#bulldagger lesbian

[macbxth-pdf]

A little tidbit of knowledge for all the black sapphics who may come across my blog

Source: Dagger: On Butch Women ( Edited by Lily Burana, Roxxie and Linnea Due )

Passage: The Myth and Tradition of the Black Bulldagger by SDiane A Bogus (pg 29-36 in the physical copy, pgs 30-37 on the pdf)

Mutuals who I think would like this post: @femmepire-butchbiter @nsslaughter @cobwebgf @blackhighfemme @brownsugarbunny @cottagecorewitchebitche

[femmepire-butchbiter]

Black lesbians

BLACK LESBAINS

BLACK LESBIANS

[black-butch-culture-is]

black butch culture is getting really tired of how racist white queer people are. at this point they might as well start throwing the hard R around with how repugnant they are towards queer POC.

as a black transmasc, it couldn't be clearer who is most appreciated. that 'fluffy hair transmasc' shit ONLY takes into account white (skinny) transmascs, which is super fucking funny considering how afros can fall under 'fluffy hair' too. if I wore my hair out of braids, I'd be treated wildly different from my white peers, because my hair is 'too wild' to be 'societally acceptable'. :/

black transfem? well you have to break your ass trying your hardest to be hyper-fem, probably even more so than white transfem butches are pressured to. it could not be more obvious how anti-masculinity affects black people, and white queer people are massive perpetrators! they'll grin in your face as they spew blatant racism at you, claiming they're a 'safe space', until you're black. until we all 'look like men'

Black butch culture is...

[edwardallenpoe]

When you see a white terf that not only uses intersex people to prove their transphobic point but their username is a black term that is exclusive to our community

I can't take it y'all

[macbxth-pdf]

^^^^

butches are not exempt from needing affection/reassurance/love and as a femme, my favorite thing on earth is giving it to my partner. providing a safe and comfortable space for my butch to feel as vulnerable as they want to be is so important. everybody needs to be and feel taken care of regardless of their self expression and it frequently frustrates me how disregarded butches are here.

[omgthatdress]

Sometimes, the line between "drag artist" and "performer who is queer" becomes incredibly blurry and hard to define.

One of the most famous queer artists of the Harlem renaissance was Gladys Bentley, who was openly a lesbian and who wore men's clothing as a part of her stage persona.

Bentley sometimes used the term "male impersonator" as a way of being able to wear masculine attire on stage, but she was never fully pretending to be male. She was always being herself.

A virtuouso piano player, she was called "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs" She headlined at places like Cotton Club and the Ubangi Club, and always drew in massive crowds.

Described by Langston Hughes, "For two or three amazing years, Miss Bentley sat, and played piano all night long … with scarcely a break between the notes, sliding from one song to another, with a powerful and continuous underbeat of jungle rhythm. Miss Bentley was an amazing exhibition of musical energy – a large, dark, masculine lady, whose feet pounded the floor while her fingers pounded the keyboard – a perfect piece of African sculpture, animated by her own rhythm."

Gladys Bentley was far from being the only queer woman blues singer of the day. Lucille Bogan, Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey also had sexual relationships with women, and sang songs about same-sex desire and "bulldaggers."

Even still, Bentley stood out for her unabashed queerness. When performing at the Ubangi Club, she had a chorus line of drag queens performing behind her.

As time wore on and America became more conservative, Bentley's career struggled. In the 1950s, she renounced her old ways and claimed she had been "cured" of lesbianism and "become a woman again" through a regimen of estrogen shots. It was the only way she was able to maintain a career through the McCarthy era.

[macbxth-pdf]

I found another academic source about Bulldaggers. I can’t wait to post some gems 🫀

[macbxth-pdf]

SPEAK ON IT🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

Ngl it's getting a lil bit annoying seeing super detailed and nuanced posts about lesbian gender identity, the importance of butchfemme dynamics and its history and the celebration of lesbian gender non-conformity then when it comes to studs and stems everyone can only say 'I didn't know studs were Black!' and 'I thought stem was a lesbian that did science haha'

I didn't become the stemme historian™ overnight obviously. I didn't know a lot myself (which is why I made this account) but it's still annoying how Black lesbian masculinity and femininity (or androgyny) are left as an afterthought. What happens when we go from 'I don't know anything about Black queer labels' to 'Why don't I know anything about Black queer labels?'

[genderkoolaid]

Cultural feminism has distorted and impoverished the great diversity of experience that the larger society thinks of as lesbianism. There is a reason why terms like bulldagger, he-she, stone butch still pepper our vocabulary. The public-relations tactic of billing dykes as über-women so that we could tag along with the straight girls who were burning their bras has outlived its usefulness. The label lesbian includes many genders other than the simple one of people born with xx chromosomes who grow up to self-identity as female. Historically, being a lesbian has involved accepting the fact that one is not a woman, as that role is defined in most of the world, as well as celebrating the state of womanhood.

— Speaking Sex to Power: The Politics of Queer Sex by Patrick Califia

[femmepire-butchbiter]

Escaping to my mind palace... Snuggled up with my stud, she's got a loose tank top on. I reach over and cup her breast, lost in thought... A grin creeps onto my face, and she looks at me so damn confused.

"what if I pulled it off rn"

"what"

"like a Lego piece, yk?"

"go to sleep, baby"

"okay"

It's 4 am I just needed to get water. Goodnight.

[black-butch-culture-is]

black butch culture is being SO BEAUTIFUL and HANDSOME and HOT and looking SO STUNNING EVERY DAY and making my heart flutter ahhhh

Black butch culture is...

[queerslurheritageposts]

If you're white, please can you not say bulldyke? That is a slur aimed at black lesbians. This is a just in case you come across it. I have been called it before and I would rather white people wouldn't say it. Thank you!

I am Black and am familiar with the term, but I'm also gonna post this as sort of a PSA because I've also seen it misused before by white folks who didn't know its history. The same is true for bulldagger (which is derived from the same term "bulldiker")- both words are generally used to refer to butch lesbians but especially Black butches specifically.

The exact etymology of the terms are unknown but the dehumanizing implication of "bull" is apparent. It is a term that, like others, has been reclaimed, but its use is complicated by its history of racialized usage; terms like "stud" are similarly racialized.

There's nothing wrong with reclaiming slurs, but be mindful!! Not all words are for all people, and some terms have more complex connotations than just meaning queer. Do your research!

[chainmail-butch]

Okay, this is my last post about the Present Discourse but defining Lesbianism in relation to men really seems to run entirely against the grain of being a lesbian. If someone is a bisexual lesbian then that means they're a bisexual lesbian. And, not to put words in other peoples mouths, they're not concerned with men.

They're Lesbians. That's why they're using the word lesbian, why is that a problem.

Two dykes can fuck each other and simultaneously admire a man's ass.

If your beef is 'we need our own special word' then grow the fuck up. Your special word is lesbian. Its right there. No one is adulterating it. It means women that fuck women. There are Dykes, there are Bulldaggers, there are Butches, there are Studs, there are Femmes, there are He/Him Lesbians. Not all lesbians have vaginas. Not all lesbians are women. And in that same vein not all gay men have cocks and not all gay men are men. We (Dykes) aren't special and we aren't excluded from fluidity.

And also sexuality and queerness don't need to be firmly defined. I was ace for a while, now I might not be ace. Shit changes. Hell, I was a guy for 23 years. Shit can and does change over the course of someone's life.

If you're main beef with bisexual lesbianism is the fact that these women have the capacity to be attracted to men then maybe chill. They're lesbians. That's why they're using the word lesbian. If you're worried that Bisexual Lesbians will somehow compromise "The Sexuality" in the face of the straights then I don't know what to tell you.

Respectability politics never win. Exclusion is never the right choice. There are Bisexual Lesbians in this world, no amount of whining is going to change this fact.

[farmerlesbian]

poll - read all options before answering!

for lesbians, sapphics, wlw, gay laydies, bi and pan goils, enbies and androgynes and bois and queer dykes.

i'm curious again so here's a lil poll. i find we focus a lot on the term butch but there are a lot of terms and identities that are similar so i'm curious how folks identify. while some of these can be genders in themselves i'm not so much looking for like what your gender is, but more describing how you look and what your presentation is, which is why i'm not listing nonbinary. if you feel that's the best way to describe it and is how you describe yourself then go ahead and say that! if the term that resonates most for you also is your gender, that's fine select that term. also there are a lot more terms i would've included if i had more space so if the word you'd pick isn't here please choose other and list it in the tags or comments! i understand there are a lot of regional, subcultural, ethnic, and non-english language terms that you might use. so again, please feel free to use the 'other' and say what your term for yourself is.

some english language terms that i didn't include are: diesel dyke, bulldagger / BD / bulldyke, AG / aggressive, futch, stem, transmasc, dyke, boi, fuckboy/fuckboi, kiki, tomboy, drag king, stag, tomcat. and the subsets of butch: soft, hard, stone, LHB (long hair butch)

plus there are sooo many more non-english language terms out there that i'm not familiar with but you might identify with! please share 'em!

as always, talk about it in the comments n tags! i

[macbxth-pdf]

Uplift Bulldaggers, Black Butches, and Studs all day everyday.

Bulldagger

Bulldagger - Most often used in a derogatory way to describe a masculine lesbian; most often used in African American communities.

Bulldagger: Bulldagger is pejorative slang for a very masculine lesbian, which often carries a more racialized meaning than its synonyms bulldyke, bulldiker, and diesel dyke. Bulldaggers are associated with physical strength, sexual prowess, emotional reserve, and butch chivalry.

These are two different definitions of this word, given by two different sources. The word bulldagger has its roots in 1920′s Harlem, specifically in the African-american blues community. This word was used to mean lesbian, but since gender was much less defined and separate from sexuality at this point, the word was also associated with individuals that we would consider “trans” from our modern perspective. 

From SDiane Adamz-bogus: “The Black Bulldagger is a link to our ancient and recent Black woman-loving past, and the predecessor of today’s Black lesbian. She is a character, an idea, a woman who loved women but was heavily male-identified more often than not. She was the unattractive girl, the tomboyish teen, the independent woman, or any Black sister who repulsed the advances of men.”

[mogai-sunflowers]

MOGAI BHM- Day 12!

happy BHM! today i’m going to be talking about queer culture during the Harlem Renaissance!

Queer Culture During the Harlem Renaissance-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of Gladys Bentley, a Black woman. In the photograph, she’s standing at the gate to a bar, wearing an all-white tuxedo- white dress pants, a white undershirt, and a white tuxedo jacket with coattails, as well as a white top hat. She’s carrying a magician’s cane/wand. End ID.]

The Harlem Renaissance was not just a movement that challenged racist norms. It was absolutely a movement of Black pride, but it was also in many ways a movement of Black queer pride. The queer history of the Harlem Renaissance has largely been erased from the world-at-wide’s perception of the Harlem Renaissance, but it was, according to Black professor Henry Louis Gates, “surely as gay as it was Black”.

Because of the fact that the Harlem Renaissance was based on the idea of liberating Black people from restrictive white social standards, sexuality and gender were challenged during this time period. Challenging sexual and gender norms became another outlet of Black liberation- allowing Black queer people to express their racial liberation through a means of sexual liberation.

The Harlem Renaissance came at a time when people were rebelling against Prohibition- so speakeasies became increasingly common. At these speakeasies, performances were held, and the musical nightlife of the Harlem Renaissance that developed in these speakeasies led to the development of Harlem’s queer nightlife- including drag balls.

Called “Spectacles In Color” by Langston Hughes, and commonly referred to as “fairy balls”, Harlem’s queer drag balls were huge extravaganzas. They consisted of both drag kings and drag queens, dressed to the nines, and there were contests for the most lavish costumes and performances. These balls were an explicit, unapologetic celebration of queer identity, and they also involved prizes for winners. A queer Black woman, A’Lelia Walker hosted queer parties and performances at her ‘Dark Tower’ building. Rent parties, cabarets, and other venues also hosted popular opportunities for queer people to convene and grow connections together.

It was also common for some performers to do drag as they performed at nightlife hotspots. Men dressed in long, lavish gowns, and women in tuxedos, and partied and performed together with background dancers also in drag. Perhaps the most famous of these drag performers was Gladys Bentley, a popular blues singer who often performed in full tuxedos. She sang many songs about her female lovers and relationships, and her shows featured drag performers. 

Two other huge blues stars during the Harlem Renaissance were Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith- both of whom frequently and openly sang about their same-sex relationships. Ma Rainey, called “the Mother of Blues”, was arrested once for hosting a lesbian party in her home. In the 1930s, popular Blues singer Lucille Bogan made the song “B.D Woman’s Blues”, in which she sang “comin’ a time, B.D. women they ain’t going to need no men.” Short for ‘bulldager’ and ‘bulldyke’, ‘B.D’ is a Black slang for butch lesbian, and is just one example of the very racialized language of queer identity during this time. As described by queer Black woman Jeanne Flash Gray, a Harlem resident, “we were still Bulldaggers and Faggots… only whites were lesbians and homosexuals.”

Queer culture during the Harlem Renaissance was not at all limited to music and drag balls/performances- it made its way throughout prominent literature during the period. Richard Bruce Nugent, an openly gay Black author from the time period, became famous for many works including his “Smoke, Lilies, and Jade”, which was about a bisexual Black teenager and depicted bisexuality. He described himself saying "You see, I am a homosexual. I have never been in what they call 'the closet'. It has never occurred to me that [my sexuality] was anything to be ashamed of, and it never occurred to me that it was anybody's business but mine." Mae Crowdery, a Black bisexual writer, wrote bisexual poetry in “We Lift Our Voices”. Other key authors from the time period, including Langston Hughes himself and Claude McKay, were, though not very openly, queer.

Wallace Thurman was a Black author who challenged the way racism and queerphobia intersected for Black queer men- he saw the hypermasculinization of Black men, the way Black masculinity was sexualized and dehumanized- and challenged it, expressing his own form of masculinity through his literary work. Though he never came out or disclosed his personal sexuality or gender, he is noted for nonetheless challenging their norms.

The history of the Harlem Renaissance is undeniably queer- Black queer people were the heartbeat of the Renaissance, and they built queer history in that era and beyond.

Summary-

Many, many of the prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance were queer- Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley, and many, many more

Embracing diversity of sexuality and gender became a way to become racially liberated, as shown through popular drag balls, called ‘fairy balls’, that frequented the Harlem Renaissance

Blues singers were a huge part of queer culture during the Harlem Renaissance- many of them were sapphic/lesbian, sang frequently and passionately about their lesbian relationships, and performed in drag

Queer literature during the Harlem Renaissance explored the relationships between race, gender, and sexual identity

Black and queer history are inherently intertwined, especially in the Harlem Renaissance

Tagging @intersexfairy​ @metalheadsforblacklivesmatter​ @neopronouns​ @benshapirosgaylover​ @cistematicchaos​ 

Sources-

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/harlem-renaissance-black-queer-history 

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Collected_Works_of_Langston_Hughes/SsgPcfpjhBcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22spectacles+in+color%22+langston+hughes&pg=PA208&printsec=frontcover

https://time.com/6104381/lgbtq-history-harlem-renaissance/ 

https://onlineexhibits.library.yale.edu/s/we-are-everywhere/page/the-queer-harlem-renaissance

https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/theme/the-harlem-renaissance/

https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/black-and-queer-in-the-harlem-renaissance

https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=historical-perspectives