Are butches really a dying breed?

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by LaneyDoll

I am wondering about this...

Could it be that butches and femmes are not so much a dying breed as it is that the entire community is evolving? Today, we have more people identifying as genderfluid/genderqueer/androgynous than we did in the past.

So maybe it is not that breeds are dying as much as they are becoming more specialized?

I think what you are saying here makes a lot of sense and personally, even as a butch in my 60's, feel this is positive. I have always felt that my being a butch is centered in gender fluidity and that one does not have to be trans or inter-gendered to reap the benefits of a more open way to experience gender as it is evolving today.

We are a sub-set within the glorious range of gender identity that is evolving today. In the future, I hope that statements like butches being a "dying breed" finds its way out of our conversations. Always feels like a "vs." statement that has caused pain between all of us and impeded our ability to communicate.

When I first saw the title to this thread, I have to admit, I thought about how it might be viewed as anti-trans to some members. Although, posts are from a various members with differing gender identifications- kewl!

[LaneyDoll]

Originally Posted by AtLast

I think what you are saying here makes a lot of sense and personally, even as a butch in my 60's, feel this is positive. I have always felt that my being a butch is centered in gender fluidity and that one does not have to be trans or inter-gendered to reap the benefits of a more open way to experience gender as it is evolving today.

We are a sub-set within the glorious range of gender identity that is evolving today. In the future, I hope that statements like butches being a "dying breed" finds its way out of our conversations. Always feels like a "vs." statement that has caused pain between all of us and impeded our ability to communicate.

When I first saw the title to this thread, I have to admit, I thought about how it might be viewed as anti-trans to some members. Although, posts are from a various members with differing gender identifications- kewl!

I am glad you read it as positive because I mean it that way. I am in a lucky position. My involvement in the BDSM lifestyle allows me to meet a variety of people. I have a lot of friends who identify as queer/genderqueer/genderfluid/andro. And they are ALL in their 20s. So, to me, it seems to be that the younger generations are identifying in ways outside of "butch/femme."

[Apocalipstic]

I like to think of it like I think of radio.

Radio used to be just top 40, now stations are quite specialized.

[Mr Nice Guy]

Still here, still Butch and happy being so.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Mr Nice Guy

Still here, still Butch and happy being so.

I remain butch (and lesbian) and always will and also frame butch in terms of a range of gender that has evolved. There are many folks that ID as transmasculine butches. I don't, but see where this fits as remaining within butch identification.

LOL, sometimes I think that being from originally and living in a region (SF Bay Area) that just has multi-population of queer folks including multi-sexualities might have influenced me in terms of seeing butch as simply one cog in a varied wheel.