Episode #16 - Is "Butch" Endangered?

Wow! It was one of the most intense podcasts I ever heard. Thank you for bringing up such an up-to-date topic and for such an interesting conversation and guests. Very interesting! Makes you muse over things modern community is going through.

I'd like to hear womyn calling each other something other than "guy", the weird cultural norm these days. It sucks! Womyn are womyn, and I appreciate the ftm folks to respect womyn's space - for we are still working on dismantling the patriarchy. And until that is done, and we, as a society have more than 2 sexes to pick from, let's have the ftm's work on supporting all womyn. Can you say Male privilege! Butch womyn are very supportive to the womyn's community I believe.

As a butch dyke-identified transwoman (yes, we do exist), I could appreciate both sides in your well-conducted interview. There were two points that were glossed over, however. The first is that the trans people comprise such a tiny percent of the population (less than 0.1% vs. the 10% that gays and lesbians are). In other words, cisgendered (non-trans) people outnumber trans people 100 to 1. The other point is that for transgender people, the decision to transition isn't a whim. Gender dysphoria is pervasive and intense. To tell transmen not to change their bodies makes as much sense as telling lesbians to stop having sex with women. So many of society's problems, including sexism, racism, and homophobia, would go away if we all just learned to treat each other with more respect and be willing to see things from another's perspective.

..great stuff all very entertaining ..

Cisgender queers outnumber transgender queers 100 to 1 I assume you were meaning. Yeah, I think SF is unusual in that there'd be a greater proportion/concentration of trans queers (increased safety and support, for one), but looking at other places, this is really not the case, and I think you'd have to feel pretty paranoid to think cis butch women were endangered. However, I do think that there is a more prevalent linking of male with masculine (as in the str8 world) in dyke communities now than there was some time ago, and some see butch as naturally having aspects of the male gender. Whereas there are many (older?) butch women who absolutely insist that masculinity is an independent concept from maleness, fiercely against the face of the world insisting that you must really be male, a straight male, in order to be butch, there are many who link maleness and masculinity together. So we have a clash of beliefs about gender. Both sides insist they are the more radical and distanced from mainstream notions of gender.

Cisgender queers outnumber transgender queers 100 to 1 I assume you were meaning. Yeah, I think SF is unusual in that there'd be a greater proportion/concentration of trans queers (increased safety and support, for one), but looking at other places, this is really not the case, and I think you'd have to feel pretty paranoid to think cis butch women were endangered. However, I do think that there is a more prevalent linking of male with masculine (as in the str8 world) in dyke communities now than there was some time ago, and some see butch as naturally having aspects of the male gender. Whereas there are many (older?) butch women who absolutely insist that masculinity is an independent concept from maleness, fiercely against the face of the world insisting that you must really be male, a straight male, in order to be butch, there are many who link maleness and masculinity together. So we have a clash of beliefs about gender. Both sides insist they are the more radical and distanced from mainstream notions of gender.

Cisgender queers outnumber transgender queers 100 to 1 I assume you were meaning. Yeah, I think SF is unusual in that there'd be a greater proportion/concentration of trans queers (increased safety and support, for one), but looking at other places, this is really not the case, and I think you'd have to feel pretty paranoid to think cis butch women were endangered. However, I do think that there is a more prevalent linking of male with masculine (as in the str8 world) in dyke communities now than there was some time ago, and some see butch as naturally having aspects of the male gender. Whereas there are many (older?) butch women who absolutely insist that masculinity is an independent concept from maleness, fiercely against the face of the world insisting that you must really be male, a straight male, in order to be butch, there are many who link maleness and masculinity together. So we have a clash of beliefs about gender. Both sides insist they are the more radical and distanced from mainstream notions of gender.