
Tag: genderbox
dead dove do not eat
it’s hard to figure out how to view myself as maybe bisexual WITHOUT wanting to kill myself
i feel like i’m betraying everything and no one will want to talk to me anymore. and also that i’ll stop being a person. and also that if i was Nonbinary But Also Still A Lesbian In The Approveable Flattened Version Of Leslie Feinberg Manner that was still acceptable and interesting and ascribed to me some territory and value, but if not then i’m not anything anymore, i might as well give up and be a straight girl and then you know kill myself, which is the inevitable consequence of me being a straight girl.
eta: also, of course, men are terrifying and i only like three of them, and i’m not totally clear on why i’ve elected to do this to myself, it’s not like it’ll make anything easier and now i’ll just be boring and no one will like me
mountain goats gender of the day
maybe everything that falls down eventually rises
yesterday i had my first poetry class of the quarter with a prof i had last spring, who got thru the entire class roster, then said “i guess [L] isn’t here” and i, sitting directly across from him, was like “uh, hi.” this was of course bc of my new hair. he apologized, it was fine, then an hour later during the break he apologized to me again and i was like “no, it’s really ok, lots of people haven’t recognized me, it’s a pretty dramatic change”
and he goes “it’s a great look, though. you look just like ferris bueller”
which is the only good compliment i’ve EVER RECEIVED IN MY LIFE, js you all k
💚🐝🎀? (i had trouble deciding what was too/intrusive/shitty to ask about, so like, don’t answer any you don’t feel like answering!)
💚 who are you jealous of and why?
uh ok right now i am very envious of one specific friend because he is at [highly positive location] with [highly positive people] and i no longer am, and this is no fault of his or mine or anyone’s but still: rude.
i don’t know if i’m like, jealous of anybody, in the sense of feeling threatened by the possibility of having something of mine or a relationship taken away by someone else? i don’t have anything and anyone who can take anything from me deserves it more.
🐝 what’s your worst trait? how are you planning to improve it?
probably my most inconvenient trait is being avoidant about things that make me anxious, which just leads to really annoying issues because i’ve ignored a work thing or some paperwork or whatever and now its urgent and unpleasant instead of just unpleasant. i almost never blow deadlines, at least, which is why im not working harder on it, but it is very blatantly why i’m just not that good at my job, because once i actually show up to it i’m like, perfectly adequate, but i don’t… always show up. or metaphorically show up to the matlab scripts on my laptop, or whatever. i am mostly planning to improve that by overcoming my shame about it enough to talk about it so i am held more externally accountable, resulting in more deadlines and accordingly more productivity.
uhhhhh “worst” feels deeper than that though. the trait i hate the most about myself is something along the lines of “possessed of misdirected desire”, but that’s really just any desire that is not explicitly allowed and reciprocated/endorsed and even some of them that are, and at that point i think me hating that about myself is itself the pathology, not like, my experience of the human emotion of wanting. i plan to overcome that by……. dying someday? i also sometimes feel like my worst trait is the inverse of that, in that i am not totally willing to be completely physically, emotionally, and mentally available to everyone who might want me to be on the basis of their affection for me. that is probably not also an actually bad trait, although again, thinking it is…. might be.
uh. actually my worst trait is my sweeping judgmental dismissals of things, made almost entirely for entertainment value or aesthetic effect, which then lead people who like them to actually feel bad or judged. that’s just shitty! no one benefits, it just sucks, i at the least want to work harder at making obvious the unseriousness/potential malleability of a vast majority of my opinions so that people will be more able to discount me if they like.
🎀 what’s your fashion sense like?
uh, in flux due to gender, primarily. mostly i like looking sleek and put-together, androgynous, elegant, and mean. although i’ve also been aiming frequently for a sort of cozy casual butch thing recently. i like boots, jeans, leather jackets, black, dark grey, red, graphic tees with at most two colors and ideally an abstract joke about either furniture design or death, and wearing a plaid men’s shirt over another shirt while looking very subtly rumpled. the other thing i like is sheer, gauzy tops/robes with ridiculous floral patterns that i can wear over a thing that is ambiguously either a sports bra or a binder. you know, very #nondenominational gay.
“BUTCH is an environmental portraiture project and exploration of the butch aesthetic, identity and presentation of female masculinity as it stands in 2013-14. It is a celebration of those who dwell outside of the stringent social binary that separates the sexes and a glimpse into the private and often unseen spaces of people who exude their authentic sense of self.
In recent years, like so many other pejorative terms used to oppress minorities, BUTCH is being reclaimed and infused with beauty and pride to more accurately describe a person who claims their female masculinity. These people may choose to cut their hair short, may wear ties, or may swagger with more strength than coyness. BUTCH is an adjective. And like all adjectives, it is fluid and subjective. Just as there are many types of hot women, there are many types of butches.
These portraits are of the people I know in the San Francisco Bay Area who relate to and claim the term BUTCH. These people are my friends, friends of friends, and are part of a very large gay and queer community world wide. Starting in the spring of 2013, in a effort to practice portraiture, I asked some of my closest butch friends to risk being seen by the lens and sit for me in their private environments. After printing and displaying my first three portraits, I realized I wanted a whole wall of these images. The wall turned into a room and the room into an online gallery. I then wondered what would it have been like to grow up surrounded by these images in addition to the ubiquitous feminine I saw in most magazines. …”
“BUTCH is a celebration of those who choose to exist and identify outside of this binary that has never allowed any accepted crossover. BUTCH is inviting viewers into private lives of female masculinity and suggesting a resilience in nature’s insistence that there is more depth to masculinity and femininity than societal norms care to entertain. Who is policing gender presentation, and why? The fashion world has been asking the same question for ages. Are we ready for the answers now? It is undeniable that we are born with the sex organs that we are born with, but why are so we threatened by what others choose to claim as their gender presentation? Are we ready for these explanations? Or are we more afraid of the question?
BUTCH is an exploration. BUTCH exists. BUTCH is an homage to the bull-daggers, dykes, manly women and female husbands before me. BUTCH is acceptance to the baby butches, young studs, gender queers, and dykes that continue to bloom in the face of societal norms.”
We’ve reblogged this site many times before, but it’s a wonderful gallery and the photographer is still adding to BUTCH 2. Sometimes when I’m feeling down, I browse through all the photos and feel reassurance in seeing people who look like I do, reminding me I’m not alone. A must-see for all butches.
-Mod Holland
hey who has butch swimwear recs esp if i’m trying not to pay flannel tax



















