#butch elders

[thenatureofbutch]

And THIS is why it is so special to be in a time where we can listen to our elders speak openly. So we better take advantage and LISTEN.

Sometimes I get comments or asks or whatever from the identity police about who can be called butch.

Well, dear sweets, firstly get to know your history, watch this video to the end, respect your elders and then digest the fact that nature is as it does. So, you staring at a natural truth, and telling it, that it's wrong, only shows something unnatural of you- work on it my babycakes.

You can also read more of what I personally (so not those featured in the above video) have to rant say if you feel so inclined...

I myself remember how butchness was well known as a spectrum of how masculinity looked on those who were not cis men. I remember how that spectrum included butches who would further their masculinity/Adorn their masculinity with hormones/surger(ies), I remember how butcheness extended to those who were queer but not lesbian, and their role within the butch world was never questioned or even pondered at. Because to be seen in the world as butch, is a very specific thing, with specific ostrasisations, and specific ways to understand what gender is and specific ways of being made to feel ugly for not adhering to the way the west pictures women. To be butch is a very specific feeling starting in our earliest memories for most of us we have that feeling before we even develop sexual desire, because its entirely its own thing, and it creates a very specific bond. A bond of butchhood.

I was very young when witnessing just a little of this time period, the solidarity within it still was strong enough to hit me and captivate me. It's been sad to see just how much of that has changed into a relentless need for over specification, dissecting the community left right and centre, policing eachother. Do we not remember the enchanted connection of anti police anti state moral with queerness? Please let us do better, please let us help one another do better.

[edwardallenpoe]

There's something about vintage dykes that make me so happy. Like. They're so beautiful to me. Idk. It's just so refreshing to see these people being Dykes and Femmes and Butches and Both and Neither in these older photos and just being Themselves compared to how the Internet is these days. Like yeah I know the internet isn't real life, I've met real life dykes that are Normal about queerness but just seeing dykes like me being open and themselves in their spaces when living in a time where I supposedly can't call myself a dyke because I'm also half man on my father's side is so. Sigh. Y'know? It's just so nice.

[mx-montero]

I’m finally seeing some butch Wolverine art on screen but some of you guys aren’t going butch enough. I need butch Logan to be a whiskey-swiggin’, cigar-chewin’, card-carryin’, he/him-havin’, capital “B” Butch lesbian. Logan “The X-Man” Wolverine has an adamantium strap that makes you ugly cry while he blows cigar smoke in your face. That is the butch Wolverine we deserve.

[butch-pilot]

I love elder butches, not only are they very important to the community, but they give amazing advice and show young butches like me that we will grow old and still be handsome and loved, and that butch only gets better with age

[mostwantedpotato404]

I'm quite crazy about fallout franchise (old drawings)

[cowboyjen68]

The day before Christmas Eve, with the help of many, I met a new lesbian friend off of TikTok. She needed a new car battery and I know how to change a battery and found out she was only an hour away! Got to meet an elder and break out my tools and get her some much needed supplies! My community, on and off line, is nothing short of incredible. New battery installation complete!!

[that-butch-archivist]

"Joan Nestle and Mabel Hampton" by Morgan Gwenwald

source: The Wild Good: Lesbian Photographs & Writings on Love, edited by Beatrix Gates

[royalkisserofjesters]

not a ship but erm nyway butch tullius and fem ciciro (but teebeeache ciciro is tfem in my head all the time even in game) me n tullius can be butch4butch ♡

[halfbaked00q]

we need to put James Bond more in the path of queer elders.

Like yes he may be a baby queer finally cracking open the rigid hard shell of his adult life persona to explore Other Modes of Being at 40-some odd years. But also that doesn't stop him from being one of the old guard, he still has a wealth of life experiences, and if anything.... I do think he probably either understands on an intuitive level or would quickly pick up/quickly click with the concepts of gender being Performative. So like that wouldn't be a barrier of entry, and just like. I think he would relate to queer elders better from a like comparable life stages standpoint.

but yeah basically lol, I just think it would be very instructive for him and also, like, that he'd find a lot of camaraderie with elder butches especially lmao. And especially again elder butch activists!! like, in some ways, both him & them have lived through a lifetime of wars that are not wars. And they both had to fight tooth and nail to get here today, but by god are they still alive and screaming in defiance in the face of those that would see them dead.

I think there's a lot he could relate to with them, but also, a lot he could learn from & about with them. Like, queer joy just Hits Different when you see it in queer elders.

[poorlydrawnwarriorzzz]

TAWNYCROW???

[kirisclangen]

Downyblaze

she/her, 157 moons, cis molly

[loverboygene]

Spending the weekend in Chicago and finally being immersed in true Queer culture for the first time has been healing in a way I cannot properly articulate.

For those of you who don't know, I come from an incredibly rural part of the Midwest, where I am the sole visible lesbian in my community. I spend a lot of my time hiding my identity (I lovingly call it "femming it up") or explaining my identity to those who are brave enough to relay their curiosity. Either way, it's rare that I get to exist as my full, authentic Butch self.

Last night I went to a karaoke bar and spent time with some older lesbians. I cannot even begin to explain how rewarding that experience was. Feeling loved, accepted, and understood for the first time in my life. Even if it was just over a couple beers and "Sweet Caroline", it made me fully conceptualize how important having Queer community is.

If you can, I encourage you to immerse yourself in whatever local Queer scene you find yourself in. For those of us who lack Queer people (especially elder Queers) in our lives, know that they are out there, and they cannot wait to meet you. You are never as alone or isolated as you may feel.

I look forward to the day that I am able to live my authentic life, free from questions and judgement and small-town expectations. I know that day will come very soon.

[that-butch-archivist]

"Mabel Hampton at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York, 1978" from the Mabel Hampton Special Collection, Lesbian Herstory Archives

source: The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, edited by Joan Nestle

[yeehawllywood]

My story saved without the audio and honestly it’s for the best

[royalkisserofjesters]

dis is a place 4 fat hairy lovely butches !!!!! every skyarim or elder scrolls boy character is a butch over here... martin is a butch, vicente is a butch, lucien is a butch, ciciro is a butch, tullius is a butch, hell even hermaeus mora is a butch. butchify every1 NOW!!!

[choco-pudding]

"This is the butch scale in real time"