#butchpansy

[abracadaze]

I made a pride flag for myself that I wanted to share :] this is the PANSYBUTCH or BUTCHPANSY pride flag! It is primarily for gender but can also describe sexuality. It's a combination of the term butch (queer experience of masculinity) and pansy (effeminate and/or queer man; historically derogatory, it is being reclaimed in this context).

The pansybutch identity means you connect with both queer masculinity (possibly queer masculine femininity) and queer feminine masculinity. Pansybutches may enjoy being perceived as both a masculine woman and a feminine man or presenting in a way that confuses onlookers as to whether they are a butch woman or a gay man. Pansybutch can be your gender, or it can be a general gender identity descriptor. The only prerequisite to identifying with the pansybutch label is some level of gender non-conformity; nonbinary, multigender, genderqueer, genderfluid, two-spirit, etc people can use it, and gnc binary gendered people can use it as well.

As a sexuality label, I personally imagine it being used by genderqueer people who experience both sapphic and achillean (MLM/NBLM) attraction, but I am open to any m-spec people using it and even queer monosexual people if they want.

The design of the flag is simple: pansies overlaid onto the butch flag. The first, second, fifth, and sixth images use the inclusive butch flag created by @gendertreyf. The third, fourth, seventh, and eighth use the butch flag created by @butchspace, which may be lesbian- or WLW/NBLW-specific, I’m unsure (I've reached out and am waiting for an answer).

Feel free to use this flag and identity if it speaks to you! Please credit me, as I did coin the term and drew the pansies myself :] I would love to hear from those who are interested in this identity, and please feel free to reach out with any questions.

In depth discussion of symbolism below the cut because this post got super long!

The meanings of the colors used in gendertreyf's butch flag can be found here, and butchspace's can be found here. The pansy at the center is purple because of the association of queer people with the color purple (violets being a historical WLW symbol, and lavender being a color associated with both gay men and lesbians). I chose the other two pansy colors at random because I wanted a nice contrast, but apparently yellow flowers and blue flowers can represent friendship and trust, respectively, which I find fitting.

The pansy itself is obviously a reference to the term pansy, which has been used to refer to queer and gender non-conforming men for decades (as well as drag queens in the 1930s). The etymology of pansy in this usage is somewhat unknown. Pansy has historically been a disparaging term, but some queer people, including myself, are choosing to embrace and reclaim it. Though not as prominent as the ubiquitous rose, pansies are symbols of love and have been seen throughout history as aphrodisiacs (the magical love elixir in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is made from a flower referred to as "love-in-idleness," a term for the wild pansy).

I came up with this term when thinking about my own gender and sexuality. It's inspired by the term butch twink, which I somewhat identified with for awhile before realizing the term twink isn't super accurate for me. I actually started thinking about the term pansy as an alternative because of this meme:

Thank you for reading this far if you did :] I hope my silly little flag makes someone out there happy!