pronouns in all circumstances, and our very Femaleness invisibilized, as it's always been for Butches, the self fulfilling prophecy 'you just want to be a man' that is always hurtled at us because we TAKE UP OUR SPACE AND DON'T BACK DOWN, and that we are outside of womonhood altogether..... -M.A.
June 21, 2011 6:07 PM
MasterAmazon said...
One last thing: We ARE NOT OUTSIDE OF WOMONHOOD altogether, and feminine especially straight and sold out bi women try to sell us that line, activist Femme Dykes love Butches BECAUSE WE ARE WOMYN, and share that with them: though we may be tough, we are also compassionate, sensual, sexual and loving and often put our partner's sexual pleasure above or at least equal to our own. ALMOST NO MAN EVER DOES THAT!!! And that is exactly WHY we are different from them...at least one of the reasons. There are many flavors of womonhood/femaleness, and we MUST CLAIM our part in it, and NOT allow ourselves to be shut out of womonhood OR Sisterhood especially, we have been some of the FIERCEST Sisters. Think of the ancient powerful Gorgon Amazons, the most radical ones, and there were many others, and whether they were Butch, androgynous, and I can't imagine they were high femme because they were rebelling against the straitjacketing of female power and movement and expression because of the incoming patriarchal religious systems and societies, they were 'not nice' about it, and we gotta lose our 'niceness', in favor of our freedom and of our very core identities and Selves as part of the Sisterhood...not written out of it as 'Butch bros'! I fucking hate that! I'm not a 'Butch bro', I'm a Butch DykeAmazon and fierce Sister in the Sisterhood! And I will be till the day I die!
-MasterAmazon
Showing posts with label Female Identified Butches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Female Identified Butches. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
What a Female Identified Butch is, and is not! We don't take 'T' to change our appearance!
MasterAmazon
Response to a Butch who mentioned that she or others take 'T' and consider themselves a 'female identified Butch'. NO!:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You take 'T', as a masculine female, you're on the way to transitioning. Maybe it stops with the 'T'. Maybe having facial hair, arm hair, chest hair is enough, breast binding and a large clitoris that some think is now a micro penis.
NOBODY takes 'T', EXCEPT those in peri- or post menopause to bring sexual desire back to one's self, but those are at small amounts compared to those who take 'T' to change their appearance, while vastly increasing sex drive, almost a certain kind of high, which I've heard about from a couple of you around here. .These are two different intentions. Unless one is taking "T" to have more male aspects and strength to succeed in sports, but then if you're found out doping with 'T' , you're OUT. That's cheating.
One cannot simultaneously be a Female Identified Butch AND be taking 'T' in order to appear more male. These two things are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. A Female Identified Butch is PROUD to be Butch, AND PROUD to be a Dyke and to be FEMALE. But see, this is what the trans movement doesn't get. We're a different kind of Female, expanding the definition as we've always have FOR MILLENIA, what it means to be Female in a Female body, strong, powerful, courageous, taking on the world and not letting men or anyone else put us in boxes of what we can wear, what we can do, going into the trades or sports of men. We're not dainty, we've resisted femininity all our lives, we've been made to feel like we were freaks and weirdos, told 'you just want to be a man', when what we want is ALL the PRIVILEGES men have, including lusting/loving womyn, without being made to feel strange or weird about it, and being ostracized by hetero males and females and other womyn who can't stand our strong powerful out of the box Butch natures. Who think the only thing we should do is either feminize and soften somewhat, or harden up and become a 'real man', and pass and act as a male. We're NEITHER. We're Females who love Females in our own powerful dynamic, Butch Amazon Womon Centered Way. We put another face on Femaleness, we're tomboys and Butches and Bulldaggers and Dyke Daddies, and Amazon Warriors, and muscular in your face tuffy Dyke Strong women. We don't take shit, we look you right in the eye, and we take up our space. And no, we're NOT feminine, we have our soft and vulnerable sides, but we're nonfeminine, and decidely Dykey, with our primary energy flowing towards the female and partnering with females, and FOR THAT we're hated. We're Homosexual, Lesbian, Dyke, Gay, Queer Females....and obviously and blatantly so. We don't 'pass'. We're IN YOUR FACE Female Homosexuals, Ceremonial Dykes, and we hold down the Dyke image in the most obvious and blatant way. We don't waver in this. We don't fuck gay men, or men as a whole....and in fact we take up our space and stand up to them, even though they, and their women, have all the power.
For that, we face annihilation. We're beaten on, sexually assaulted, killed, denied jobs, housing, healthcare, access to privilege and many other things. We don't pass as male, as FTM's and some Genderqueers do, except the exceptional few, and for that, primarily for safety, not for desire. We don't pass as straight either. Even if a Butch tries to feminize to keep her job, she'll still do the Butch stomp, she'll look awkward, uncomfortable and unnatural in those clothes, because they're not her, that is, they're not us. We were forced to feminize on occassion, enough in our families, as actively as we resisted it...on our own time, why bother, except for sheer survival? We look like drag queens if we do so. And we've been shamed, over and over again, for not being 'feminine enough', for being too blatantly Dykey, Lesbian, Homosexual looking, and now, with this brave new world, for not being 'masculine' enough, so here comes the lies, the surgeries and the hormones. And who gets fat and rich off that? The doctors and the psychiatrists and the pharmaceuticals. Wait till all these young girls 10, 20 years later come down with heart disease, cancer, and who knows what else from all those years of taking 'T'. How are you going to feel about your body then? How are you going to feel when you have to get off 'T' cuz it's literally killing you, and revert back to your softer more obvious Female form? If you had learned to love it in the first place, had the message that us older Butches are trying to pass on that you CAN have your freedoms, as much as possible, you CAN live as a different kind of Female and BE POWERFUL in that, you CAN connect with your Sisters, Butch and Femme alike who admire you just for the different kind of Female you are......and retained your natural body, AND your health.
I've been in Female Identified Butch groups, countless Lesbian, Dyke and Butch internet sites, and I can't tell you how many young women, young Butches/Masculine Tomboyish/boyish women are being actively PRESSURED to transition by their peers, cuz being Butch is NOT enough. And then the damage being exposed of these practices...too tight of binders affecting breathing, heart health, and bones, like what whale bone corsets did to women in the 18 and 1900's. This body obssession instead of true body acceptance, this narcissism, arrogance and male attitudes and power over, and then the same dangers dealing with young FTM's/Genderqueers, the rages, the sexual violence ect from the use of testosterone. Look what it does to men, and how they victimize women. The SAME THING is happening with FTM's taking out their rage and their lusts on women fueled by testosterone they can't handle, and their bodies were NEVER MEANT TO HAVE.
So NO, a Female Identified Butch DOES NOT take Testosterone in order to change her appearance and appear more male. The two concepts are mutually exclusive, like a red light and a green light, you''ll never see the two on at the same time......
-MasterAmazon
Response to a Butch who mentioned that she or others take 'T' and consider themselves a 'female identified Butch'. NO!:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You take 'T', as a masculine female, you're on the way to transitioning. Maybe it stops with the 'T'. Maybe having facial hair, arm hair, chest hair is enough, breast binding and a large clitoris that some think is now a micro penis.
NOBODY takes 'T', EXCEPT those in peri- or post menopause to bring sexual desire back to one's self, but those are at small amounts compared to those who take 'T' to change their appearance, while vastly increasing sex drive, almost a certain kind of high, which I've heard about from a couple of you around here. .These are two different intentions. Unless one is taking "T" to have more male aspects and strength to succeed in sports, but then if you're found out doping with 'T' , you're OUT. That's cheating.
One cannot simultaneously be a Female Identified Butch AND be taking 'T' in order to appear more male. These two things are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. A Female Identified Butch is PROUD to be Butch, AND PROUD to be a Dyke and to be FEMALE. But see, this is what the trans movement doesn't get. We're a different kind of Female, expanding the definition as we've always have FOR MILLENIA, what it means to be Female in a Female body, strong, powerful, courageous, taking on the world and not letting men or anyone else put us in boxes of what we can wear, what we can do, going into the trades or sports of men. We're not dainty, we've resisted femininity all our lives, we've been made to feel like we were freaks and weirdos, told 'you just want to be a man', when what we want is ALL the PRIVILEGES men have, including lusting/loving womyn, without being made to feel strange or weird about it, and being ostracized by hetero males and females and other womyn who can't stand our strong powerful out of the box Butch natures. Who think the only thing we should do is either feminize and soften somewhat, or harden up and become a 'real man', and pass and act as a male. We're NEITHER. We're Females who love Females in our own powerful dynamic, Butch Amazon Womon Centered Way. We put another face on Femaleness, we're tomboys and Butches and Bulldaggers and Dyke Daddies, and Amazon Warriors, and muscular in your face tuffy Dyke Strong women. We don't take shit, we look you right in the eye, and we take up our space. And no, we're NOT feminine, we have our soft and vulnerable sides, but we're nonfeminine, and decidely Dykey, with our primary energy flowing towards the female and partnering with females, and FOR THAT we're hated. We're Homosexual, Lesbian, Dyke, Gay, Queer Females....and obviously and blatantly so. We don't 'pass'. We're IN YOUR FACE Female Homosexuals, Ceremonial Dykes, and we hold down the Dyke image in the most obvious and blatant way. We don't waver in this. We don't fuck gay men, or men as a whole....and in fact we take up our space and stand up to them, even though they, and their women, have all the power.
For that, we face annihilation. We're beaten on, sexually assaulted, killed, denied jobs, housing, healthcare, access to privilege and many other things. We don't pass as male, as FTM's and some Genderqueers do, except the exceptional few, and for that, primarily for safety, not for desire. We don't pass as straight either. Even if a Butch tries to feminize to keep her job, she'll still do the Butch stomp, she'll look awkward, uncomfortable and unnatural in those clothes, because they're not her, that is, they're not us. We were forced to feminize on occassion, enough in our families, as actively as we resisted it...on our own time, why bother, except for sheer survival? We look like drag queens if we do so. And we've been shamed, over and over again, for not being 'feminine enough', for being too blatantly Dykey, Lesbian, Homosexual looking, and now, with this brave new world, for not being 'masculine' enough, so here comes the lies, the surgeries and the hormones. And who gets fat and rich off that? The doctors and the psychiatrists and the pharmaceuticals. Wait till all these young girls 10, 20 years later come down with heart disease, cancer, and who knows what else from all those years of taking 'T'. How are you going to feel about your body then? How are you going to feel when you have to get off 'T' cuz it's literally killing you, and revert back to your softer more obvious Female form? If you had learned to love it in the first place, had the message that us older Butches are trying to pass on that you CAN have your freedoms, as much as possible, you CAN live as a different kind of Female and BE POWERFUL in that, you CAN connect with your Sisters, Butch and Femme alike who admire you just for the different kind of Female you are......and retained your natural body, AND your health.
I've been in Female Identified Butch groups, countless Lesbian, Dyke and Butch internet sites, and I can't tell you how many young women, young Butches/Masculine Tomboyish/boyish women are being actively PRESSURED to transition by their peers, cuz being Butch is NOT enough. And then the damage being exposed of these practices...too tight of binders affecting breathing, heart health, and bones, like what whale bone corsets did to women in the 18 and 1900's. This body obssession instead of true body acceptance, this narcissism, arrogance and male attitudes and power over, and then the same dangers dealing with young FTM's/Genderqueers, the rages, the sexual violence ect from the use of testosterone. Look what it does to men, and how they victimize women. The SAME THING is happening with FTM's taking out their rage and their lusts on women fueled by testosterone they can't handle, and their bodies were NEVER MEANT TO HAVE.
So NO, a Female Identified Butch DOES NOT take Testosterone in order to change her appearance and appear more male. The two concepts are mutually exclusive, like a red light and a green light, you''ll never see the two on at the same time......
-MasterAmazon
Monday, January 4, 2010
Butch=Amazon
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.
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.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
About Chaz Bono transitioning, and being a Female Identified Butch
Earlier post from Michfest list. This is simply too powerful writing on my part to
let it languish just on Michfest. It was written earlier than some of my previous posts here on DykesforDykes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Chaz Bono: "I always felt like the male from the time I was a child," he said. "There wasn't much feminine about me."
"Boy, can I relate!"-michfest list member
MasterAmazon's response:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, there's not a whole lot feminine about me either...but feminine DOES NOT equal female...it's why we have a wbw policy. Womyn, Dykes, Females, come in all flavors, from the hardcore Butch, to androgynous to high Femme, to Wildwomon, to Amazon, to Sorceress, Witch, Warrior, Sage, and many others inbetween, reflected by the Goddess of 10,000 Names, appearances, sizes, ethnicities, races, temperaments. Maybe we need a modern Goddess who rides in a rocket ship, though I've definitely transported into outer space with a few of them through visualization and ritual......the Goddess is infinite..and so are we..AS FEMALES. We come in many different Female forms. This is basic feminism...not just for our rights, but for right to be PROUD as a Dyke, as a Womon as a Female, in whatever form we come in, fat, thin, muscular, Black, White, Brown, Red, Yellow, Purple or Green....all ages, all types of temperaments, fiery, watery, fairy, floaty, airy, earthy, whether as Maiden, Mother, Amazon or Crone types, so many differing ways we CAN be as Female, and take back our Female Powers...Female, NOT feminine. Just like there are men who don't fit into masculine roles...our fairy queen brothers....why should they be forced or pressured into transitioning to 'female', simply because they're effeminate and don't 'fit in' to hetero norms, in the same way butchy/tomboy girls don't 'fit in' to hetero norms. I never have, ever since at age 7 I rejected dolls, age 10 rejected dresses, age 12 rejected having a baby or ever marrying a man, ect. How did I know these things at such a young age?
I CONSTANTLY argued with my parents that I was 'not a girl'. And they constantly told me I was 'not a boy'. And then we'd get in the arguement, 'well if you're not a girl or not a boy, what ARE you?" And came up with the only answer I could, being a hardcore Trekkie...."I'm an alien from outer space.". No more arguement then.
Years later, I look through my school books, and realized I scratched out all the female pronouns or changed them to male ones. I did not identify with the female roles, housewives, cooking, cleaning, having babies. I wanted to do the fun stuff(and did), ride my bike, climb trees, play baseball, fight, explore, and identified with all the male roles, with the exception of Wonder Woman. Even though she was a bit feminine for me...she had magical powers, AND SHE LIVED ON AN ISLAND OF WOMON ONLY..AN AMAZON ISLAND. Anytime I EVER heard about Amazons I knew that was me...the Amazon Goddess Artemis, and girls/womyn living in the woods with Her, that was what I wanted. I wanted to be in a community of womyn TO BE FREE...COMPLETELY FREE, WILD AND UNFEMINIZED. I wasn't 'tough enough' to make it as a boy, in fact, I really didn't like the boys, and certainly not sexually, I found them repulsive. But I identified with the fun things they did, rather than the drudgery of roles and feminine confining behaviors and games little girls were expected to like, and especially dolls! Hated them, and everything they represented. Hated everything that was feminine....or feminized. But when I saw pictures of womyn that weren't so feminine, more sporty, more athletic, more POWERFUL....and actualized...I identified WITH them. So this is the crisis.
Once all the good Butches, or potential Butches are taken out of the community and ASSumed to be male as in: "you just want to be a man", like so many of us have been told, well, WHERE WILL THE ROLE MODELS BE, for those who DON'T want to transition to love a womon, yet are somewhat masculine, or who too, reject femininity?
Everywhere I go on the internet, 20, or 30 something boyish dyke types are talking about wearing binders to flatten their breasts, ASSuming male pronouns, and expecting that every Butch needs to be referred to as he/hym, hy, ect....the trans movement offers us Butch Dykes NOTHING.....except the erasure of our Femaleness...which goes WAY BEYOND femininity....and we KNOW that, because we have been on womyn's land, and experienced the POWER of womyn, all kinds of womyn, of every stripe, shape, size, ethnicity, yin or yangness....temperament, Butchness, or femmeness, and everything inbetween. Many of these can't even imagine being on womyn's land cuz it's 'discriminatory', their gay male friends can't come, their trans friends can't come(depending on what side of trans they're on), or whatever. There's no value to it, for them...because they DON'T UNDERSTAND the value of it!
I had one young friend of mine go to Michfest, who sits in this stew, and this current 'binary/nonbinary gender issues' political correctness. She was changed going to Michfest, but unless she repeats it many times, she'll fall right back into that trap.
Hell if Chaz wants to transition, whatever...but every Dyke who transitions, every womon, and every masculine/Butch womon who transitions, who literally allows the male energy to live inside her body, through those hormones, and the physical and psychological effects of those surgeries, and the community's celebrating her transition with her..to male..or some version of male....makes it harder for every one of us Female Identified Butches who DON'T constantly want male pronouns used for us, who WANT our Butchness, our Dykeness AND our Femaleness honored and recognized, and seen, for who and what we are...not what others think we should be...
How do I know this? Well, my partner was pressured almost immediately once she got online to transition, by all the other Butch on Butch online, who were playing with their 'cocks' and dildos, and imitating the male...each announcing "I'm taking T', one at a time, or considering the surgeries...it starts innocently enough..the name change to something more male, like Anna to Andy, or Eva to Evan, or something like that....then by starting to insist on male pronouns, then a certain style of dress, what I call the Genderqueer/FTM style(very, very distinct in San Francisco), then the encouragement of wearing binders...then maybe scoring some 'T' from friends to create a mustache, or even wearing fake facial hair before that....and WANTING, oh so WANTING the privileges men have. WE ALL want those privileges......then, getting a script for testosterone...and maybe they'll just stay there for awhile...but eventually, many will want the breast surgery....cuz now they really hate what evidence of femaleness they have left on their bodies, because of all the masculinity and maleness of their genderqueer/FTM friends....and then eventually the breast surgery when they have the money......and most just stop there...somewhere's inbetween...neither really male, nor female....they LOOK LIKE young dykes, many of them, with baby faces, some sporting a little facial hair, some not...the scratchy hormone induced voice...it's very, very 'in'...and their femmes love it..and their genderqueer and FTM and some of their Butch bros.....
But...each one that does it...puts that much more pressure on those of us left behind....those of us Butches who just want to remain female...and then the bombardment of questions of those Butches who are a bit harder looking, who have the more genderqueer forms of dress, or hairstyles, or very short hair, or more hardcore masculine looking..."When are YOU going to transition" "When, when, when?" Yes, my partner had to endure those questions before we met.....until she met someone who LOVED her for her Butch nature, AND her Female side as well....because there is a part of her that is very soft, vulnerable and female...and THAT'S what I want, and NEED in a partner. I LOVE the tough Butch look. I LOVE being Butch..but I gotta know that inside, they're soft and have a vulnerable side...that they are fully Female....and with so many of these young ones, they're made to stuff that down....and only claim the hardness and reject the vulnerability. Truthfully, how many are incest or rape survivors? How many hate their femaleness because they were victimized by it? How many see being female necessarily equals feminine, and that it is a weakness...ok for their femmes, but NOT for them? Yes, sexism. No feminism, not even the most basic kind. THAT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT IN YOUR POWERFUL FEMALE BODY...ANYTHING YOU PLEASE.....BE ANYTHING YOU WANT...AS LONG AS WE CONTINUE TO WORK TO OUR FULL LIBERATION AS FEMALES!!! AND NEVER, EVER LET GO OF THE STRUGGLE!!!
Well, there's a new movement coming along, and we call it "Butch Feminism". You can be Butch, proud to be a womon, and Feminist...and I will write out my definition of it..others can add to it...you need not change, be somethind different or feel that female=weak. That's patriarchal claptrap, the machine and noise fed to us by media and the power structures and conservative religions. And we are rising once again...claiming the flame...and we are Female Identified Butches that only or primarily want the female pronoun used for us...and ESPECIALLY in women's space and/or women's land! That should be a given. If others dont like it, then let them stay in their queer identified spaces, and leave us womyn and Dykes alone who DO want wbw spaces and places to SEE each other, and CONNECT with each other AS FEMALES!
-In Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
let it languish just on Michfest. It was written earlier than some of my previous posts here on DykesforDykes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Chaz Bono: "I always felt like the male from the time I was a child," he said. "There wasn't much feminine about me."
"Boy, can I relate!"-michfest list member
MasterAmazon's response:
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Well, there's not a whole lot feminine about me either...but feminine DOES NOT equal female...it's why we have a wbw policy. Womyn, Dykes, Females, come in all flavors, from the hardcore Butch, to androgynous to high Femme, to Wildwomon, to Amazon, to Sorceress, Witch, Warrior, Sage, and many others inbetween, reflected by the Goddess of 10,000 Names, appearances, sizes, ethnicities, races, temperaments. Maybe we need a modern Goddess who rides in a rocket ship, though I've definitely transported into outer space with a few of them through visualization and ritual......the Goddess is infinite..and so are we..AS FEMALES. We come in many different Female forms. This is basic feminism...not just for our rights, but for right to be PROUD as a Dyke, as a Womon as a Female, in whatever form we come in, fat, thin, muscular, Black, White, Brown, Red, Yellow, Purple or Green....all ages, all types of temperaments, fiery, watery, fairy, floaty, airy, earthy, whether as Maiden, Mother, Amazon or Crone types, so many differing ways we CAN be as Female, and take back our Female Powers...Female, NOT feminine. Just like there are men who don't fit into masculine roles...our fairy queen brothers....why should they be forced or pressured into transitioning to 'female', simply because they're effeminate and don't 'fit in' to hetero norms, in the same way butchy/tomboy girls don't 'fit in' to hetero norms. I never have, ever since at age 7 I rejected dolls, age 10 rejected dresses, age 12 rejected having a baby or ever marrying a man, ect. How did I know these things at such a young age?
I CONSTANTLY argued with my parents that I was 'not a girl'. And they constantly told me I was 'not a boy'. And then we'd get in the arguement, 'well if you're not a girl or not a boy, what ARE you?" And came up with the only answer I could, being a hardcore Trekkie...."I'm an alien from outer space.". No more arguement then.
Years later, I look through my school books, and realized I scratched out all the female pronouns or changed them to male ones. I did not identify with the female roles, housewives, cooking, cleaning, having babies. I wanted to do the fun stuff(and did), ride my bike, climb trees, play baseball, fight, explore, and identified with all the male roles, with the exception of Wonder Woman. Even though she was a bit feminine for me...she had magical powers, AND SHE LIVED ON AN ISLAND OF WOMON ONLY..AN AMAZON ISLAND. Anytime I EVER heard about Amazons I knew that was me...the Amazon Goddess Artemis, and girls/womyn living in the woods with Her, that was what I wanted. I wanted to be in a community of womyn TO BE FREE...COMPLETELY FREE, WILD AND UNFEMINIZED. I wasn't 'tough enough' to make it as a boy, in fact, I really didn't like the boys, and certainly not sexually, I found them repulsive. But I identified with the fun things they did, rather than the drudgery of roles and feminine confining behaviors and games little girls were expected to like, and especially dolls! Hated them, and everything they represented. Hated everything that was feminine....or feminized. But when I saw pictures of womyn that weren't so feminine, more sporty, more athletic, more POWERFUL....and actualized...I identified WITH them. So this is the crisis.
Once all the good Butches, or potential Butches are taken out of the community and ASSumed to be male as in: "you just want to be a man", like so many of us have been told, well, WHERE WILL THE ROLE MODELS BE, for those who DON'T want to transition to love a womon, yet are somewhat masculine, or who too, reject femininity?
Everywhere I go on the internet, 20, or 30 something boyish dyke types are talking about wearing binders to flatten their breasts, ASSuming male pronouns, and expecting that every Butch needs to be referred to as he/hym, hy, ect....the trans movement offers us Butch Dykes NOTHING.....except the erasure of our Femaleness...which goes WAY BEYOND femininity....and we KNOW that, because we have been on womyn's land, and experienced the POWER of womyn, all kinds of womyn, of every stripe, shape, size, ethnicity, yin or yangness....temperament, Butchness, or femmeness, and everything inbetween. Many of these can't even imagine being on womyn's land cuz it's 'discriminatory', their gay male friends can't come, their trans friends can't come(depending on what side of trans they're on), or whatever. There's no value to it, for them...because they DON'T UNDERSTAND the value of it!
I had one young friend of mine go to Michfest, who sits in this stew, and this current 'binary/nonbinary gender issues' political correctness. She was changed going to Michfest, but unless she repeats it many times, she'll fall right back into that trap.
Hell if Chaz wants to transition, whatever...but every Dyke who transitions, every womon, and every masculine/Butch womon who transitions, who literally allows the male energy to live inside her body, through those hormones, and the physical and psychological effects of those surgeries, and the community's celebrating her transition with her..to male..or some version of male....makes it harder for every one of us Female Identified Butches who DON'T constantly want male pronouns used for us, who WANT our Butchness, our Dykeness AND our Femaleness honored and recognized, and seen, for who and what we are...not what others think we should be...
How do I know this? Well, my partner was pressured almost immediately once she got online to transition, by all the other Butch on Butch online, who were playing with their 'cocks' and dildos, and imitating the male...each announcing "I'm taking T', one at a time, or considering the surgeries...it starts innocently enough..the name change to something more male, like Anna to Andy, or Eva to Evan, or something like that....then by starting to insist on male pronouns, then a certain style of dress, what I call the Genderqueer/FTM style(very, very distinct in San Francisco), then the encouragement of wearing binders...then maybe scoring some 'T' from friends to create a mustache, or even wearing fake facial hair before that....and WANTING, oh so WANTING the privileges men have. WE ALL want those privileges......then, getting a script for testosterone...and maybe they'll just stay there for awhile...but eventually, many will want the breast surgery....cuz now they really hate what evidence of femaleness they have left on their bodies, because of all the masculinity and maleness of their genderqueer/FTM friends....and then eventually the breast surgery when they have the money......and most just stop there...somewhere's inbetween...neither really male, nor female....they LOOK LIKE young dykes, many of them, with baby faces, some sporting a little facial hair, some not...the scratchy hormone induced voice...it's very, very 'in'...and their femmes love it..and their genderqueer and FTM and some of their Butch bros.....
But...each one that does it...puts that much more pressure on those of us left behind....those of us Butches who just want to remain female...and then the bombardment of questions of those Butches who are a bit harder looking, who have the more genderqueer forms of dress, or hairstyles, or very short hair, or more hardcore masculine looking..."When are YOU going to transition" "When, when, when?" Yes, my partner had to endure those questions before we met.....until she met someone who LOVED her for her Butch nature, AND her Female side as well....because there is a part of her that is very soft, vulnerable and female...and THAT'S what I want, and NEED in a partner. I LOVE the tough Butch look. I LOVE being Butch..but I gotta know that inside, they're soft and have a vulnerable side...that they are fully Female....and with so many of these young ones, they're made to stuff that down....and only claim the hardness and reject the vulnerability. Truthfully, how many are incest or rape survivors? How many hate their femaleness because they were victimized by it? How many see being female necessarily equals feminine, and that it is a weakness...ok for their femmes, but NOT for them? Yes, sexism. No feminism, not even the most basic kind. THAT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT IN YOUR POWERFUL FEMALE BODY...ANYTHING YOU PLEASE.....BE ANYTHING YOU WANT...AS LONG AS WE CONTINUE TO WORK TO OUR FULL LIBERATION AS FEMALES!!! AND NEVER, EVER LET GO OF THE STRUGGLE!!!
Well, there's a new movement coming along, and we call it "Butch Feminism". You can be Butch, proud to be a womon, and Feminist...and I will write out my definition of it..others can add to it...you need not change, be somethind different or feel that female=weak. That's patriarchal claptrap, the machine and noise fed to us by media and the power structures and conservative religions. And we are rising once again...claiming the flame...and we are Female Identified Butches that only or primarily want the female pronoun used for us...and ESPECIALLY in women's space and/or women's land! That should be a given. If others dont like it, then let them stay in their queer identified spaces, and leave us womyn and Dykes alone who DO want wbw spaces and places to SEE each other, and CONNECT with each other AS FEMALES!
-In Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
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