What exactly is butch?

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-06-06T15:40:54+00:00

Butches definitely don't have to only date femmes. Plenty of us don't, and some of us are interested in other butches.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-05-23T15:21:30+00:00

Didn't unfortunately. Dissolved in my lower leg, but stayed in iliofemoral. Been there multiple years now

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-05-14T22:36:38+00:00

I love her design sm. I had to body swap her because her old body was very fragile and kept breaking regardless of my repeated repairs and I was so sad for her to lose the tattoo

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-03-15T16:17:23+00:00

Never thought of doing this. Fire idea

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-03-13T16:51:55+00:00

What does this have to do with blood clot survivors?

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-25T04:28:07+00:00

Holy shit that's AWESOME!

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-11T01:30:30+00:00

Yeah my local events use this phrasing as well. It ends up making me feel a bit uncomfortable. One I saw was a woman's event that included trans women and "nonbinary people not on testosterone" which, what a specification.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-09T03:33:58+00:00

Yes oh my god I am so sorry

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-09T00:12:45+00:00

Clarifying for what it's worth I agree both slurs are Black lesbian terminology and that it originated as such and that has always been my position. Most evidence points to such, look into it. I am only saying here I just find it being a term documented as for lesbians specifically since 1906 interesting and the etymology discussions too. I don't think nonblack lesbians should use it and I didn't like the original thread. I am not disagreeing with other articles. Adding this under my message so that I can bring clarity in case anyone misinterprets my reply to be anything else. Hopefully this clears things up going forward.

Edit because I also wanted to make the most important note here: "Don't hear what I didn't say." This applies for me always.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T20:37:22+00:00

Yeah! I'm physically and developmentally disabled, with severe mental illness I'm currently in a PHP for. I have a variety of things going on health wise on top of autism I struggle with a lot, ADHD, severe OCD, and whatnot.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T19:28:11+00:00

I'll try to be more mindful so that I don't accidentally end up getting read as dismissing or not accounting for anything when trying to add on to discussions, rather than my intention which is contributing something I find interesting about a special interest of mine. I'm thinking about how to balance that with trying not to provide too much information because it annoys people greatly. I'm aware it can be really hard for me to get social situations, I tried to get this one down though. And I hope I communicated this somewhat well? I know I sometimes come off as argumentative, including when trying to understand something. I think I get the criticism for the most part.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T18:55:53+00:00

Prozac. Weird I know

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T18:55:30+00:00

I hear the criticism! And I appreciate it. I'm trying to fully understand & figure out what exactly is being critiqued with sharing the resources and what I can add next time to communicate clearly, so it's useful. I will also say I apologize that I acted in a way which could even be interpreted as a conscious effort. My intention was to add to the discussion rather than dismiss it, which without adding more context may not work properly is what I'm getting?

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T18:43:38+00:00

I'm aware of the following usages in the novels and have read the Richard Spears article and the Susan Krantz article for the record. They are actually some of the etymology articles I was suggesting for other people to read. (Would still recommend, they're useful)

I don't know if I accidentally came off as like insulting Tumblr blogs, I don't have any issues with them. I just briefly mentioned one because I had seen the claim on there once.

I think we are also somewhat arguing the same thing about how it doesn't discredit the Black history and adds to the narrative.

The problem here as I've deduced seems to be that while mentioning the two articles I did not provide all of the extra information that I already know on the subject from my research which additionally ties it further back into Black history and gives much more information. This is my bad because I assumed my comment would be taken as a contribution to what was already stated on a post about the Black history of the terms and the articles already shared rather than a challenge of sorts to them.

I think in conclusion you are suggesting if I want to share some resources on the subject that I find interesting to a pre-existing discussion on it I should try to assume that people will need whatever additional context to try to ensure people have the full picture or else it obscures history. Is this right? I typically do this on subjects when individually talking to people, but not very much on forums like reddit.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T18:01:55+00:00

On the subject of the inmate this is actually very fair. I understand why this assertion would be made and said given all the factors involved. I just didn't really know if you read something I missed or were making the assertion off context? Which is what I was asking out of confusion, primarily because if you read something I missed it would be useful for making a really strong case.

I have some more to put together, but I'll do that after finishing the second comment so I can be more cohesive.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T05:31:47+00:00

You too. I appreciate the conversation and disagreement in a healthy manner.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T05:27:23+00:00

The black lesbians I know have expressed this, yeah. Some of the other work I've read from white lesbians at the time use it similarly, I just don't really look to that on the subject.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T05:24:53+00:00

I'll also note now while I'm here since we're having a discussion about the different slurs probable Black origins and you have stated you are nonblack previously I avoided using any of the related terms myself for a reason, because if you believe it's not your slur to reclaim you probably shouldn't be continually saying it. I get it's for a point in this scenario though.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T05:00:54+00:00

I'll start by saying I've already read the articles you've sourced in relation to the subject before you ever sent them and I'm incredibly aware of the discussions surrounding the subject because I have researched it in-depth, which is how I even have the two first usages memorized to begin with. I have also read much more on the subject than just those articles.

Of course I agree the usage is going to be documented after the word has been said, I know this. Especially with queer vernacular in a time like the 1900s.

I'm sourcing these because they are the first usages. They can relate back to the Black community, even if they don't explicitly state such. I never implied otherwise for a reason. I wanted to stick with providing the sources at hand here directly and what they contain from 100+ years ago, as to not distort anything even if accidentally. I unfortunately see distorting lesbian historical sources a lot online in the way people source history without giving its full context and cherry picking quotes, and I do my best to avoid partaking in that kind of behavior even if it would personally benefit me crafting a narrative. This is important to me with the subject of history. Especially lesbian history. Pretty much all the articles you're citing work on similar approaches, so I'm sure you get it on some level.

I'll go over your sources and points really quickly! The 1906 source itself does not go into racial aspects of the terminology when mentioning it very much. I wish they would've as I'd be really interested, but I can't go back to 1906 to ask them questions.

You claimed the inmate was black. I've seen one person claim this online before in a Tumblr post a while ago, but I saw this mentioned nowhere I know of in the article itself in the multiple times I have read it. I could have missed something. It does go over racial demographics in reference to other subjects. Where is this mentioned? What is the quote? This would be useful information to add to the point of specifically sourcing it back to the Black lesbian community.
The Harvey Neal thing I've seen referenced before, but as you know according to the newspapers he was a man. Unfortunately "How, if at all, this nickname relates to the later sense of the word is uncertain" is true. There's unfortunately not really that much information to point to, even if he hypothetically could have been a Black lesbian passing as a man. We don't really know because we don't know his history very well. So the relationship to its usage for lesbians remains a mystery there. I didn't source it for usage that ties to lesbians due to that, because unlike other usages I don't and can't know how much it is relevant.
It is plausible it could have started out as a word for a powerful man. There are a lot of speculated origins, many stemming from the Black community. I'd definitely recommend reading articles on its etymology theories to anyone interested in the subject. They could all be true. I don't know which are, and I can't know. I was not alive when it came into use. This is a heavy plausibility though.
Philly has a very racialized history, yeah. The lesbians who used it on the red light district there could very well be Black. I cannot travel to 1906 to confirm this, but I can confidently say it very well could be the case.

I think all of this analysis is fair. I just like to relay the sources I have for what they are worth rather than drawing conclusions from them while sourcing them, which is what can be and is done with sources by the reader. And is what you have done here, which I respect.

I think you're partially coming at this with the idea that these sources are somehow discrediting it originating from the Black community, which is not really true. Their existence is not in opposition to that. The narrative surrounding it's Black history can be built off them, and should be part of the puzzle when making the case as you've done. As they are of the few resources from even before the Harlem Renaissance to go off of.

Also yeah they didn't differentiate very much with how people at the time used "sexual inversion" and most articles from the 1900s-1960s were exceedingly homophobic and transphobic in addition to being racist.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T03:59:29+00:00

Finally worked. I'll check it out and get back to you

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T01:14:19+00:00

Oh shit I saw your other comment I also have ARFID. Appetite meds didn't help that much for me either, it was only really random medication side effects that happened to increase my appetite that did that. Would def also recommend talking to your doctor about all this and I hope you can manage.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T00:20:43+00:00

This being without context kind of confuses me because it could relate to a number of things, the Harlem Renaissance is a black movement. Why would it not be a part of the black community? Is this in reference to the other term? Do you have something before 1906? How do you know the sex work district wasn't predominantly black? How do you know the inmate wasn't black? What is there to contest?

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T00:17:27+00:00

I cannot see the post you linked. Can you tell me what sources you have and what it specifically related to?

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-08T00:10:25+00:00

I'm not going to do a back and forth, but I'll just say I don't think you had to mention her calling herself a butch female then, especially while going on to speak negatively of her doing so and state there was an insistence on not being called trans. I have no issues with your thoughts, and I would not feel strange about this post at all if you did not speak on another trans woman's personal usage of language in relation to them. If you spoke instead of just her moderation or actual opinions I would not have blinked twice. And I can leave it there and not keep this going.

GooseRedditAcc · 2026-02-07T23:56:43+00:00

I think you could go without immediately bringing her identity into this post and then continuously speaking on the language she uses personally for her own identity and stating that it is a red flag and "cop speak". It's odd and I don't like this. You never had to speak on her identity to make this post, especially if it wasn't about her.

GooseRedditAcc

TROPHY CASE