Are butches really a dying breed?

[Martina]

I live in the real world too, in a place where there is a large queer community, and, although I am old, I run into quite a few young folks. Just one example, I was at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley and saw what looked to be a b-f couple. I asked if they ID'd as butch and femme, and they said "sometimes" and proceeded to explain that they were wary of the ID's for the reasons I discussed.

I haven't been to a queer theory class in decades.

Originally Posted by EnderD_503

Not really. There are plenty of young butches and femmes. I would say that the typical advocates for this bullshit idea of butch and femme as "gender conformist and heteronormative" are gay men and certain lesbians. And they are typically academics teaching queer theory. I just think that younger butches and femmes aren't seeking out specific butch and femme communities as much as they used to anymore, but just relate as their identities to other growing and transforming communities around them. The only time I've heard that whole "gender conformist" spiel irl has been in queer theory classes led by white gay men or non-b/f lesbians. Some people just continue to want to make their own opinions reality for other people, but that doesn't mean that young queer folks are buying it. The number of young people still claiming femme and butch the queer community is still pretty high, and they aren't exactly words that have been thrown by the way side. People just interact with their own identities in relation to their own communities differently than in past generations. And especially as the queer/trans community continues to recognise its own diversity and self-determination as far as identity to a greater extent than it did in the past.