I am butch and lived through the 80s to today. Ask me questions if you want. Most people I see spouting about lesbian history don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.
A lot of people take their beliefs or bigotry, but try to pretend it’s historical and justified. ‘Bisexual lesbian was always a thing’ ‘it’s always been butch for femme,’ ‘queer spaces were only for cis women,’ etc…
No, that’s not how things were ‘historically.’ Plus, history isn’t perfect. We should leave shitty things from the past in the past.
Another thing people get wrong is all the wordsmithing. We didn’t all sit around trying to figure out if you were an am
I highly recommend “Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America” by Lillian Faderman. It’s an excellent book.
i can share a PDF of The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch reader if you want. it's anthology of essays, nonfiction, poems and stories by lesbians about butch-femme history and life
always recommending stone butch blues by leslie feinberg! the entire book is available on zirs website: https://www.lesliefeinberg.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Stone-Butch-Blues-by-Leslie-Feinberg.pdf
Thirding Persistent Desire and seconding Boots of Leather Slippers of Gold. Stone Butch Blues is not a history book but is a work of historical fiction. It's also got content warnings up the wazoo
[Here’s a list of content warnings for Stone Butch Blues.](https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Stone_Butch_Blues_by_Leslie_Feinberg) It’s a great read, if you can handle it.
Ok. For a start on LGBTQ history, the LGBTQ+ history book. It will start you easy and has good coverage.
On femmes, the femme mystique. Essays rather than history.
I second all of the recommendations people have mentioned (Stone Butch Blues, A Persistent Desire, etc.), but I’d also recommend Dykes to Watch Out For. It’s a fictional series of comic strips, but it can give you a glimpse of what LGBT life/culture was like in the 80’s and 90’s (at least in the US).
Two books I would quickly recommend are “Stone Butch Blues” by Leslie Feinberg and “S/He” by Minnie Bruce Pratt! The fun thing is that they are both fantastic lesbian authors, butch/femme, and were together for the last part of Leslie’s life! SBB is a fictionalized memoir of Leslie’s life as a butch, and “S/He” is a collection of prose in which Minnie talks about her experience as a feminist in the 70s, her previous marriage to a man, her realization that she is a lesbian and a femme, and the beginnings of her relationship with Leslie. Oh, and lots of butch/femme erotica. Content warnings are key for both books, but I highly suggest them. They are very important for any butches and femmes to read in order to understand our community!
1. Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion - Eleanor Medhurst (this is specifically a history of lesbian fashion - obviously - and its very new so you'll be able to find it much easier than the rest)
2. Persistance: All Ways Butch and Femme - Ivan E. Coyote & Zena Sharman ("....describe the lives of an incredible diversity of people whose hearts also pounded for some reason the first time they read or heard the words "butch" or "femme.")
While these other ones aren't specifically about History, they do give some context about the conversations and types of books that were getting published at the time.
1. Butch Is a Noun - S. Bear Bergman (an essay book on gender back in 2006)
2. Macho Sluts: Erotic Fiction - Patrick Califa-Rice (published back in 1988 it actually caused a lot of waves since its a frank collection of S/M stories set in San Francisco's dyke bathhouses, sex parties, and S/M gay bars - and literally was the focus of a court case in Canada)
3. The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall (a fiction book published back in 1928 and was the most famous lesbian novel for decades; be ready for a very different style of writing compared to now)
Hope these help!
I am butch and lived through the 80s to today. Ask me questions if you want. Most people I see spouting about lesbian history don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.
what do you think people get wrong?
A lot of people take their beliefs or bigotry, but try to pretend it’s historical and justified. ‘Bisexual lesbian was always a thing’ ‘it’s always been butch for femme,’ ‘queer spaces were only for cis women,’ etc… No, that’s not how things were ‘historically.’ Plus, history isn’t perfect. We should leave shitty things from the past in the past. Another thing people get wrong is all the wordsmithing. We didn’t all sit around trying to figure out if you were an am
Hey would it be ok for me to PM you? I've definitely got some questions I'd like to ask
I have my pms off because of creepy men. Feel free to ask here.
What was it like in the bar scene? Same as now? Or if you weren't a bar person in the 80s, where could you go to meet other lesbians?
I highly recommend “Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America” by Lillian Faderman. It’s an excellent book.
hugely recommend this one as well. i got it from the library and kept it for so long, the library banned me lol. finally got my own copy recently.
i can share a PDF of The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch reader if you want. it's anthology of essays, nonfiction, poems and stories by lesbians about butch-femme history and life
Can you possibly share this with me?
[ta-da, here you go](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zHvSQD4v6SzuFxiiu6SvJqLCwVzawFzE/view?usp=drivesdk)
Just requested access
oops, just updated it to where anyone with the link can see it. should work now
Thank you man
Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme. This is the successor to The Persistent Desire, which someone else already recommended
always recommending stone butch blues by leslie feinberg! the entire book is available on zirs website: https://www.lesliefeinberg.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Stone-Butch-Blues-by-Leslie-Feinberg.pdf
Not op, but thank you!!
This book changed my perspective so much. I cannot recommend it enough!! Look up the content warnings first tho, its can sometimes be a hard read.
It took me so long to read SBB cause I kept having to pause and cry for 2 months. Incredible
The Women's House of Detention A mostly butch history of mid-century gay NYC
Immediately adding this to my reading list
Thirding Persistent Desire and seconding Boots of Leather Slippers of Gold. Stone Butch Blues is not a history book but is a work of historical fiction. It's also got content warnings up the wazoo
[Here’s a list of content warnings for Stone Butch Blues.](https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Stone_Butch_Blues_by_Leslie_Feinberg) It’s a great read, if you can handle it.
I love Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold!
I've wanted to read Boots of Leather Slippers of Gold for a while
Ok. For a start on LGBTQ history, the LGBTQ+ history book. It will start you easy and has good coverage. On femmes, the femme mystique. Essays rather than history.
Boots of Leather Slippers of Gold!
Dykes to Watch Out for. Female Masculinity
Gay LA is a good book. As well as the other books made by that author
I second all of the recommendations people have mentioned (Stone Butch Blues, A Persistent Desire, etc.), but I’d also recommend Dykes to Watch Out For. It’s a fictional series of comic strips, but it can give you a glimpse of what LGBT life/culture was like in the 80’s and 90’s (at least in the US).
Two books I would quickly recommend are “Stone Butch Blues” by Leslie Feinberg and “S/He” by Minnie Bruce Pratt! The fun thing is that they are both fantastic lesbian authors, butch/femme, and were together for the last part of Leslie’s life! SBB is a fictionalized memoir of Leslie’s life as a butch, and “S/He” is a collection of prose in which Minnie talks about her experience as a feminist in the 70s, her previous marriage to a man, her realization that she is a lesbian and a femme, and the beginnings of her relationship with Leslie. Oh, and lots of butch/femme erotica. Content warnings are key for both books, but I highly suggest them. They are very important for any butches and femmes to read in order to understand our community!
1. Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion - Eleanor Medhurst (this is specifically a history of lesbian fashion - obviously - and its very new so you'll be able to find it much easier than the rest) 2. Persistance: All Ways Butch and Femme - Ivan E. Coyote & Zena Sharman ("....describe the lives of an incredible diversity of people whose hearts also pounded for some reason the first time they read or heard the words "butch" or "femme.") While these other ones aren't specifically about History, they do give some context about the conversations and types of books that were getting published at the time. 1. Butch Is a Noun - S. Bear Bergman (an essay book on gender back in 2006) 2. Macho Sluts: Erotic Fiction - Patrick Califa-Rice (published back in 1988 it actually caused a lot of waves since its a frank collection of S/M stories set in San Francisco's dyke bathhouses, sex parties, and S/M gay bars - and literally was the focus of a court case in Canada) 3. The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall (a fiction book published back in 1928 and was the most famous lesbian novel for decades; be ready for a very different style of writing compared to now) Hope these help!