I really wish butchhood wasn't conflated with being a protector so much, honestly.
I'm a very vulnerable butch. I'm chronically ill, invisibly physically disabled, and have a lot of mental health issues. My masculinity doesn't inherently make me more strong or powerful.
But there's a huge amount of butch culture built on butches being protective of femmes, or just being strong and working in very physically laborious jobs. It feels disheartening to be locked out of a major part of my culture, just because I'm disabled.
So here's to all the disabled butches who want, or are expected to, be strong because toxic masculinity has taught us the mascs are the protectors, but we can't be.
We're the ones who need people to slow down for us. We're the ones who need to sit down and catch our breath after walking a bit. We're the ones who need help. And that doesn't make us any less butch.
I’m really struggling with this lately. Over the last year and a half I went from reasonably abled to pretty seriously struggling with joint pain and muscle weakness and fatigue, plus whatever the hell other symptoms show up. I can’t do so much of what used to be my own expectations for myself, and it’s been really difficult to kind of figure out how I mesh with the reality of my ability now. This post is helpful, and I reread it when I’m feeling a kind of way about myself.
