What is your relationship to other
butches or a butch community?
Like I mentioned previously, I found a butch Facebook group that has really broadened my horizons. Outside of that, I don’t have a lot of close (in proximity) butches anymore. When I was an undergraduate, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a tight knit group of radical, inter-generational butch women. I miss that so much. It was very affirming. Even though I didn’t identify with the concept of butchness back then (I’ve always been the same visually and intrapersonally, I didn’t like what I thought butch meant so I didn’t rep the word), having people who looked and acted like me, and most importantly had the same moral outlook, was invaluable. I have a few butch friends in real life, and am a member of various lesbian groups on Facebook. I run a Facebook group of 1500+ members called Butch Fashion Club, and I participate in many other online spaces. I recently attended Ohio Lesbian Festival, where I got to see and interact with many other butches in real life, and it was an amazing and transformative experience. I am on the Butch Fashion Club on Facebook, but that's about it. I'd like to have some butch friends, but it hasn't happened. Online community has made my life so much better. I NEVER imagined myself confidently giving other women advice about clothes!!! In person, I always fall for the butches (and they always tell me they are into femmes.) I am around a lot of other butch women. I adore my fellow butches. Their support, particularly online, has been so foundational to my own self-acceptance and reducing my feelings of exclusion from the LGBT community. I really can't say enough about how much respect and love I have for other butches. I love us! It’s my favorite community online. I don’t have one in person. I live in a very, very small town. The kind where you run into your elementary school teachers in the grocery store every other week. I do not know any other butches in my town. There is a small community I am in online, a private Facebook group. I love and adore butches with my whole heart. I am in butch-centric Facebook groups and live in an area where many older butches and lesbians of other alignments live. I love seeing butches loving and being loved and uplifted by other women. |
Generally respect and admiration, with a few notable exceptions. Since there really isn't an IRL butch community here and I am usually shy, I tend to just listen and not interact that much, although I hope to change that. We tend to all be very relaxed we are all dominants so sometimes its not a good mix. I’ve always been on good terms with them and they are always willing to answer any questions I have. I've found online communities where I can talk to other butches. I haven't really found butches nearby to try to be friends with. I've met a lot of great butches online but unfortunately I don't know anyone in my community. I have no in personal butch community, but I draw support from other butches that I know online. I'm just recently starting to dive into the butch community online. I know a few butches I work with and I know at least one of them was excited when I started dressing butch ‘cuz apparently I gave off that vibe anyways. I love Butch Fashion Club on Facebook, one of my best friends is butch, and I have a butch personal trainer/friend who I go to the gym with. That's about it. It's a goal to continue building butch friendships, but it's a little challenging where I live. I don't know many butches in real life but whenever I see one, my heart jumps. I hope that I find a community in person but at the moment, the Facebook groups and Tumblr blogs I follow are amazing. I feel a kinship usually. We share style and language and our butchness in sport and life. I don't know many other butches in real life, but I love Butch Fashion Club on Facebook, which has helped me get to see so many other amazing butches. I still greatly admire and delight in butch women, but I don’t have many butch friends as I live in a regional area. Online I connect with other butch lesbians through groups and chat; it’s superbly comforting to have even a ghost of a community. I don’t have a real life community, but I have learnt a lot about butch subculture from Facebook groups. |