Butch and femme tasks were extremely important to the community in the forties and fifties; it was the butch role that was the most visible, and then the probably to cause open public scorn (Weissman and Fernie). The two sources, The Reproduction of Butch - Femme Roles by Madeline Davis and Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Forbidden Love by Aerlyn Weisman and Lynne Fernie focus especially on the function of the butch role among working category lesbians in Buffalo. These options get on articles, oral histories and interviews of lesbians from the first twentieth century. Both resources state that, although "gender-appropriate" styles and habits were rigidly enforced in order to maintain an obvious distinction between your sexes, butch women's choice to not only reject traditional femininity but to also positively adopt masculinity was perceived as a threat to the order of contemporary society and a prelude to cultural chaos. Regardless of the fear, and likelihood of harassment by authorities and other upright men, the courage of butches to promise their identities in many ways prepared the way for later decades of lesbians to break free from the narrow conventions of socially made womanhood and claim access to a kind of power traditionally performed only by men (Weisman and Fernie). As a result, male representations of lesbian sexuality experienced the most affect in shaping behaviour towards butch and femme identities throughout the twentieth century. Such representations have more often than not assumed the lesbian role -performing is an imitation of heterosexuality.
The main theory underlying the feminist disregard of role - performing is that jobs depend on erotic difference, which is normally hierarchical, polarizing, and oppressive. Sexual difference is the lands on which heterosexual roles are designed, and thus includes within it an inherently unequal syndication of power. In the relationship of the butch and femme, because the identities of both are designed on popular ethnical stereotypes of male and female behavior, they have a tendency to reinforce the inequality in electric power inherent in this dichotomy. In addition, in most cases one of the associates is lively, strong, prominent, and initiating whereas the other partner is passive, weak, submissive, and enduring. The partner who's dominating in this equation mimics the role of your men in a heterosexual marriage, whereas the passive, weakened and submissive characteristics participate in that of the female. Thus, because the butch- femme functions have the potential for being equally sexist as heterosexual tasks, they imitate the last mentioned, especially when discussing power relationships between two partners. (Weisman and Fernie)
According to Judith Roof's article, "The Match in the Crocus: Representations of Lesbian Sexuality, " the representations of lesbian sexuality in the dominant discourse often evoke the phallus by calling attention to its lack or substitution in erotic relations between women, such that it appears and seems necessary, at least symbolically, because of the inconceivability of sexuality with out a phallus present. Therefore, lesbians are often depicted as having appropriated the penis, masquerading as though they really had it, and thus presuming male privilege and behaving after it. This evokes the stereotypical image of the lesbians by phallocentric discourse and it is seemingly embraced by the lesbian community in the form of butch assignments. What Roof's evaluation makes possible is an understanding of the ways in which the dominating ideology has a vested interest to make the butch - femme role playing look like a mere imitation of heterosexuality, as a means of soothing male anxiety on the threat of feminine appropriation of male dominance. Thus, because the lack of the phallus requires them to achieve the balance through role learning, they merely are merely imitating the heterosexual norms.
Butch - femme jobs were particularly visible in the working-class lesbian club culture of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, where butch-femme relationships were typical, while butch-butch and femme-femme were taboo (Kennedy and Davis 244/81). A lot of the lesbian community been around primarily in bars, since we were holding the sole places where people could accumulate publicly, break the isolation of lesbian life, and develop both friendships and fan relationships (Kennedy and Davis 243/80). Just as in direct bars, "picking up" another enter lesbian pubs was often the reason for going to the get together. Although there are a few exceptions (like Nairobi in Forbidden Love who directed a rose to her desired person), the butch was typically the one who made the first move to the femme who just sat and searched pretty. This notion of the "male" butch needing to make the first move, replicates the role of an heterosexual guy who usually is the one to help make the first move at a golf club.
The objective of the butch was to meet and keep his femme safe (Weisman and Fernie). This reiterates the notion of one of the companions being in control, strong, and dominating, whereas the other is weak, and needs the assistance of your "man" to keep her safe (Weisman and Fernie). This should go together with the idea of the population that perceives women to be inferior compared to men because they need a man to provide for them. It was always the butch who endure the discrimination, and bashing to keep their "woman" safe. Further, "the butch is never attracted to another like herself. Rather, she is always drawn to a more female type of person" (Kennedy and Davis 251/84). This can be paralleled to the theory that heterosexual males are not said to be drawn to the same type of person, but of the contrary love-making. Therefore, though they want to show a discourse to heterosexual connections, the fact that society is mainly heterosexual subjected them to the widely known heterosexual structure.
The role participating in in the bedroom does not strictly and always follow pleasure being received only by one spouse. Similar to the making love life of heterosexual lovers butch and femme match each other within an erotic system where the butch was likely to be both giver and the doer (Kennedy and Davis 244/81), however not always. In simpler terms, as shown in "Forbidden Love" it was always the butch on top, and the femme on the bottom. Though this attained them a damage of taboo throughout the sexuality of lesbians, it can be used further by the idea that in the sex life of heterosexual lovers, the feminine is the one on the bottom, and the male is the one who is taking demand, and dominant, and therefore on top.
In contrast to a butch, a natural stone butch is a woman who is strongly masculine in figure and dress, tops her lovers sexually (and sometimes emotionally), and who does not wish to be handled genitally. Not absolutely all natural stone butches identify in female conditions; some are known to identify with male pronouns, while many stone butches do not identify themselves with lesbian or within the lesbian community. The spouse for a natural stone butch is a rock femme; a femme who bottoms sexually or who hopes never to touch the genitals of her natural stone butch partner. Furthermore, the characteristics of natural stone butches are available in many men, who want to pleasure, but do not expect anything in return; that is - to be total givers. These men get their "zing" from pleasuring their woman, equivalent to the role of the natural stone butch. (Weisman and Fernie)
By wearing the clothes of a man, the butches earn privileges that a heterosexual man could have. The femme, or the woman, who wears womanly clothes, doesn't have the same privileges of this of the guys. Putting on "manly" clothes provides a lot more mobility and flexibility to the butches, which parallels the liberation that heterosexual men get and their females do not. Moreover, the only path for women to attain self-reliance in work and travel and get away from passivity was to "pass" as men (Kennedy and Davis 245/81). Wearing "manly" clothes therefore also permitted these "men" to earn higher salaries and get better careers (Weissman and Fernie); similar to how getting a job was known to be a man's responsibility in the heterosexual framework.
Though there have been ongoing debates on the jobs of butch and femmes, there is absolutely no doubt that their role - playing imitates the functions that are noticeable in a heterosexual constitution. There are many reasons which may have compelled these lesbians into taking up these heterosexual identities; one being the recognition and presence of the role of females in a modern culture dominated by heterosexual notions of connections, and another being that taking up the "male" characteristics, was the only path to let the culture view their homosexual associations as somewhat heterosexual. Thus, butches and femmes got on the idea of the heterosexuals by imitating their masculine style of clothing, sex patterns, stratified positions and communal behaviours.
