The 15 hottest butches

[trixtah]

...according to afterellen.com

We've all heard the stereotypes: Butch lesbians wear too much flannel, clunky shoes and suffer from an excess of bad hair (mullet, anyone?). But that stereotype, which reflects a broad cultural discomfort with masculinity in women, has another side: the erotic. For those who like their lovers to be more genderqueer than traditionally feminine, butches rock the house.

Yay them for doing this, although it's naturally US-centric. I'd even agree with the sequence, in the main (ETA: despite the incompleteness and inclusion of more andro types), although I really don't count "Shane" from the L Word as butch. And I'd say Ellen is waaaaay more butchy than Melissa Etheridge (whom I've always considered pretty low on the butch scale... I suppose compared to her girlfriends, maybe kinda).  But I do agree with their panel's view that Joan Jett is more to the fem side than not. I mean, of course - I wouldn't fancy her otherwise! Hee. (Actually, I have had one butch partner and one tomboy one - the former turned out to be a fruitcake, so we actually didn't break up because of a butch clash; the latter, well, that aspect did  become an issue, bizarrely).

It's just a shame that one of the criteria in the article seems to be how hot one looks in a "white ribbed top" - I'd score pretty low on that scale, myself - one needs to have a much flatter chest, or the shoulders to carry off the extra accoutrements. Alas, alack. Hopefully I compensate on the "handiness" score. And I have never never never had a mullet... although I might still have a flannel shirt knocking around somwhere.

Oh, oh, and a completely unrelated thing - I can has music! I succumbed to the Dark Side and bought an iPod. I think that Mac computers are overpriced for their features (unless you're a graphics designer), and it irks me that they lock down the hardware as well as  the software (where possible), but it must be said that Apple do an excellent job of interface design. I loaded Rockbox on it as soon as I plugged it into my computer (5 minutes, tops, including downloading the software), so it's now running a version of *nix, playing my non-DRM'd OGG files happily, it works like a normal USB storage device when plugged into a machine, and I get to play fun games on it at the same time. I find the sound isn't as good as my old iAudio, but the Rockbox interface gives a huge number of equaliser (hardware and software) tweaks, so hopefully I can smooth the rough edges off, given enough twiddling. And it's apparently got a Gameboy emulator included in the other goodies... so maybe I don't need to go out buying one of those as well (I've resisted this long!).

The nice thing is that the Rockbox doesn't blow away the Apple firmware, so it's entirely recoverable back to its factory settings.

Yay, technologeeez!

Comments

[grey-evil-twin.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I think we need to run that survey here. I know enough femmes to put together a panel.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'd get some more *real* butches being suggested. :-)

Old School Butches

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

No Vasquez? *lip trembles*

Re: Old School Butches

[grey-evil-twin.livejournal.com]

OMG YES!

These panelists must be youngies.

Re: Old School Butches

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

And hate sf. Bah.

Re: Old School Butches

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Oh, GOD, that's who they were missing! And someone else in something SFy that I don't watch... with blonde hair?

I knew there were some serious omissions, but since it's not normally the butches I'm checking out, nothing immediately sprung to mind. I am crap.

But yeah, I'll have to harass them on the Vasquez omission.

Re: Old School Butches

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, Starbuck!* What's wrong with this lot? There's Zoe from Farscape as well, I don't care if she's straight with long hair, she's the butchest butch who ever butched. I'm thinking there's a genre blindness going on.

*Admittedly, the bf tells me she's straight in canon. I don't believe a word of it.

[ironed_orchid]

Nice. although I'm not sure that looking hot in a white ribbed shirt ought to equate to flat chested. :(

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Heh, eek, no, I wasn't trying to imply flat-chestedness was the desired aim. But 39-year-old E-cup bazoombas aren't quite the optimum for that look either, I expect. :-)

[ironed_orchid]

You know, you are just asking to be dared to post pictures and let the audience decide ;-)

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

*nervous chortles*

Erm... alas, I don't have a white ribbed tank top. Yeah. What a shame. ;-)

[ironed_orchid]

::smirk::

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Since when does "flannel" equate to "butch"? (I grew up in US West Coast lumberjack country--to me at least, "flannel" maps more to "outdoorsy" on any gender/orientation and "cutesy" on femmy girlygirl types.)

Homebrew pride jewelry made from coloured electrical tape, OTOH--that DOES say "butch". *weg*

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Since when does "flannel" equate to "butch"?

ERM, everywhere else other than US West Coast lumberjack country, I expect? :-D Seriously, it's such a stereotype, and especially so in the 80s.

That coloured electrical tape thing sounds a bit "creative" though. Shouldn't we all be sporting tattoo'd labryses with a barbed wire motif? ;-)

[pretentiousgit.livejournal.com]

Aha ha ha haaa. OK, I liked one of them fine.

My not-so-secret shame: I owned a wool-flannel-plaid shirt, shrunk in the wash and handed down from my mother, until I was 18 and outgrew it. So much my favorite garment.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, if you haven't had one of those shirts, you aren't queer... no matter what gender you may be. ;-)

As for the selection of butches (although, I dunno, I'd classify maybe half of them as truly fitting the label), JJ is the only one I fancy. I thought Chloe Sevigny did a great job in the movie, and I really really want kd lang's wardrobe... well, as it as been in the last decade or so.

[pretentiousgit.livejournal.com]

Personally, I want someone to be able to make my hair and 5'3/5'4 Scots-descent frame fit the tall-and-lanky type that seems to be winning the highest accolades from these people. Wanted to be Shane forever!

But I concur. Most of them aren't really that butch.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Heh, I wouldn't mind a couple more inches myself, but I'm 5'6, so it's not that bad. I wouldn't like to aim for lanky so much. I like having muscles, and if you're too slender, it's not easy getting 'em.

[grey-evil-twin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Demi Moore in GI Jane.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's interesting. I read her as staunch toppy tough fem. I can certainly see where you're coming from, though.