The Purse: Unpacking Femme Privilege

ButterflyKisses · 06-21-2010, 04:56 AM

I don’t think of passing as straight as a privilege. True, no one cares when I enter a public restroom; no one hurls gay slurs at me when I’m walking around by myself. But I do get drunken idiots who assume I'm straight, and that they have a right to grab me. I have gotten cat calls and crude sexual comments that made me want to carry around a bat and curl up in a ball at the same time. As many femmes here probably have.

On the flip side (while I'm not Butch and would never pretend to know what that feels like) I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, past the wrong side of the tracks. Clerks would follow me around in stores, would ask me if I was in the right place, or even kick me out. My face still burns at those memories and I have a hard time talking about my past. Of being judge instantly as a deviant or “un-normal” because of the way I looked and dressed, and where I was from.

People see what they want to see. Whether it’s as someone who fits society "norms" or not, both sides have their share of bad and good.

06-21-2010, 04:56 AM	#11
ButterflyKisses Junior Member How Do You Identify?: Lesbian Femme Preferred Pronoun?: ROAR!! Relationship Status: Party of one with an avaliable chair Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Lakewood, WA Posts: 8 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 4 Thanked 33 Times in 5 Posts Rep Power: 0	I don’t think of passing as straight as a privilege. True, no one cares when I enter a public restroom; no one hurls gay slurs at me when I’m walking around by myself. But I do get drunken idiots who assume I'm straight, and that they have a right to grab me. I have gotten cat calls and crude sexual comments that made me want to carry around a bat and curl up in a ball at the same time. As many femmes here probably have. On the flip side (while I'm not Butch and would never pretend to know what that feels like) I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, past the wrong side of the tracks. Clerks would follow me around in stores, would ask me if I was in the right place, or even kick me out. My face still burns at those memories and I have a hard time talking about my past. Of being judge instantly as a deviant or “un-normal” because of the way I looked and dressed, and where I was from. People see what they want to see. Whether it’s as someone who fits society "norms" or not, both sides have their share of bad and good. __________________ "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" - Shaw