‘Masculinity’ in lesbian discourse? The case of butch and femme

1. ‘Masculinity’ in lesbian discourse? The case of butch and femme Lucy Jones lucy.jones@hull.ac.uk

2. Introduction • Can ‘masculinity’ exist in isolation from men? • Is what lesbian women do in conversation really ‘masculinity’? • Conversation between a community of practice (CoP) of lesbian women • AIMS: unpick the indexical links between apparently ‘butch’ behaviour and hegemonic ‘masculinity’

3. Butch identity and masculinity (1) • ‘Mannish’  ‘butch’ • Butch is “a category of lesbian gender that is constituted through the deployment and manipulation of masculine gender codes and symbols” (Rubin 1992: 467) • Achieved through the use of “masculine identifiers” (Inness 1997: 185) • Shows women “disrupting and decentering heterosexual masculinity” (Wilton 1995: 104)

4. Butch identity and masculinity (2) • Gender order: non-feminine = acting like a man • Butch: acting like a man? Or acting like a lesbian? • Masculinity: being a man • Competition and hierarchy (Kiesling 1997, 2002) • Heterosexuality (Pujolar 1997) • Misogny (Bucholtz 1999) • “animated by entirely traditional anxieties about being seen at all times as red-blooded heterosexual males: not women and not queers.” (Cameron 1997: 62)

5. Theoretical framework • Lesbian women found to use lesbian stereotypes to construct shared, meaningful identity (Morgan and Wood 1995, Queen 2005, Morrish and Sauntson 2007, Jones 2011) • Sociocultural linguistics (Bucholtz & Hall 2005): • Identities are constructed in interaction; stereotypes and ideologies are reworked within that interaction • Personae constructed within interaction – relevant to shared experience (ethnographic level) and broader sociocultural context

6. The Sapphic Stompers • British lesbian hiking group: typically women in their late fifties to early sixties, feminists, identified as butch or androgynous • Jones (in press): the women used discursive strategies to position themselves and others in line with ‘authentic’ or ‘illegitimate’ personae that they themselves constructed • Dyke (authentic) or Girl (inauthentic) • The interaction: • Claire, Marianne, Sam and Lucy (Author) • Makeup negotiated re: construction of authentic lesbian identity

7. Rejecting lipstick • Collaborative stance against makeup • Generational experience • Positions makeup as an inauthentic resource for lesbians of their generation (lines 4-6) • Queering heteronormative concept of lipstick • Unattractive rather than sexually appealing (line 9) • Clear distinction between lesbian women and straight women • Lipstick: accessible symbol of heteronormative femininity

8. Shifting stances towards authenticity • Marianne’s attempt to shift the group’s stance • Use of hedging • Failure to change the group stance; shifts her own stance • Lipstick is ‘quite nice actually’ (line 19)  lipstick is ‘a bit horrible actually’ (line 26) • Why does Marianne’s attempt fail? • Strong ideological link between makeup and femininity • Strong link between makeup and patriarchy • Reveals the salience of rejecting symbols of heteronormative femininity in the construction of a butch identity.

9. Indexing a butch persona • Claire (line 21 onwards): • ‘Put your foot down’ • Indexes dykey/butch persona • Direct index: domineering/controlling • Indirect index: butch, in contrast to femme • Draws on prevalent ideologies of masculinity and femininity to construct a specifically lesbianstance: • Masculinity may have an indexical relationship to butch, but not necessarily a direct correlation

10. Conclusions • Butch is about more than taking on masculine signifiers or role-playing a male identity • Butch is an alternative style of womanhood • Butch is not a non-female identity • One can reject femininity without rejecting femaleness • Masculinity is about all things associated with hegemonic manliness, • Butch is about all things associated with stereotypical lesbianism. • Butch is a valuable resource for queer identity construction

11. ‘Masculinity’ in lesbian discourse? The case of butch and femme Lucy Jones lucy.jones@hull.ac.uk