I thought a lot about Kate’s question about Stone Butch Blues, and I think the text reveals that the answer is a product of the environment in which the lesbian women in this story exist. There is a sense in which the distinction between ‘femmes’ and ‘butches’ is a matter of preference, comfortability, and identity. Being a butch is about being more comfortable as a woman without being comfortable embodying and living by heteronormative conceptions of womanhood. Furthermore, they exist in a space where their existence is constantly threatened. Their sexual orientation and their gender expression are criminalized, putting them under the constant threat of cops raiding the bar and arresting or hurting them. In lesbian communities, therefore, it makes sense that some of these women, those that comfortable and connected with themselves when they take images physical strength, domination, and power, become the butch to protect other members of the lesbian community.
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