Who's your favourite butch dyke?
July 26, 2012 8:55 AM Subscribe
Help me compiling a list of well known butch dykes
I make a zine with short bios of masculine lesbians of note, and lately I feel a bit stumped for ideas.
Basically, what I'm looking for is:
1. Masculine lesbians
2. Out
3. From the past or the present
4. Whose biographies are somewhat accessible and interesting
BONUS: women of colour and non-Anglo women!
I am starting to work on a Judith Butler zine - but all the images I find of her are in lectures! So there's this concern too, to be able to find pics or imagine them in a range of situations. But most importantly, having a big list here to consult, share, and go back to.
Links to lists, blogs, tumblrs are welcome too.
Thanks!
I make a zine with short bios of masculine lesbians of note, and lately I feel a bit stumped for ideas.
Basically, what I'm looking for is:
1. Masculine lesbians
2. Out
3. From the past or the present
4. Whose biographies are somewhat accessible and interesting
BONUS: women of colour and non-Anglo women!
I am starting to work on a Judith Butler zine - but all the images I find of her are in lectures! So there's this concern too, to be able to find pics or imagine them in a range of situations. But most importantly, having a big list here to consult, share, and go back to.
Links to lists, blogs, tumblrs are welcome too.
Thanks!
Response by poster: Here's the ones I already have in comic form: JD Samson, Martina Navratilova, Gladys Bentley, Chavela Vargas, Jenny Shimizu, Gertrude Stein and Claude Cahun.
posted by TheGoodBlood at 9:04 AM on July 26, 2012
posted by TheGoodBlood at 9:04 AM on July 26, 2012
Best answer: Have you seen this? http://www.tophotbutches.com/
Note: I believe there are people on that list that don't identify as female--some may be genderqueer or transmasculine.
Other people I can think of offhand: Sinclair Sexsmith, Kelli Dunham, Ivan Coyote, Del Martin.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:09 AM on July 26, 2012
Note: I believe there are people on that list that don't identify as female--some may be genderqueer or transmasculine.
Other people I can think of offhand: Sinclair Sexsmith, Kelli Dunham, Ivan Coyote, Del Martin.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:09 AM on July 26, 2012
Best answer: Lynn Lavner, comic and cabaret performer from the 80s/90s. I emailed the DJ after hearing "Such Fine Young Men" on Queer Music Heritage when I was in college, expressing how touching the song was. He forwarded my email on to Ms. Lavner and she responded with the kindest note I've ever received and autographed copies of her CDs. You can hear some clips from her songs on the page linked about, including "A Mother's Lament" (a hilarious song from a Jewish mother to her butch daughter including the line "...don't wear leather pants to the seder.").
posted by jph at 9:14 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by jph at 9:14 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Heather Cassils is well-known for being the butch in Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video.
posted by nakedmolerats at 9:34 AM on July 26, 2012
posted by nakedmolerats at 9:34 AM on July 26, 2012
Best answer: Radclyffe Hall, author of The Well of Loneliness, who went by the nickname "John."
posted by Carol Anne at 9:44 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Carol Anne at 9:44 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
Hmmmm...I was thinking that book by Leslie Feinberg was an autobiography, but a read back over the blurb, probably not. (Sorry!) Still, it's a good read.
posted by Ys at 9:50 AM on July 26, 2012
posted by Ys at 9:50 AM on July 26, 2012
Best answer: k. d. lang.
Ellen DeGeneres.
Leslie Feinberg doesn't identify as female.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:04 AM on July 26, 2012
Ellen DeGeneres.
Leslie Feinberg doesn't identify as female.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:04 AM on July 26, 2012
Gladys Bentley was pretty goddamn amazing.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:08 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:08 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The photographer Catherine Opie
posted by stagewhisper at 10:13 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by stagewhisper at 10:13 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Historical hottie Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Erika Mann.
Did you ever see Jack/Judith Butler's photo shoot with her partner for Oprah's magazine? Fascinating. Can't find a good link but you should hunt that issue down.
posted by Lieber Frau at 10:55 AM on July 26, 2012
Did you ever see Jack/Judith Butler's photo shoot with her partner for Oprah's magazine? Fascinating. Can't find a good link but you should hunt that issue down.
posted by Lieber Frau at 10:55 AM on July 26, 2012
D'oh! I meant Jack/Judith Halbserstam, not Judith Butler. My mistake! Here's the article, which is a little silly.
posted by Lieber Frau at 11:03 AM on July 26, 2012
posted by Lieber Frau at 11:03 AM on July 26, 2012
Katharine Hepburn. (Contentious, I know, but I am choosing to believe the book. Because, Katharine Hepburn.)
posted by Wordwoman at 2:35 PM on July 26, 2012
posted by Wordwoman at 2:35 PM on July 26, 2012
Best answer: Ivan Coyote. Here's her story about her barber.
posted by maudlin at 2:47 PM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by maudlin at 2:47 PM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Colette's lover Missy. I read about her in the Colette biography Secrets of the Flesh (which is fabulous and sexy and highly recommended!)
posted by prune at 2:55 PM on July 26, 2012
posted by prune at 2:55 PM on July 26, 2012
Rita Mae Brown
It would really surprise me if she identifies as butch, and not only because she dated Martina. See this essay. I know I'm not a good one to talk here, since I playfully included Katharine Hepburn above (sorry, didn't see the part about "out"). But I want to point out that you really judge from the haircut and clothes. There are plenty of androgynous dykes that are emphatically not butch. Apologies if RMB has declared herself as one (and sorry for being pedantic -- I look forward to reading your zine!).
posted by Wordwoman at 8:14 PM on July 26, 2012
It would really surprise me if she identifies as butch, and not only because she dated Martina. See this essay. I know I'm not a good one to talk here, since I playfully included Katharine Hepburn above (sorry, didn't see the part about "out"). But I want to point out that you really judge from the haircut and clothes. There are plenty of androgynous dykes that are emphatically not butch. Apologies if RMB has declared herself as one (and sorry for being pedantic -- I look forward to reading your zine!).
posted by Wordwoman at 8:14 PM on July 26, 2012
Also: Abby Wambach.
posted by treblemaker at 11:54 PM on July 26, 2012
posted by treblemaker at 11:54 PM on July 26, 2012
Best answer: I think Elizabeth Streb is highly underrated.
posted by history is a weapon at 8:45 AM on July 28, 2012
posted by history is a weapon at 8:45 AM on July 28, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by griphus at 9:00 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]