#butches and studs in their own words

[that-butch-archivist]

I feel like this is a video that likely everyone has seen by now, but if you haven't ... please, enjoy a lovely 11 minute documentary about butches and studs. :)

[genderqueerdykes]

if you are a trans man or masc, masculine nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid or other gender non conforming identity, masc gay, a bear, a butch, stud, or boi, or other masculine queer person and don't feel welcome in any queer spaces, you're not alone.

the communities both irl and online have become EXTREMELY hostile toward mascs and men to the point of straight up excluding us and changing their wording to justify their violent exclusion. from renaming nonbinary spaces to "femme & them" and "she+" spaces, to telling men & mascs that they would "Scare" the women and "nonbinary" folks just by being there, as if masculinity and manhood are inherently traumatizing to be around.

masculine and male nonbinary folks have it so hard- most nonbinary spaces are almost definitely women's spaces who also conflate womanhood with nonbinaryhood, and often times just view nonbinary people as confused women. we are not inherently traumatizing to be around: masc enbies need places to go. we are still nonbinary and still trans and still queer for fucks' sake

nonbinary has never and will never mean femme or woman-adjacent inherently. nonbinary means what it means: people who don't or refuse to adhere to the gender binary, regardless of what side it is. masculinity is included in this, femininity is not the only way to be nonbinary.

masc queers do not have to bend over backwards to try to be more feminine and thus "less threatening" in order to have places to go. that's dysphoric and just inaccurate to a lot of queer folks' identity and presentation. it blows my mind because it makes no sense, anyway, even within the gay community, hypermasculinity has been present and even sought after by some people who find it very attractive, twunks, hunks, bears... but between the periods in queer history people started viewing masc gay leathermen and kinksters as the ones who were responsible for spreading AIDS and thus removing them from pride parades,

AND the lesbian separatism moment picking up to remove butches & male & masc lesbians from lesbian spaces identity, paving the way for modern rdical femniism, we've only entered a downhill landslide of hating men and mascs and ultimately trying to erase us from the queer community entirely.

the queer community is not the "women & femmes community". the queer experience is broad and vast, it includes a wide variety of masculine and male experiences, as well as genderfluid, multigender, completely ungendered and other gendered experiences. the lesbian, trans, bisexual, nonbinary, gay and general queer communities aren't the "safe place to hide from men & mascs community" like estranged rdfems and terfpilled trans folk like to tell you they are.

this is the QUEER community and it includes ALL forms of queerness, masc, femme, butch, male, neutral, bigender, neutral, and all. he/shes and he/hims and he/theys and he/its and so on are just as much of a part of this communities as she/hers and they/thems. you can't cast a blanket of "inherently abusive" over all men and mascs and one of "inherently abused/incapable of being abusive" over all women and femmes because that just traps you in a fantasy land that doesn't exist AND it prevents mascs and men from getting the help, resources and community they NEED.

men & mascs are hurt and abused by women & femmes every day and we refuse to speak about them because we live under a white cisheteronormal patriarchy and have complaints about how that functions. the complaints are legitimate but assuming that all men and mascs are oppressing all women and femmes and that women can never be oppressive is a false as hell narrative that actively damages people.

enough is enough. this mindset is hurting people. it's leaving masc and male queers to be estranged, harmed and even dead. i care about you if you're being affected by this mentality and these behaviors. you deserve community, safety, and a sense of belonging, you do belong, even if we struggle to form our own spaces due to unjust hatred. we will do our best to band together and keep each other safe. we must

[pinkcarabiner]

something i've noticed happening a lot more often recently is how femmes will send butches unsolicited asks/messages that clearly cross boundaries and make them uncomfortable. when butches call out this behavior (even when done so respectfully), these femmes label butches as mean and aggressive rather than take accountability. i have even seen the words predatory and creepy used. they treat butches as sex objects that exist for their own pleasure and throw the same language used to oppress butches right at them when butches stand up for themselves. i've seen so many butches tolerate behavior they are clearly not comfortable with in order to prevent escalating situations in which they already do not feel safe. this holds true particularly for trans butches (esp. transfem butches) and butches of color/studs in interactions their interactions with primarily white femmes.

if your response to being told that you make butches uncomfortable is to twist the narrative to make it seem as though you are being attacked for no reason, you're not a femme. butches are people. treat them like it even when they don't play into your sexual fantasy.

[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.

[deconstructthesoup]

Since I've seen a lot of people do it, here's my sexuality, gender, and gender presentation headcanons for the Voices and Vessels:

Voices

Hero: Bisexual, he/him, cis but is probably a little bit gnc---he's trying on earrings, he's started to paint his nails and wear makeup, maybe he'll buy a skirt soon. He seems like a guy who's only recently come out of the closet and is a bit nervous about doing things right.

Contrarian: Gay, he/they, demiboy and hella gnc... in the sense that none of their outfits make any cohesive sense, and are an absolute mess of patterns and styles. His little-shit energy extends to his gender expression.

Cheated: Pansexual, he/him, trans. He's a simple jeans-and-t-shirts kinda guy, though I think he'd also wear leather jackets purely for the extra protection.

Stubborn: Gay, he/him, cis. Maybe "bear" isn't quite the right word, but he definitely comes from the Elliot Spencer school of masculinity. Big buff guy with long hair who can and will kick the shit out of you but is also a protective soul.

Broken: Bisexual, he/him... questioning his gender, but he doesn't focus much on it. He's in the "I only wear sweatpants and hoodies because I have no energy to do anything else" stage.

Cold: Gay, he/him, definitely genderqueer and only really uses "he" because it's easier. Google "mall goth" and you get a picture of him.

Paranoid: Aroace, he/they, trans. He's always dressed weirdly nice for the occasion, though it's mostly so he can stim with a tie or cuff links. They're a fancy little dude.

Opportunist: Pansexual, they/them, non-binary. They're a little more alternative-leaning---toeing the line of being punk while not actually committing hard enough to it---but they do lean into the masc side of things more often than not. It's the only reason why they wear a pronoun pin.

Hunted: Queer, he/it, unlabeled. He has better things to do than worry about his gender or sexuality. It just wears whatever it finds in its closet on any given day.

Skeptic: Biromantic demisexual, he/him, cis. He dresses like a noir detective---button-up shirt, suspenders, slacks, maybe a trenchcoat when it's not too hot out. Also, he absolutely wears glasses.

Smitten: Pansexual, they/them, non-binary but only recently out. They always dress like they're on their way to a Ren Faire, and they like to mix up femme and masc styles. Always with a prop sword, though.

Vessels

Damsel: Bisexual, she/her, cis. She absolutely dresses in a fairytale-dream style---puffy, flowing dresses, flower crowns, ect.

Prisoner: Panromantic demisexual, she/her, cis. I picture her with a more academic style, either in pantsuits or just fancy blazers with a comfortable skirt. She wears glasses, too.

Nightmare: Aromantic bisexual, she/her, cis. The gothiest goth to ever goth. She scares children and grown adults with her creepy makeup.

Spectre: Queer, she/her, trans. She's also goth, but more of a whimsigoth type, and I think she's also got a lot of general witchy vibes to her. Also, I always picture her with dyed lavender hair for some reason.

Beast: Queer, she/it, unlabeled. Again, better things to do than figure out what the hell her sexuality and gender is. It's a cat and it's here to either eat, sleep, or play with its food.

Witch: Lesbian, she/they, demigirl. Weirdly enough, I kind of picture her having my own personal style---lots of flannels, graphic tees, jeans and converse. Maybe there's a little bit of whimsy in there when she wants to make an effort, but usually not.

Tower: Pansexual, she/her, cis. Depending on what genre she's in, she either dresses like a badass lady knight or a high-powered exec. General girlboss vibes.

Adversary: Lesbian, she/her, cis. Hardcore butch. In every way possible.

Razor: Lesbian, she/her, trans. Because I can't resist the pun, she's a total metalhead---lots of chains, lots of studded clothing, lots of piercings, lots of buckles, the whole nine yards. Yes, you can stick magnets to her.

Stranger: Queer, any and all but prefers they/them, genderfluid and intersex. I like to think that they have different "fashion modes" depending on how they feel on different days---sweatpants and a hoodie for when they're feeling down, an alternative vibe for when they want to feel scary, a masculine vibe for when they want to feel confident, a feminine vibe for when they want to feel pretty, and a crazy-patterns-all-rainbow vibe for when they just want to be weird. They're fun.

[variousqueerthings]

i do sometimes think about community histories that come from similar spaces, especially pre-certain-words-being coined, and while i do understand the drive to go "no you [x identity] go away, this one is for us!" because often certain queer communities are woefully ignored and talked over, i also have an instinct for wanting to bring communities together because they were often one and the same community, or the words were conflated in certain ways and there's almost never a "this one is for us" that is as neat as people like to pretend (flashbacks to "butch and femme are lesbian-only terms" although ofc sometimes it really is importantly a closed community term, like the word "stud")

sometimes historically you cannot neatly map a label onto a person/group/event/idea because that terminology was different, and we cannot go back and ask what would work best using today's terminology anymore than we can travel to the future to see what it'll evolve into that might work better than today, but also maybe it's important to find some middle-point between a lack of clear terminology and community spaces that are divided into their own, clear sections

but in order for people to not feel overlooked and mocked the work needs to be done from all facets of the queer community to go outside ones own personal identity to make a history queer rather than "just" [insert x here]. and i hope that one day that work will make us more unified as a series of political and philosophical ideals and less disparate groups without bleed-through or overlap, even when one personally may feel quite easily placed within an identity

idk, it's the idea of "personal identity" vs "political coalition" but it's also just quite sad to try and box us in again

[dragonstailbutch]

hey, i just wanted to reach out and hopefully i articulate this all well, i'm a lil tired today lol. but i just wanted to say that i appreciate you and what you started re: forcemasc and that i've shared a lot of your thoughts regarding what it's turned into. i can only imagine how you feel considering you're the one who got it going on here... i've seen a lot of weird takes come of it myself and have just been so confused as to how people don't seem to recognize the issues they're perpetrating (or they just don't care, more likely), particularly with their quite honestly toxic ideas of manhood, conflating masculinity with being a man, etc. like you've said it's just become a cesspool of mra transmisogynistic talking points and it's baffling. this should've been a space where people could subvert some of these expectations and have fun with it... all this to say though i hope you are able to take care of yourself and find some peace in knowing that there are others out there that share your feelings on it and do still appreciate and find comfort in the initial concept that you came up with. hang in there <3

thank you so much, it means a lot to me, truly. ive been trying to make sure im good, promise yall! been keeping myself busy with chores and taking care of the house lol

yeah, its been a rollercoaster seeing the community i created get to this point and ive already spoken up about it, as have my partner and a few other people, but im probably just gonna block the tag andpeople as i go and keep making stuff for myself, cause i wanna keep putting out good vibes and feelings and words for people to connect with, all us transbutches and cis butches and the studs and dykes and queers and transmasc folks deserve to have a outlet for being masculine too, in our own ways

love yall and keep loving your trans sisters

[campgender]

from “Masculine of Centre, Seeks Her Refined Femme” by B. Cole on the history of the term masculine of center

published in Persistence: All Ways Butch & Femme, ed. Ivan E. Coyote & Zena Sharman (2011)

excerpt 1:

[…] that was supposed to look like, and the word never fully reflected who I am. One of my first conversations with Oshen T., an activist and she-pronoun-using stud, echoed this unease with which many of us take up the mantle of butch.

I identify as stud but, growing up, I didn’t know that there was a word, “stud.” What was more common was butch, but at some point, like in my mid to late teens, I noticed that butches were usually white women, and even though I did see some black butches … at some point it got really irritating and didn’t fit me. I don’t feel butch, and I don’t like that word, even saying it. Stud came out of me and my peers having a conversation, and I held onto the word stud. We younger studs from East Oakland started to gravitate toward that. Butch was white and older, and as young kids, we were studs. There was some age stuff, race and class. All the books were about stone cold butches … just white people. We were like, nah, that’s not us. —Oshen T.

If butch wasn’t the word I was looking for, what was it? Should I use dom? Stud? AG (aggressive)? None of these quite worked, and so in 2008 I introduced the term “masculine of centre” (MoC) as more encompassing and less racially and class-specific than butch. MoC also speaks to the cultural nuances of female masculinity, while still recognizing our commonalities—independent of who we partner with. The inclusion of the language “of centre” sees beyond the traditional binary of male and female to female masculinity as a continuum. “Of centre” is a way of acknowledging that the balance each of us determines around our own masculinity and femininity in the discovery of our gendered selves is never truly fixed. Masculine of […]

excerpt 2:

Unlike white female masculinity, female masculinity for womyn of colour is based on sites of power and systemic oppression—through masculinities of colour. The assumption that they can be resignified with equal subversive and revolutionary actions against white manhood is false. The ability to access masculinity pivots upon the ways in which gender intersects with race, and these gaps have been filled with many new ways of naming ourselves. In the last decade, the explosion of young masculine-of-centre womyn has created a demographic shift on the butch landscape, giving way to terms like “stud,” “boi,” “tom,” and “macha” in California and the South, “dom” within the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region, and “aggressives,” or “AGs” in New York.

excerpt 3:

Attempts to disrupt this sense of “classical” butch continue to rely on representations and cultural location within whiteness and white notions of masculinity and femininity. As Halberstam points out, there is cultural value in marginalizing masculinities that divert from the master narrative. Even though Halberstam is speaking to heteronormative masculinity here, these diverting narratives have the potential to “dilute” the “authoritative power” of white butchness in the same way. As this narrative is pushed into the mainstream queer consciousness to construct butch identity, many of our experiences are left out. Supporting versions of masculinity that we enjoy and trust, many of these “heroic masculinities” depend absolutely on the subordination of alternative masculinities.”

excerpt 4:

The title of this piece, “Masculine of Centre, Seeks Her Refined Femme,” is a heading from the first dating profile posted using the term “masculine of centre.” It speaks to both a historical legacy of butch-femme and a longing for a language different and new.

excerpt 5:

The emergence of this new language would not have happened were it not for the ways in which masculine-of-centre womyn of colour live their female masculinity through the lens of race. Our identity has socially transformative powers and there are still nuances to our identities—masculine-of-centre mothering, social mobility, and historical racial oppression—which shape masculinity in [ways that have yet to be fully explored.]

[odysseys-blood]

i think a lot of ppl are too quick to hop onto the idea of "transm*sandry" being a thing tbh (ramble abt it under the cut bc im half awake and it isnt super well worded)

when someone is deadset on transm*sandry being real i believe they think intersections exist that arent there. transmisogyny is its own term because it is based on the intersectionality of being transgender AND a woman. transgender individuals are punished heavily under the cishetero patriarchy (which is honestly a redundant term imo but u get me) and so are women because its structured around keeping women in a place of submission and humiliation. when someone is persecuting you for being a trans man/trans masc per se they are persecuting you for being....transgender. they do not see you as a man. they do not look at you and see masculinity they see you as a confused girl who has been brainwashed and manipulated into mutilating herself. this is in part another source of fuel for transmisogyny because now not only is a trans woman yknow trangender and a woman, they are also the ones that are considered to blame for "corrupting" the girls who end up not being girls. theres this strong perception of transfems being perverse and misleading the transmasc into abandoning femininity and being the driving force behind anyone wishing to break the rules of society and transition.

and if someone does recognize you as a man then you still arent recieving any like lasting negative persecution because you are at the end of the day benefitting from your status as a man. just like misandry doesnt become real when a black man faces persecution (its becsuse of racism) or a disabled man faces persecution (its because of ableism). there are exceptions to people benefitting from masculinity of course, but usually these are people who still retain a self affirmed connection to femininity or otherwise being a woman who are being punished for not performing as society dictates women should (ex. butches, studs) and therefore are not benefitting from the status of a man because they do not accept that status

[firespirited]

Today I watched Pin: a plastic nightmare 1988, Society 1989, Miss underSTUD and How to analyse movies - all on youtube.

PIN is a Canadian horror movie, it's tropey and of its time but also surprisingly gothic with more dread than gore for late 80s, very Edgar Allan Poe vibes and the two main actors make it work, there's a surprisingly square jawed bishie young David Hewlett who thankfully isn't playing the slightly manic smart alec he later got typecast into. When i say canada, it's very canadIEN not canadIAN, the french canadien influence is very much in the DNA. Worth the watch for the weirdness alone.

Society was bizarre. It's like Fast Times at Ridgemond High decided to smash with Pod people and the Thing. Tonally all over the place so many unanswered questions. Brightly lit but introduces dread straight away. Horny highschoolers slimy in the creepy way. Close up topless shots. Then horny with slime in the literal way. It didn't spend any time making our main character interesting or likeable so it's hard to care much - his friend appears about half hour from the end and has all the charisma and moxie you want from a horror character, it's enough to save the film from being abysmal.

Miss underSTUD is interviews with lesbian butches, center of masc "studs" in their own words about how they define themselves, how they discovered themselves etc. No horror stories just ladies who like ladies and have no interest in what society deems ladylike but also stud is different from just butch. Interesting perspectives even if it's not something I can grok on like a deep level.

How to analyse movies was just soothing background noise with a little bit of education on some film technicalities I didn't know yet that I hope I'll be able to remember to better describe how a movie worked or didn't work for me beyond the language of just storytelling. I'd love to be able to describe how a film or tv achieves it's 'vibes'.

I frogged a damaged child's sweater and a snagged infinity scarf to keep hands busy without using the shoulders too much.

[draculovemp3]

what is your favorite part(s) about being a lesbian….

What isn’t there to love!!! The comraderie we’ve developed over years of our experiences in society, the rituals of lesbian flirtation whether it’s in butch/femme, studs, leather dykes etc or outside of those lines. Our relationship with gender in a heterosexual world being something we can meld to our own ….. yea yea deep reasons but lesbians are just so hot and funny forever ever. Our art our movies our books. I love having a sexuality that leaves me easier than some to push off the hurt men will do . I love having a sexuality that’s my gender & vice versa 👍There is no word that I’ve never felt more right under than dyke or lesbian🧡🤍💗💝 also I heart being the one that can make all the lighthearted cant relate/kill him jokes to my bi/straight girlies to make em laff/cheer em up

Honesty hour, seriously ask me whatever the fuck you want to.

[luciferfemme]

sorry if you’ve already answered any of these! 30, 46, 50, & 56 🧡

Never apologize I love answering these.

30. Did I have any celebrity crushes growing up?

Honestly I do think they tended to be men 😬😬😬

How would you describe your own style (without using the word -core)

What gives you absolute joy as a lesbian?

Butches and studs noticing me and flirting with me

If you could manifest one thing for yourself this year what would it be?

Husbutch (or like at least a serious relationship because even I think getting married in 4 months is a bit much. (yes I want an October wedding what of it?)

[novelry-plurality]

Sure, I’ll use this blog.

Sometimes I forget that I’ve squeezed myself into an internet bubble filled with kind, considerate, charming weirdos who defy hard binaries, and then I look at the notes on a post and get gobsmacked by the casual bigotries that people hold.

Today it was about people denying any overlap whatsoever between transmasculinity and lesbianism. On one hand; yes, trans men are men, affirm that and treat them with courtesy in regards to how they want to be addressed! On the other hand, transmasculinity encompasses more than just hard-stop trans men, and not everyone fits into the binary so neatly.

Some people are bigender. Butches and studs often have transmasculine overlap and are an important part of the lesbian community. We, as a plural system with parts with different identities, exist!

Fade and Alabaster think of themselves as lesbians, and Fade uses the word “crossdresser” to describe her flirtations with masculinity. I think of myself as a trans man. Fenn is on some whole other level of gender weirdness that I don't think we even have a solid term for anymore. (Dude is sparkly and exists on both sides of the gender axis at once.) Bell doesn’t even need gender, it’s just a divine robot.

I don’t know how to tell people that enforcing hard binaries in sexuality and gender doesn’t actually own TERFs.

It’s gateway TERFism, honestly.

Being considerate and inclusive to transfemmes is how you show support for trans lesbians. Screaming about transmascs never having a place in so-and-so space is... not. Our community has a storied history, and for much of that history, the lines in the sand were not cleanly drawn.

If your response to someone outside the norm is disgust and aggression, then you are not as progressive as you think you are.

[variousqueerthings]

after 3 straight days of queer movie-watching at the festival (with an interlude to play some football) and my brain being overloaded with Stimulus, feel like I need to compile my thoughts on the experience overall: 

1. lotta DIY work, which is a great reminder that if you want to make, you can + opens up conversation around how institutions do not fund this kind of work (in the UK especially there’s a limit to spaces one can go for funding). the real experimentation/cinematic bravery isn’t happening for half a billion dollars, it’s being done on a shoe-string budget. that being said, one really wishes there was more money to be had in this, simply because it would make people able to live off the work and make much more

2. lot of sports-related stuff, both fiction and documentary, which is funny considering where a lot of my own focus is these days. also got to meet Verity Smith, which was a bit of a hero-moment, and he gave a lot of great info on the state of sports nationally and internationally. and yeah, I got to play football for the first time in 10 years!

3. generally met a lot of great people. I think the idea about “networking” as it’s been presented to me as an artist (including the word itself) is still a big problem, and will always be. it’s got too many concepts baked into it that don’t gel with the kind of work I do in the communities I do it in + my particular flavour of brain, but that being said -- once I realised that there are spaces where meeting/connecting with people in your specific field of work, where this aligns with queer practise of shared needs for what that work represents and is for, then yeah, I kind of got what networking was all about. So I could talk freely about my own work + listen to theirs, and not feel like we were just sussing out how we could use one another to get ahead 

when I was studying, there wasn’t this kind of... idk, discussion of ways that working in an arts industry -- with all of its [waves hands at the microcosm of any and all industries and life that is in the mainstream run by capitalist colonialist patriarchy] many many issues -- can be interacted with from different perspectives, so it’s neat to be able to find ways to do that by simply being in spaces like these

4. watched both wildhood and set it off as my main two fiction features (the others I either couldn’t make it for or missed parts of due to overlapping events). the former feels like a wonderful breath of air + fits into a space of both canadian first nations cinema that I’ve been lucky enough to get to watch, and queer cinema. the movies are getting made and they are good -- one does have to look for them/be active in spaces where they would likely be disseminated, which tbh is also an ethos of artistic engagement + community engagement that I’m very in favour of anyway. in order to get to the deeper stuff, it doesn’t do to simply sit back and wait for it to arrive. it does exist! go find it! 

also the sex scene in it was 👀👀👀 smthinsmthin water as metaphor belongs to the queers

also I’d been wanting to watch set it off for ages, as (only?) the second lesbian crime movie, next to bound. set it off isn’t technically centred on lesbians, but one of the leads is openly shown to be a stud/butch, and she’s respected/liked by her friends. I’m curious about how this film feels to the Black lesbian community and perhaps Black film-goers as a whole, since [spoilers] it’s got a fair bit of police violence and very little in the way of happy endings. 

where I sit with it, is that it’s criminally (ha) underrated and oughta be discussed in the same breath of compelling characters that exist in heat and dog day afternoon -- the bittersweet-at-best tragic ending fits with the general tone of this specific take on the genre (the non-oceans-movies versions tend to have mixed-to-tragic endings), although the violence does hit closer to home/more realistically than in most other heist films. and all the main characters are So So Cool, which is important for a good heist film! 

5. also got to watch two documentaries about older queers, one about the history of the Chicago bar “sidetrack” and the other about older queer people in Ireland. These connections and stories are so vital, and queer-cinema-as-documentation feels like one of the most queer things one can do. We love a documentary, because we’re trying to make sure those connections are built, that we don’t forget our pasts, that we have roots. there are people from whom we have these torches passed, and they’re our elders, even across continents.

also thank you to that lesbian couple acknowledging that young people are really struggling with money in this modern capitalism. definitely feels like it puts the work of the festival I was at into perspective -- with spaces closing and difficulty in renting (especially in cities), we need to find ways to open up spaces for one another

6. also I had a little curated archive piece up there and people said nice things to me about it 😭😭😭

[the-magic-mirror]

(Eros is a series of red and blue ink drawings I use to critique American culture.)

I hope I can draw more for pride, but I had top surgery recently (!) which limits my ability for now. My first drawing of the month is about lesbian pride, and specifically black lesbian pride.

Black lesbians have their own culture, terms, and experiences that deserve recognition. Butch, stud, stem, femme, are all words from black queer culture, and some are identities specific to Black lesbians. Please make space for black lesbians this and every pride.

[apocalypticvalraven]

Reminder because some people still fucking apparently need it-

That "straight couple" or that "woman's boyfriend" might be-

-Trans and in the closet

-Trans, and not yet transitioning

-Trans, transitioning, but not yet showing obvious changes

-Trans and completely transitioned and passing

-nonbinary

-intersex

-bisexual

-pansexual

-asexual

-demisexual

-actually gay and very close to their opposite sex friend!

-Or just a butch/stud who looks "masculine enough" that you don't recognize it!

In other words, mind your own fucking business unless someone is actually being harmful!

This pride we have GOT to stop making fun of bi women with boyfriends btw . I’m so so serious .