"Butch" and "Femme" - Truly Antiquated Terms or More Marginalization?

Pretty Woman · 05-12-2010, 06:19 PM

Just moved over from the 'other' site and looking for a thread or two where I feel like I have something relevant to contribute. I suppose that living in NYC for almost 2 decades and being embraced by the Lesbian Herstory Archives almost immediately upon my arrival, I have naively assumed that butch and femme are still everywhere and that the folks who identify as either are embraced by the rest of their own communities whatever those may be.
Honestly, it's only since I've begun to participate in an online butch-femme community that I've experienced difficulty from my POV.
I am a lesbian femme. And what I have experienced is almost an exclusion of 'us' from the femme moniker online. It has been confusing and I have had alot of anger at those who seemingly work very hard to erase the lesbian from femme (or butch). It feels homophobic to me. Not sure if others have had that experience but the antiquation from my perspective has been to the 'lesbian' part of my femme as opposed to the femme itself.

05-12-2010, 06:19 PM	#11
Pretty Woman Junior Member How Do You Identify?: Femme Preferred Pronoun?: She Relationship Status: Trying to be true to myself Join Date: May 2010 Location: New York Posts: 73 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 45 Thanked 171 Times in 56 Posts Rep Power: 17334	Just moved over from the 'other' site and looking for a thread or two where I feel like I have something relevant to contribute. I suppose that living in NYC for almost 2 decades and being embraced by the Lesbian Herstory Archives almost immediately upon my arrival, I have naively assumed that butch and femme are still everywhere and that the folks who identify as either are embraced by the rest of their own communities whatever those may be. Honestly, it's only since I've begun to participate in an online butch-femme community that I've experienced difficulty from my POV. I am a lesbian femme. And what I have experienced is almost an exclusion of 'us' from the femme moniker online. It has been confusing and I have had alot of anger at those who seemingly work very hard to erase the lesbian from femme (or butch). It feels homophobic to me. Not sure if others have had that experience but the antiquation from my perspective has been to the 'lesbian' part of my femme as opposed to the femme itself.