Butch is a lesbian who exhibits a masculine identity or gender presentation.[1] [2]
Since the lesbian subculture of 1940s America, "butch" has been present as a way for lesbians to circumvent traditional gender roles of women in society and distinguish their masculine attributes and characteristics from feminine women.
Starting in the 1940s and 1950s, butch became a central identity in the lesbian community.[3] It was often understood in conjunction with femme identity, and butch-femme relations have been studied at great length.[4] As a result, butch identity on its own remains somewhat ill-defined. Butch people are often described as sexually dominant lesbians who are interested in having sex with femmes. The Queen's Vernacular claimed a butch was "a lesbian with masculine characteristics."[5] In Of Catamites and Kings, Rubin describes a butch as those lesbians who use masculine mannerisms, and/or who wear traditionally male clothing, and/or who experience gender dysphoria. The defining characteristic that most scholars agree on is that butch people are lesbians who are to some degree aligned with masculine traits.
In the mid 20th century, butch people were usually limited to a few jobs, such as factory work and cab driving, that had no dress codes for women.[6] During the 1950s with the anti-gay politics of the McCarthy era, there was an increase in violent attacks on gay and bisexual women, while at the same time the increasingly strong and defiant bar culture became more willing to respond with force. 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.[7] The prevailing butch image was severe but gentle, while it became increasingly tough and aggressive as violent confrontation became a fact of life.[8] Leslie Feinberg's novel Stone Butch Blues is a predominant piece of butch literature, and offers a window into butch bar culture, police brutality towards transvestites (both drag queens and butch people), and butch eroticism in the 1970s.[9]