lesbianegg:

I’ve seen some posts about how femmes dress in ways that aren’t standard for feminine straight women, and I like those a lot, but I haven’t seen posts about how butches dress in ways that aren’t standard for men. As in, there are certain cues that butch women tend to display that are different from those of a typical (straight) man — not always, but often enough that it’s noticeable.

Sometimes these are practical because of the way our bodies often work. For example, butches usually wear men’s jeans differently: often cuffed at the bottom because they’re usually too long for our legs, fuller at the butt because we need the extra space, often a belt because they don’t fit quite right on the hips (see: butt space). Our shirts fit a little differently, too, sometimes to our frustration — but then we learn that shirts built for longer torsos than ours look great tucked into jeans, and that a tshirt under the button-down de-emphasizes our breasts and looks kind of classy. And then those tshirts — especially the solid-coloured ones that hide our curves — look great on their own too. So we all own way too many tshirts.

But then there are also ways that butches dress that don’t have to do so much with practicality as with a certain common butch style — a way to show off, maybe, and assert ourselves. Favouring big stomping boots or flashy wingtips, for instance. Plaid/flannel, but also brighter colours and interesting ties. Shirts with little repeating patterns on them. Leather cuff bracelets and stud earrings. A propensity for jackets, especially leather. Bold haircuts: big swoopy/puffy tops, or maybe a clean buzzcut, or, for long-haired butches, hair falling defiantly and practically down their backs. Most butches I know have a lot of feelings about our hair.

And this isn’t to generalize — obviously I know that all butches don’t dress the same and definitely, we aren’t bad if we look like men or want to look like men — but to assert that there is a culture here, that there is something shared between butches independent of men. We’re not copy-cat imitators: we’re proudly declaring our butchness, we’re seeking to attract and impress other women, and we’re emulating our foremothers.