WHERE ARE ALL THE BUTCHES!?

Where are all the butches?! I say this with tongue firmly in cheek. I am not one for labels like ‘butch’ and ‘femme’ as they are just too simplistic for my liking, but for the purpose of this piece, when I say butch, I am referring to the typical stereotype of a ‘butch’ woman or ‘masculine presenting’ lesbian…I find these terms problematic, as who's to say what is masculine anyway?

Butch women seem to be the only accepted aesthetic of what a lesbian looks like in the eyes of the public majority, leaving feminine presenting lesbians to eye roll their way through the various series of ‘you don't look like a lesbian!’ or ‘I would never have guessed!’ from their ‘surprised’ work colleagues, yet butch woman are so scarcely represented in the mainstream media. 

I am not trying to claim that there are no butch celebrities or TV characters at all, but the fact that you can probably count them on one hand is nothing to celebrate. The way I look at representation is through the eyes of a teenager. If I was growing up and looking for positive role models/people to identify with, whether that be in regards to race/sexuality/appearance etc, can I think of 5 or more people in that category that are well known in the general public? I asked a number of my friends of different genders and sexualities if they could name more than 5 butch women, either celebrities or in main stream TV programmes or films and no one managed it. Of course there are butch women out there and if you research and look for them, there are hundreds of butch actors, celebrities, musicians etc but the point is, why should we have to search for them? 

To fully represent a group, it must be normalised entirely so its not a surprise when watching a TV soap or drama, you suddenly think, ‘Oh, theres a butch woman in this!’  Even ‘lesbian programmes’ on the whole seem to ‘femme up’ the characters to the point where seeing a butch character is a novelty- (most people I asked to name 5 or more butch women gave Lea Delaria’s OITNB character Boo, as their first answer) Have the media signed an unspoken contract to ignore the existence of butch woman? In her Between Butches essay, Author, Philosopher and Director of The Centre for Feminist Research at University of Southern California, Jack/Judith Halberstam recalls, ‘Many times as I have been working on my project on ‘Female Masculinity’, I have reflected on my own butch history and I have felt in my own life, the lack of butch role models.’ In order to fully represent the lesbian community, all ‘types’ of lesbians must be included. 

The quite obvious underrepresentation, to me, shows an unspoken hierarchy of what is deemed an ‘acceptable’ lesbian. In my mind, and some may think it’s a tad dramatic, but I stand by it, the clear lack of butch women in the main stream media is a misogynistic attack on how women should represent themselves. Shane Phelan expands on this in her essay, Public Discourse and the Closeting of Butch Lesbians, ‘Butch lesbians are caught by the strictures of a movement that demands respectability as the price of inclusion and equality. Respectability is not simply a matter of treating oneself and others with respect and integrity. It requires careful attention and obedience to prevailing norms of dress and comportment’ she goes on to say, ‘Mainstream erasure operates through the production of images that recode lesbianism for a mass audience nervous about what equality for homosexuals might mean.’ It seems that lesbians are only accepted by the general public if they are feminine presenting, and therefore fit what is the acceptable attractive appearance for a woman in the eyes of a straight man- and of course I am generalising here, I am not claiming this to be true of every straight man. Like they say, ‘sex sells’, and the media panders to the idea that- ‘its ok to be a lesbian… as long as you’re a Piper Chapman/ Sophie Webster/ Tina Carter/ Bette Porter/ Cat MacKenzie’- the list is endless, I could go on, but you get my point.

Alex Gillings, Frontwoman of The Great Malarkey/ former Suffrajet, says ’The thing is, if you accept the ridiculous fact that it’s ok to cast people based on how attractive they are, it still doesn't make any sense! Butch women ARE attractive! They are beautiful, handsome and sexy. To me, the bottom line is, the media have simply decided that butch women are not attractive to their target audience- it’s nuts!’

At some point in all our lives we all hear that dreaded question that makes your blood run cold, ‘if lesbians like women who look like/want to be men, why not just go out with a man?’  This is generally a question asked in regards to a butch/femme relationship, though it’s quite fun to watch the person asking the question squirm when you ask them if they think that two butch women in a relationship, means they want to both be a man and be in a relationship with a man, therefore meaning all butch couples must want to be gay men?- It blows their minds! But on a more serious note, it is as if the idea that if a woman can dress how she feels comfortable, which happens to be butch, and attract other women, then she must have a super power that threatens men’s chances with that woman (god forbid the woman in question could actually make her own decisions about who she sleeps with!) and is therefore brushed under the carpet as something we know exists, but we don't speak of so as not to make anyone uncomfortable. I think on some levels, it seems as if the idea of a butch women is too threatening to be spoken of, as they refute the patriarchal constructs that have been put in place to control women, so they are kept as this mythical creature who is rarely seen. Harris, one of the all female team that won Gold at The Chelsea Flower show 2017, Landscape Gardener and member of The Drakes added, ‘I think that butches completely mess with the patriarchy and threaten its very foundations, which uses expectations of women to control them in every interaction they have- personal, professional, as consumers and within culture. Butches take masculinity and reform it.’ If there is a large section of a certain community that is disregarded and ignored, it stands to reason that people who identify with this section would feel under valued and excluded. It reinforces the idea that there is something to be ashamed of.

A similar example can be said for the ideas around the representation of black women in the media. On the whole, there still seems to be a hierarchy of what it is to be an ‘attractive black woman’ and this largely relates to the lightness of her skin colour. So people may say, ‘what are you complaining about? There are loads of lesbians/black woman on TV/celebrities now!’  but that is only if you fit into the accepted aesthetic of what the media’s view of that community is. Anyone outside of that bubble is regarded as ‘other’ and excluded, in the eyes of the general public, from the community that they belong to. 

If women do not fit into the very limited boxes on offer to them, they are ignored on mass. It’s like that childish notion that ‘if you cant see it, it doesn't exist’- but butch women do exist and are not going away! I am shocked at just how underrepresented butch women are continued to be in 2017- its almost as if ‘the powers that be’ are thinking, ‘if we just ignore them, they will put a dress on, get the lipstick out and strive to be like the TV lesbians we all know and love.’  

Like I previously said, in order to represent a community fully, all aspects of that community must be equally represented. Whilst a rare sighting of a butch woman across the vast media we have access to is still an exciting novelty, the lesbian community is not being represented. It is not ok to exclude an entire group of people and still claim to be inclusive and diverse. As part of the LGBT+ community we can do our bit by having these conversations, bringing this issue to the forefront and making people think about it. Ruth Hunt, CEO at Stonewall, suggests ‘Change must come from all levels of society. As individuals, being vocal about what you want to see on television really helps. Supporting those who do representation well – or at least attempt it respectfully – is also essential. It’s also important to report poor representation to the relevant watchdogs.’ 

Ask a cross section of people to name more than 5 butch representatives off the top of their heads, you’ll be surprised. It sounds like an easy request until you sit down and think about it. How can we still be having to fight this battle in 2017? 

WRITTEN BY AMY RIDLER
T: @amy_ridler

I:@amyridler