Congratulations, Ellen and Portia!

I just finished reading Stone Butch Blues, so this wedding could not have come at a better time for me. For those of you who haven't read it, go out and buy it. Now. No joke. It's an extremely depressing but inspiring story of Jess, a stone butch turned FTM turned back to butch. The story is one that mirrors history. In wartime, butch women (and all women!) were accepted into the workforce. Jess found a niche of working class butches and femmes in the 60s as well as job availability in various factories, but when the feminist movement geared up and the war ended, she found herself jobless and reassessing her identity. In the 70s, Lesbianism was linked to the feminist movement. These "new" feminist-lesbians didn't need any men, and they certainly didn't agree with the "old" butch/femme lesbians, because they thought that was just reiterating and copying patriarchal society. So butches stuck in the middle of all this found themselves having to leave the only communities they've ever known and trying to make it by themselves, and with technology on the rise, some of them transitioned from female to male.

I knew about all of this before. Because I've read my lesbian herstory. But what I never thought about were those butches stuck in between. All you really learn about is how lesbianism used to be about butches and femmes, but then the feminist movement changed all that. But what about those butches and femmes? That's why you should read this book, yo.

So long story short, that sucks. I hope that we've reached a point in our community today (although I know we haven't) where we can accept the way anyone wants to live or love. To quote Athens Boys Choir "LGBTQILMNOP, Hell apples and oranges - they're all fruits to me."

Now watch this Team Gina video:





Anyway, I don't want to label anyone, because labels are something that people decide for themselves. I don't think that we should label all women who express a more masculine gender identity as "butch" unless they identify as butch. However, I think that Ellen and Portia are a lot more butch/femme than most high-profile lesbian couples. Portia wore a pink dress to the wedding, Ellen wore a pantsuit, Ellen got Portia an engagement ring, you catch my drift. They aren't butch/femme but they do express their gender identity differently. So while Ellen certainly isn't a bulldyke by any means, I'm glad that lesbian-feminists around the world don't just accept her, we LOVE her.



Congratulations, you two lovebirds!