clergynonman

[clergynonman]

“One is not born a woman, says Simone de Beauvoir. One becomes one. I was born a femme in a long line of angry, fucked up femmes. I never got the hang of being a woman.”

Author and Editor, Chandra Mayor

Source: ‘Me, Simone, and Dot’ from Persistence: All ways butch and femme

[clergynonman]

there are a lot of very young lesbians stressed out about finding love or the possibility that it'll never happen.

you have got to remember that you cannot sit in your bed and imagine that the love of your life will have to walk through your door.

you've got to be willing to put in effort in yourself, and also pursuing others and risking the heart break that you're afraid of experiencing if you get rejected, broken up with etc.

your opportunities to find love can only be as available as you are, it's ok to be hurt because that's part of life, and another part is healing and building yourself up

there are so many other lesbians in this world and you should just be patient with yourself, the yearning might never stop but only you can really put yourself out there.

you can always take small steps 🫶🏾

pls know I mean all this with love !!!

[clergynonman]

I will see the most jaw dropping, panty dropping, to die for looking butch and this mf lives in germany or the uk now I can’t even shoot my shot (I wasn’t going to anyways)

bonus point if they’re already in a relationship

[clergynonman]

casual reminder that you can still spoil your femme without feeding into consumerism <3

write them notes n love letters, cook them their favorite meal, bake them a treat, steal them something from a shitty corporation, spoil them with words of affirmation and gratitude, bring back a pretty rock shell leaf etc. from an outdoor trip you had, proudly show off photos of yourself or photos you took, lend them your favorite book with a note abt why it's your favorite, put the towel in the dryer before they're out of the shower n wrap them in it, pick out outfits from their wardrobe you think they'd be cute in so they can show off for you, give them your undivided attention & ask encouraging questions, etc etc etc

[clergynonman]

don’t worry there’s always watch movie in bed

[clergynonman]

there's probably a better way of wording the last part but like come on it doesn't matter if we're all the same to fascists

[clergynonman]

"Untitled" by Phyllis Christopher, 1988

source: Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image, edited by Susie Bright & Jill Posener

[clergynonman]

John Galliano autumn/winter 2004

[clergynonman]

straight ppl are like “i don’t know why lesbians have to conform to such restrictive roles.. why can’t they just try to replicate rigid ideals of feminity like normal people”

[clergynonman]

Do not obey in advance...you are only teaching power what it can do.

[clergynonman]

From Femme Is... (A Flirtation) by C. Colette | The Femme Mystique

[clergynonman]

HEARTBREAKING: sweet (yet feral) femme has no butch to kiss even though she has so so so so many kisses to give

[clergynonman]

I am the way I am because I was born a dykey faggy loud mess and was raised to be a prim a proper straight As stand straight dont speak unless spoken to good little girl and I can't be either of these things in peace because I still feel I need to be ashamed of everything that I am naturally but am also not able to be what I was groomed to be and also not wanting to be that but also living in constant fear that when people find out the trashy loser fuck that I am inside they're going to run away in fear and disgust while also not being able to be freely who I naturally am because I am only now in my twenties slowly letting myself be that and be who i am when i love myself but i feel so incompetent at it because i havent let myself be that dykey mess since I was like 7 and at this point i don't even know how to be myself properly and just imitate others like me but thats not being myself -because i was thoroughly obsessed with the blue mermaid from Barbie Mermaidia.

[clergynonman]

Joan Jett's leather jacket at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

[clergynonman]

i love faggyness. i love seeing gay shit on pinterest. thank u faggy gay pinterest feed.

[clergynonman]

Me and the mutual I pulled by being actually I have no idea why they followed me but I'm glad they did

[clergynonman]

"Q: Finally, putting this all together, what does femme mean to you? MBP: Femme means to me that I have a feminine gender expression as a site of resistance of old values. Those values say that I am not a fighter, I am not smart, I am not tough, or that I can't be sexual and be a mother too. There are a lot of these should-nots attached to the old way of being femme that I have cast aside. In making my life a site of resistance, I walk through life my own way and create a kind of power and defiance that says "You can't touch me unless I say yes." To me, femme means being powerful in myself, in my own body, with all her feminine ways. It means saying to myself I don't have to take care of other people or give myself up for somebody else. Femme means that I am conscious about what people are saying and doing around me, toward me, as a woman, and that I always maintain my dignity and power. [...] I do not think that femme means making your butch take the trash out for you. I do not think that femme means loving to shop. If loving to shop for clothes was femme, Leslie would be a femme. I don't think femme is having long fingernails. I don't think femme is not understanding how to deal with money. Those are old degrading stereotypes that establish femme on a foundation that is degrading to women. And I do not agree with that at all. For me, femme is a place of resistance to that degradation, a place to divest femininity of limiting stereotypes, and a place to assert the power and dignity of femaleness."

An excerpt from "Pronouns, Politics, and Femme Practice: An Interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt," as recorded in Fem(me): Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls. Questions developed by Laura Harris and Elizabeth Crocker, the interview conducted by Tania Hammidi. (Emphasis in bold is my own.)