#faetality.bipoc

[knightfaetality]

‘A Femme in Butch Clothing’ in The Femme Mystique

—by Kitty Tsui

Kitty Tsui you are that 90s Chinese immigrant butch who will forever be my idol, thank you for being so visibly you and having an unforgettable presence in the scene. Thank you for showing the world what it means to you to love a Chinese femme, and what it could be like to be loved as a Chinese femme. ❤️

[knightfaetality]

— Nice Chinese Girls Don’t: Kitty Tsui

In Nice Chinese Girls Don’t, Kitty Tsui recounts her emergence as a poet, artist, activist, writer, and bodybuilder in the early days of the Women’s Liberation Movement in San Francisco. She narrates her experience of arriving to the States as an immigrant from Hong Kong by way of her own original poetry and stories.

Tsui wrote the groundbreaking Words of a Woman Who Breathes Fire, the first book written by an Asian American lesbian. She is considered by many to be one of the foremothers of the API, Asian Pacific Islander, lesbian feminist movement.

In 2018, APIQWTC, Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women & Transgender Community honored her with the Phoenix Award for lifetime achievement. In 2019, her alma mater, San Francisco State University inducted Tsui into the Alumni Hall of Fame. Her forthcoming books include Nice Chinese Girls Don’t, Battle Cry: Poems of Love & Resistance, and Fire Power: Poems of Love & Resilience. Tsui currently lives in Oakland, California, and is writing a screenplay, Unmasked.

[knightfaetality]

Sinomisandry, Sinomisogyny, Sinophobia, Xenophobia

Yes it is fucking weird that whatever you call a soft masc, feminine, dainty/delicate, androgynous, performative man and someone who “is not butch enough”—are just people who are emulating East Asian culture, trends and aesthetics. Or they’re East Asian people themselves.

It is fucking weird that you insult people who have yellow fever, not by calling out yellow fever but by further denigrating and infantilising Asian people and talking about their genitals. Or when you respond to an Asian person discussing a new love interest by saying “they probably have Yellow fever”.

It is fucking weird that you’re discussing how “Asian people are everyone’s preferences” without addressing Asian fetishism and Orientalism and how it has contributed to sexual violence, sexual slavery, shootings, the internalised stigmas contributing to underreporting and the belief that Asian people ask for it and are receptive to sexual attention.

It is fucking weird that you look at an Asian person’s body and names and start picking out which traits you want. And arguing it can’t be harmful or dehumanising because either it is just the beauty industry or it is gender affirming care [cis and trans people do engage in gender affirming care]. When these traits have been the same ones picked out by attackers as sexy to them and deserving for their taking, that they make an Asian person “good enough to be raped”.

It is fucking weird to be telling me that your whiteness is scary and ugly and masculine, and that’s why you want to adopt Asian features incl. posting clearly sexualised Asian fems in modified traditional attire as your “ideal type”.

Yes it’s weird when you see an Asian fem with curves and say that it’s probably fake, while at the same time idealising her body. When you tell an Asian femme, “white mascs / men will like you” because she is small, hairless, or flat-chested.

And no it is not progressive to go “you’re not my type” when you meet an Asian femme. No it is not fucking progressive to tell me you’d be willing to watch porn to re-assess your sexual attraction to an Asian person. Or that you have a preference for Asian people, or that you haven’t “tried Asian” before.

Yeah it is absolutely disgusting when you pinpoint the way an Asian person incorporates their Asian heritage and reclamations into their style, and you say “I want that”, as if it is a costume and accessory to take and discard whenever you want.

Yes it is completely out of line to say that an Asian person has denounced their culture when they reject your help and/or your advances, when they’re being assertive, argumentative, passionate, emotional or even, emotionally distant. When you’re extra punishing towards an Asian person for displaying these but give every other race a pass.

Yes it is weird when you say “you’re so attractive, you must be Japanese or Korean” to any Asian person, and when they tell you they’re SEAsian or Chinese, you look fucking shocked.

Some of you are fucking disgusting towards Asian people. You take and take and take from our culture and features, you hyperfeminise and sexualise us. As if Asian culture hasn’t been sufficiently exploited and when it’s brought up, you dismiss it as your right as a queer, feminist and progressive person.

And no IDGAF that you’re a leftist, why do yall keep talking about communism, kpop, nail salons and immigrant rights whenever you see me? 🤨

[knightfaetality]

The African American History of Dyke, B.D, Bulldagger, Bulldyke & Bulldiker.

As a non-Black POC, I do not presume to know Black American Queer history better than any other Black American Queer individual. This is a write-up from findings collected overtime. Due to the rising ignorance and territoriality towards who gets to claim these terms esp. in white-dominated butch/femme and lesbian forums, a friend who identifies as a Black femme fish encouraged me to finish this post I’d been working on since Oct 2025. I welcome audiences to study and learn from Black American Queer creators. Banner Credits @uzmacchiato

I pay my respects to Black American queers and elders past and present, and the importance of Black American queer history. Credit is owed heavily to @ursinefutchass , @bodiesbodiesbodiesx3 and @stemmehistorian from whom I learned and encountered Black American queer history to begin this write-up—the last blogger has a trove of Black American queer history, which I encourage everyone to visit and learn from (though please do not expect them to do intellectual labour for you. You should be doing self-directed research and education as well).

For anyone studying up on their terms, keep in mind that slang terms typically come into usage first, then are popularised later. Written forms are historical evidences that would come later/after the fact of a term’s first oral use.

In uncolonising vocabulary, we are required to do our research in non-white history and communities when quoting sources. Uncolonisation requires cross-contextualising surviving history, responsibly crediting BIPOC culture and history to return agency to our narratives, and read white-dominant history or white-authored history with a mountain of salt. Otherwise we become ineffectual historians upholding white supremacy in heavily white-washed history.

As an Asian QTPOC, I call on my Asian QTPOC siblings to uphold BIPOC solidarity by ensuring that the pivotal role of Black American queers in the making of American queer history and its influence internationally, are not forgotten.

Introduction: Black-American Queer History IS American Queer History

My interest to research began with doubting many older white butches and femmes whose retelling of queer history was often missing QTBIPOC perspectives, while treating QTBIPOC as “guests” in queer spaces “traditionally white”, dependent on the benevolence of white “hosts”. Much of it features white-washed cherry-picked "evidences" on this history, accompanied by the vehemence surrounding how "butch" "femme" "dyke" can or cannot be used, was echoed by other white butch and femme queer elders who often told queer history with an astounding absence of QTBIPOC presence, save for the few legacy names from Stonewall.

When I searched further, I encountered Black queer blogs that spoke about the history of 'Butch' as a Black American term, one that held significant meaning to Black and Latin American Ballroom history. This was stated [here].

Another massive hole in the Lesbian Exclusivist’s defenses lies in the creeping plague that is the Mainstream White Gay; it lurks insidiously, hauling along the mangled tatters of culture that was stolen from Queer and Trans People of Colour (QTPOC).

In many documents, examples provided of Sapphic intimacy are almost always offered from the perspective of white cis women, leaving huge gaps where women of color, whether trans or cis, and nonbinary people were concerned. This is the case despite the fact that some of the themes we still celebrate as integral to queer culture were developed by Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ folk during the Harlem Renaissance, which spanned approximately from 1920 to 1935. A question I can’t help but ask is: Where do queer Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color fit into the primarily white butch/femme narrative? Does it mean anything that the crackdown on Black queer folk seemed to coincide with the time period when mainstream lesbianism adopted butch and femme as identifiers?

Photos taken from The Aggressives (2005)

[...] Black women often identify as WLW (Women-Loving-Women), and use terms like “stud” and “aggressive femme.” Some Asian queer women use “tomboy” instead of butch.  [...] Paris is Burning, a documentary filmed about New York City ball culture in the 1980s, describes butch queens among the colourful range of identities prevalent in that haven of QTPOC queerness. Despite having a traditionally masculine physique, the gay male butch queen did not stick to gender expectations from straight society or gay culture. Instead, he expertly twisted up his manly features with women’s clothing and accessories, creating a persona that was neither explicitly masculine nor feminine. Butch Queens Up in Pumps, a book by Marlon M. Bailey, expounds upon their presence within inner city Detroit’s Ballroom scene, its cover featuring a muscular gay man in a business casual shirt paired with high heels. Despite this nuance, butch remains statically defined as a masculine queer woman, leaving men of color out of the conversation. For many QTPOC, especially those who transcend binary gender roles, embracing the spirit of butch and femme is inextricable with their racial identity. Many dark-skinned people are negatively portrayed as aggressive and hypermasculine, which makes it critical to celebrate the radical softness that can accompany femme expressions. Similarly, the intrinsic queerness of butch allows some nonbinary people to embrace the values and aesthetics that make them feel empowered without identifying themselves as men.

@stemmehistorian also had some posts which guided me into being more curious about the Black sapphic terminology history, and mentioned 'bull dyke':

Respondents used stud, boi, soft/feminine stud, soft butch, butch, AG/aggressive, and bull dyke to refer to women who adopted more masculine behaviors and mannerisms that are traditionally assumed to be ‘unnatural’ for a woman. In other words, these lesbians were described in a way that seemed as though they embodied “masculinity.” These labels were used to describe 'abnormal' or inappropriate ways of behaving for women, and there were many more labels for these deviant ways of behaving than for those that conform to the heteronormative ideals of femininity. The large difference in the number of masculine labels than feminine labels suggests that labels are informed by heteronormative assumptions of gender. If something is normal, then it need only limited description because it is assumed to be ‘natural’ in its existence. However, if something is abnormal, numerous and in-depth descriptions are necessary to explain what and why the abnormality has occurred. -- [blog] [Labelling, Butch, Femme Dyke Or Lipstick, Aren't All Lesbians The Same?: An Exploration Of Labels And "Looks" Among Lesbians In The U.S. South, Danielle Kerr, (2013)]

Samantha: I feel like butch is more classified to the White people, malelooking females. Jessica: No, that’s Black. Black older people use that term, too, or bull dagger. Samantha: Yes, bull dagger and all that, but I still feel like stud is more African American related. Jessica: Yes, stud is more of an African American term. [blog] [Race, Age, and Location Influences Perception, Labelling, Butch, Femme Dyke Or Lipstick, Aren't All Lesbians The Same?: An Exploration Of Labels And "Looks" Among Lesbians In The U.S. South, Danielle Kerr, (2013)]

This led me to look into [Etymonline, dyke] and [Etymonline, bull-dyke].

If dyke was presumed to have originated from bull-dyke, then (out of spite against Rawson's frankly obnoxious description) I wanted to look deeper into the accuracy of the timeline in which both terms were popularised.

‘Bulldyker/diker/dyke/dike/dagger’ and ‘B.D Women’ are Black cultural terms. Black queer people, creators and writers today, have stated it is still used by some young Black masculine lesbians and was popular amongst their queer elders.

Some say 'Bulldyker' was first used by a Black lesbian from Harlem prison, while others claim it stems from the history of enslaved Black men, who were referred to by white slave owners, as Bucks, Bulls, Stallions and Studs.

@bodiesbodiesbodiesx3 , a Black-Asian Tumblr user, explained the history behind Bulldyking and Bulldyke as AAVE recorded in the early-20th century, with the earliest usage dating in the 1890s. As well as how it became popularised here [source]. They also answer an ask [here] regarding the 1921 use of “Bulldiking around” as referring to lesbian sex in Harlem prison, used by a Black inmate.

This is corroborated also by this [Greatist article] by Gabrielle Kassel (2024), referencing Lichenstein p.373.

[Bulldyke Blues: Proud Black Lesbianism] (2021) by Gabriella Pomales ;

The term "dyke", a reclaimed slur and frequent self identifier for many lesbians, that we know today originated from the word "bulldyke", short for "bulldagger", which came about during the Harlem Renaissance - a period known for imaginative experimentation and "freedom". This identifier was an intersectional response to homophobia, racism, and sexism. Bulldyke artists used this word to "steal" white privilege and take back masculinity all while "accumulating power and cultural capital". It's important to highlight the lesser known history behind common terminology to not only preserve history but rewrite all that is incorrect.

This [Medium Article] (2022) by Meagon Nolasco ; “Dyke hit the ground running in the 1920s. The term bulldike or bulldiking was coined by African American queer women to identify themselves in the community. The term was commonly used to refer to more masculine-presenting queer women.”

1892 Oldest Recorded Written Usage of 'Bulldyke'

The OLDEST recorded written usage of 'Bulldyke' was in 1892, published in a news article “A N*gress Runs Amuck.” in the Chicago’s Daily Inter Ocean about a shooting in Decatur in Illinois. Before it became a communally racialised term, it was firstly the alias used by a Black person named Harvey Neal, who was known to Hattie Washington, a “coloured woman”. [Source, Green’s Dictionary of Slang.]

“With the idea of killing off a portion of the women in the levee district Hattie Washington [sic], a colored woman, started out at 6:30 o’clock yesterday afternoon with a big revolver in her hand. She went to Blanche Alexander’s place on Custom House place in search of Belle Watkins, who, she said, had won the affections of Harvey Neal, alias “Bulldyke.” Belle got wind of her coming, and made her escape, but as soon as the woman got inside of the house she began firing right and left.”

The same paper on 12 November 1892 ran a short note about Hattie Washington, out on bail, stabbing Harvey Neal with a small knife. On 24 September 1893, in the article “Stole Valuable Papers” the same paper reports Washington being arrested again for pickpocketing. [ Source, WordOrigins Blog ]

Now even if you didn’t research more sources, while race was unspecified, “coloured” was often associated with being Black or else a general term for anyone non-white. There was also state-sanctioned segregation in the 1890s. Interracial relations in the Anglosphere (US, UK, Aus, Canada) has historically and notoriously faced legal consequences and violent reactions by white society, especially in the South of USA. Even up till the present, albeit to lesser frequency. It is therefore an educated guess that both Harvey Neal and Hattie Washington, were of Black ethnicity.

But if you HAD researched more, you’d find the following, from an exchange between linguists in the American Dialect Society of the University of Georgia, Fred Shapiro and Dave Wilton, the latter being the author of the Word Origins blog. It states Neal to be a Black man, and adds the caveat that Neal could also be a lesbian passing as a man.

““Neal is confirmed to be male here (or if a lesbian passing as male, they were incredibly successful at it): “Celestial and N*gro Quarrel." Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), 26 May 1896, 8/6. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers. “Harvey Neal, colored, and Chin Wy, of Celestial extraction, were the participants in a brawl at Polk and Clark streets Sunday night. The trouble arose from a statement made by the Chinaman, who branded Neal as a backslider. Some time ago the two men were engaged in the hop joint business.”” As I mentioned in the Wordorigins.org article, it's plausible that "bulldyke" started out as an epithet for a powerful man and later transferred to lesbians who had traditionally masculine characteristics and gender roles.” [ Source, American Dialect Society ]

This means the term ‘Bulldyke’ still originates by and from a Black person, has been and always shall be rooted in Black self-autonomy and identity.

In colonial psychopathological history, most authors did not distinguish between gender non-conformity and sexual non-conformity. All were grouped under “sexual inversion”. Until 1910 when Magnus Hirschfeld, a German scientist, separated homosexuality from cross dressing, and “transvestic fetishism” from transgender experiences.

1906 Second Oldest Recorded Usage of 'Bulldyker', in Philadelphia

The second oldest recorded written usage of ‘Bulldyke’ was in 1906 by J. Parke ‘Human Sexuality’, which was more in line with queer subjects.

“In American homosexual argot, female inverts, or lesbian lovers, are known euphemistically as “bulldykers,” whatever that may mean: at least that is the sobriquet in the “Red Light” district of Philadelphia.”

The above quotation is from a note to the following in the main text:

“In all large cities there are coteries of these inverts. In Vienna, according to Krafft-Ebing, they call themselves “sisters,” in other places “aunts,” the same writer stating that two very masculine prostitutes, in the city named, who lived in perverse sexual relations with each other, had informed a correspondent that the name “uncle” was applied to women of a similar character.” [ Source, Human Sexuality p.309, 1906 ]

Searching up the terms ‘Black’ or ‘N*gro’ in this paper, it pulls some finds. Given that this is a psychoanalytic paper of its time, bewarned is filled to the brim with homophobia, racism, classism, and the psychopathologising of race and sexuality. So do read with caution. You can read more about the Philadelphia Red Light district from p.310 in this white author’s POV, onwards.

While some people quote this and assume this means ‘Bulldyke’ was not racialised, I would advise crosschecking historical sources about Philadelphia and the red light district there to ensure you’re not erasing BIPOC American history.

Where ‘Bulldyker’ circulated as a sapphic term in Philly, emerged primarily in Black cultural movements and was attested as Black American vernacular, it is likely that the term made its way through the Black American communities of the red light districts due to white supremacist oppression, segregated ethnic enclaves and anti-miscegenation dynamics in the sex trade.

1900s The History of Philadelphia

Philadelphia has historically been known as home to the Black community, and has an extremely racialised history as it was the nearest free city to the South where many formerly enslaved Black persons had moved from. While some Black Philadelphians went on to find economic success and professions as teachers, ministers and entrepreneurs, history shows that white workers found employment in the city’s industrial sector whereas free Black people were largely excluded from such employ. Thus their options were often to work as physical labourers and in the low-status service economy. [ Source, Free Black Communities ]

Photos taken from [Philadelphia Black History—Reconstruction Era, 1861-1900]

Philadelphia has a significant Black History regarding the Reconstruction Era, (1861-1900) and in Black Power political organizations including the founding of the Black People's Unity Movement (BPUM) in 1965, and Philadelphia being home to a very active chapter of the Black Panther Party, especially in fighting for Black women's rights.

In the 21st century, Philadelphia has been recorded to be a Black-dominant city as the largest ethnic group presence, at 40% for the last 10 years. Here are more census data, including how Black Philadelphians view the city [Source, Pew.org] To note, its downtown has been known as Philadelphia’s Gayborhood since it took shape in the post-WWII mid-20th century. [Source].

Images taken from [Source] and [Source]

Philly’s downtown was once historically infamous for its vice trade in the 19th century onwards, as evidenced in the 1849 pamphlet [“A Guide to the stranger, or Pocket companion for the fancy, : containing a list of the gay houses and ladies of pleasure in the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection.”] It had a prominent vice trade with several vice districts and an expansive network of brothels and streetworkers in the 1800—1920s. [Source, Will History Forget Philadelphia’s Sex Workers?]

“Prostitution remained an important source of employment for women whose wages as seamstresses, waitresses, domestics, and even department store clerks were rarely enough to support them. While some women had “friends” who helped support them, others relied exclusively on prostitution. Vice districts were a lucrative and well-advertised component of the city’s mainstream economy and employed many hundreds of women. By the 1890s, two sizable vice districts had emerged to bracket Philadelphia’s downtown, one along South Street, the other north of Market Street, between Ninth and Eleventh Streets.” [Source, Philadelphia Encyclopedia]

[Kahan’s paper “There are Plenty of Women on the Street”: The Landscape of Commercial Sex in Progressive-Era Philadelphia, 1910 - 1918”] states;

“The “Tenderloin” neighborhood was indeed a very important site for commercial sex, especially for native-born whites. Repression of prostitution in that neighborhood, particularly as part of U.S. military policy during World War I, caused a portion of the prostitution business to migrate to Market Street, Philadelphia’s primary department store district, where another heterosexual practice, “treating,” provided cover that made prostitution increasingly difficult to distinguish. Finally, a third area of commercial sex activity in the African American neighborhood of the Seventh Ward continued to operate throughout this period, attracting relatively little notice.”

Images taken from [source]

‘The Tenderloin’ hosted Chinatown which was primarily occupied by Chinese Philadelphians then consisting of mostly Chinese men of migrant status. It was filled with pool rooms, saloons, gambling dens, opium dens and brothels, which added to its Orientalised vice associations. [Source, Philadelphia Encyclopaedia Org] . The 300 Tenderloin brothels contained primarily white women who served upper-class clientele. 

Important in this context is that miscegenation was verboten and had unspoken legal, social and commercially-devaluing repercussions for especially non-white clients and white SW. Thus disincentivising interracial sex trade. Source and Source, Penn State University. Furthermore, while the 19th century nationwide sex work industry was multi-racial, many were of African American descent. Source, Capitalism by Gaslight .

The second vice district was the area in the Seventh Ward, which coincided with a large African American settlement. South Street and Blackberry Alley were located here too. 

A Humanities paper published in 2015-16 titled [“Ill-Fame on Blackberry Alley: Prostitution and Sport in 19th-Century Philadelphia”], states that the 19th century Philadelphia Blackberry Alley were known for its streetwalkers and brothels. These were not specified to employ African American workers, despite the high density of African American residents in this particular neighborhood, and its’ sex trade in the pre-reform 19th century was “racially heterogenous and supported the mingling of classes”. 

However Kahan’s paper proposes that:

“The representation of African Americans among those arrested for prostitution in the area, however, was a remarkable 97 percent. Police selectivity and racism cannot be dismissed as a possible cause for this statistic. Still, the near complete absence of white women from arrests in this district, when police did not seem to hesitate in arresting white women for prostitution in other parts of town, makes it likely that the prostitutes in this neighborhood were almost exclusively African American.”

In terms of the criminalisation of sex work, Kahan states that there was an overestimation of streetwalking versus brothel activity, and an overrepresentation of African Americans and other ethnic and racial minorities in the arrest statistics. While the 19th century nationwide sex work industry was multi-racial involving Asian migrants, white and Indigenous persons, many were of African American descent. [Source, Capitalism by Gaslight] .

By the mid-20th century, there was an exodus of the white population.

“White flight, already apparent in the 1950s in response to African American migration and the lure of the suburbs, accelerated in the 1960s.” 

Additionally, urbanism in the late 19th and early 20th century destroyed racial heterogeneity with zoning specializations and moral reforms on vice trades. This is supported also by the [Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia] which states that WWI (1914-1918) forced sustained enforcement efforts to curb prostitution in the Tenderloin due to the proximity to an established training military camp. This was accompanied by the outlawing of prostitution across the nation, and policing pressure to close down vice districts.

1920s 'Bulldiking Around' in Harlem, NYC

Perry Lichtenstein was a physician in the city prison nicknamed “The Tombs”, located in Lower Manhattan, NYC. Its other names include (1838–1902) “New York City Halls of Justice and House of Detention”, and (1902–1941) “City Prison”. This is in the source I will link below.

What else is in NYC Manhattan during this time? The Harlem Renaissance from the 1920s to 1930s.

Above photos taken from [Mabel Hampton, Lillian Foster, and Mid-Century Black Butch/Femme]

Therefore The Tombs was also known as “Harlem Prison”. This is stated in Source, Virtual Tour of Harlem Prison at Harlem Court House.

“By the turn of the 20th century, the Great Migration was underway as hundreds of thousands of African Americans relocated to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. The Harlem section of Manhattan, which covers just three square miles, drew nearly 175,000 African Americans, giving the neighborhood the largest concentration of black people in the world. Harlem became a destination for African Americans of all backgrounds. From unskilled laborers to an educated middle-class, they shared common experiences of slavery, emancipation, and racial oppression, as well as a determination to forge a new identity as free people.” [ Source, A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance ]

“A period of African American literary, artistic, and intellectual activity centered in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, spanning from the 1920s to the mid-1930s. Considered one of the most significant periods of cultural production in US history, the Harlem Renaissance fostered a new African American cultural identity.” [ Source, MoMA Harlem Renaissance ]

This, and the history of USA’s injustice in criminalising and incarcerating especially people of colour, allows one to reasonably presume that Black communities especially in Harlem had a big influence and presence in Harlem Prison enough to influence the terms used there, with its presence also in Harlem’s music and art scene.

This is why @bodiesbodiesbodiesx3 , who very clearly knows their own people's history, said here,

“I suggest anything from the Harlem Renaissance era regarding lesbianism especially with the first usage being in a harlem prison in 1921 where it was used to mean lesbian sex (dyking around).”

Perry Lichtenstein (1921) The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover :

“The ‘Fairy’ and the Lady Lover Perry M. LICHTENSTEIN, M.D., LL.B., Physician to City Prison, Tombs, Physician to House of Detention, etc. NEW YORK— We now come to that class of female who abhors the company of man and gains sexual satisfaction from association with other females. This is a common occurrence among prisoners where women are 'doing time'. Both white and colored women indulge in the practice. It is also quite common among actresses, more particularly of the chorus girl type. Some such individuals show distinct male characteristics. They wear strictly tailor-made clothing, low shoes and they seldom wear corsets. The hair is usually bobbed. This is not, however, the rule; for many retain their feminine character-istics. A physical examination of such people will in practically every instance disclose an abnormally prominent clitoris. This is particularly so in colored women. It is not at all uncommon for such individuals to become lovers and to call one another husband and wife. One often reads in the paper that a person who was to all appearances a man had died; but post-mortem examination had disclosed that the man was in reality a woman. Then the startling announcement is made that the woman had been married and that she has left a 'widow.' It is nothing very strange-just another case of 'lady lovers.' How do these people gain sexual satisfaction? By friction of the clitoris. The following case will illustrate: I had occasion to make a mental and physical examination of a young woman in whose case the Court of General Sessions had appointed a lunacy commission. She was found sane. She stated that she had indulged in the practice of 'bull diking,' as she termed it. She was a prisoner in one of the reformatories, and there a certain young woman fell in love with her. This second young woman was a waitress. One morning while the young woman to whom I was talking was in bed the other young woman entered and sat down on the bed. She put her arms around the defendant and squeezed and kissed her. She then jumped into the bed and lifting the other's clothes had intercourse with her by friction of the clitoris. After that morning the practice was continued with regularity. 'Lady lovers' are by no means rare. I might add that a good many cases of such practice are to be found among nurses as well as among actresses. Such women seldom marry. Because of their dislike for men they are, as a rule, looked upon by the community as virtuous.”

Lichtenstein’s paper was released 4 years before the next recorded use of ‘Bulldiker’ (adj.) and ‘Bulldycking’ in two Harlem Renaissance writings surrounding Black characters, dated 1926 and 1928 respectively.

Carl Van Vechten (1926) N***** Heaven [Please be warned that Van Vechten is a non-Black person using the n-slur intentionally for an incendiary title. Although some Black audiences liked the book, it has also been regarded by some Black creatives as cheap melodrama and a mixture of commercialism and patronizing sympathy.]

Claude McKay’s (1928) Home to Harlem.

1930-50s The Blues Scene and B.D Women

Photo taken from [Source, Gabriella Pomales "Bulldyke Blues: Proud Black Lesbianism"]

With the terms ‘B.D women’ and ‘Bulldagger/dike/dyke/dyking’, they were popularised during the Harlem Renaissance and used specifically by the Black community.

It should be noted that “Dyke” was a term in the pre-70s era when “Lesbian” referred to an act you engaged in. The 70s white-dominated, lesbian separatist, monosexist, exorsexist, transphobic and anti-masculinity movements, unfortunately saw a spread in bigotry within the lesbian community, something that is still pervasive and adamantly perpetuated by especially white lesbian elders. "Dyke" and "Lesbian" then, was NOT a static monosexual "WLW ONLY" term as it is now regurgitated by the mainstream to exhaustion.

By 1930, Smith, Rainey, and blues singer Lucille Bogan (pictured below) were known as “the big three” of the blues scene. All three sang about sapphic love and desire. In 1935, Bogan recorded “B.D. Woman’s Blues,” singing, “comin’ a time, B.D. women they ain’t going to need no men.” “B.D.” was short for “bulldagger” or “bulldyke,” a Black slang term for a butch lesbian. The vocabulary used to speak about queerness in twentieth-century America was highly racialized. Jeanne Flash Gray, a Black woman who lived in Harlem during the 1930s, described that at the time, “we were still Bulldaggers and Faggots… only whites were lesbians and homosexuals.” “Bulldagger” was not pejorative, but rather “associated with physical strength, sexual prowess, emotional reserve, and butch chivalry.” [Source, Sapphic Blues]

B.D. Woman Blues (1935) Comin' a time, B.D.women they ain't going to need no men, Comin' a time, B.D. women they ain't going to need no men, 'Cause the way they treat us is a lowdown and dirty sin.B.D. women, you sure can't understand, B.D. women, you sure can't understand, They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man.B.D. women, they all done learned their plan, B.D. women, they all done learned their plan, They can lay their jive just like a natural man.B.D. women, B.D. women, you know they sure is rough, B.D. women, B.D. women, you know they sure is rough, They all drink up plenty whiskey and they sure will strut their stuff. B.D. women, you know they work and make their dough, B.D. women, you know they work and make their dough, And when they get ready to spend it, they know they have to go. [Source, The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project Tumblr]

Amongst Black lesbian artists in the Blues era, there were several prominent names:

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was "most successful Black vocalist of her time." She introduced blues to mainstream popular music and rumored to have relationships with several women including Ma Rainey and Lillian Simpson, "a chorus girl in Smith’s touring show, Harlem Frolics." Smith's songs included explicit content about being with women and often called lesbian music including hits like "A Good Man is Hard to Find", "It's Dirty But Good", and "The Boy in the Boat". Smith did have a husband who was known to be jealous of her relationships with women. It's significant to note that lesbians and other individuals attracted and preferring non-men often had to settle for domestic relationships with men due to the lack of queer acceptance during their time. However, it's also important not to assume unconfirmed sexualities of individuals to avoid erasure of other queer identities such as bisexuality. [Source, Gabriella Pomales "Bulldyke Blues: Proud Black Lesbianism"]

2. Gertrude "Ma" Rainey

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's legacy deserves celebration for several reasons. She helped popularize blues music as well as wrote, at least, one-third of her own music - something not so common at the time. She's known as the "mother of the blues". Ma Rainey is a newly familiar name to some. In 2020 Netflix released "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" starring Academy Award, Primetime Emmy Award, and two-time Tony Award winning Viola Davis. This movie told the a vague story of Ma Rainey, her life and her band. Her unapologetic pride in her identity endured intolerance. For instance, in 1925 Rainey was arrested and jailed for holding a lesbian party in Harlem. Bessie Smith, her protegé and lover, bailed her out the next morning. This is one of many examples of the criminalization and systemic oppression of lesbians. Following her arrest Ma Rainey released "Prove It on Me Blues" which was not only a significant lesbian affirming song but a jab at the discriminatory event. [Source, Gabriella Pomales "Bulldyke Blues: Proud Black Lesbianism"]

3. Lucille Bogan

Early blues singer Lucille Bogan, who recorded as Bessie Jackson, sang about the term "bulldyke" in her song "B.D. Woman's Blues" where she sings “Comin’ a time, B.D. women they ain’t going to need no men,”. Although she wasn't the first in the blues scene to openly sing about lesbianism, this song is great documentation of our existence and terminology. Bogan was the first Black blues singer to record outside of Chicago or New York when she recorded in Atlanta. She later began recording with Paramount Records. Almost all of her music was explicit as she sang about her sexual encounters, experiences as a sex worker, and comfort in her sexual identity. [Source, Gabriella Pomales "Bulldyke Blues: Proud Black Lesbianism"]

4. Gladys Bentley

According to this 2012 published journal article,  “How Does A Bulldagger Get Out of the Footnote? or Gladys Bentley's Blues” written by Regina V. Jones, Black queer women including Black homosexual and bisexual women, referred to themselves as Bulldagger. This same paper studies the bisexual life of Miss Bentley who was a popular Blues singer.

Photo taken from [GENDER-BENDING PERFORMER: GLADYS BENTLEY]

“Miss Bentley was an amazing exhibition of musical energy— a large, dark, masculine lady, whose feet pounded the floor while her fingers pounded the keyboard— a perfect piece of African Sculpture, animated by her own rhythm.” ~The Big Sea, Langston Hughes

Blues cabaret entertainer, Gladys Bentley, to whom Hughes refers in the opening epigraph, gained popularity with her spirited lyrical renditions of popular melodies that she often performed in formal masculine attire. The colloquial term used for some N*gro, masculine, women was bulldagger. At that time "bulldagger" was not a performative term in the Black community; they "...are associated with physical strength, sexual prowess, emotional reserve, and butch chivalry The term has roots in African-American communities of the early twentieth century, especially with the 1920s Harlemn where sexual and gender mores were more flexible" (bulldagger").

One was awed by even a cursory exploration of Bentley as a Black woman musician/entertainer who, during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, publicly claimed her right to exist openly as a cross-dressing lesbian and later as a bisexual who defied conventions of gender normalcy...Her public and private life reveals a woman to whom others should be made aware; she, openly and unapologetically, crossed boundaries of gender, race, sex and class.

Even when she performed in skirts some folk found her masculine. On occasion she assumed the stage name Bobbie Minton -- 'ie' being the feminine spelling of the name. Overall she continued to perform using her birth name 'Gladys'. Physically she preferred the clothing of socially well-off men. Her tuxedoes were tailor made but they did not hide the fact that she was a buxom woman.

Her choice of suits, then later tuxedoes, or mixture of skirts with jackets and ties probably involved a level of comfort and vision on her part yet it was a direct act of resistance, a conscious claim to socioeconomic status and a form of aggressive speech. Aggressive speech, or sass, is one of the distinguishing features of the communication style attributed to many Black women and particularly the Black women blues singers. An African American woman who claims her voice and speaks her mind is perceived to be threatening and historically open to violence in the extreme by the dominant culture. The goal of such violence is fear and silence or rather an attempt to silence. During the 1920s-1940s, she took her sassy gender-bending act on the road where she confronted race/gender/class in the form of a dandy "bulldagger".

Denotatively bulldagger was the closest description one could use to characterize the embodiment of Bentley's individuality because it simultaneously invokes race and gender. Conversely a "butch" depiction has negative consequences. It has been pointed out that some dark-skinned Black lesbian fems and heir "continued exclusion from conceptions of womanhood by an always present misreading of the black lesbian body as automatically butch" (Harris 1996). Thus "These Black fems express the contradictions of desire and frustration that come with claiming such an identity precisely due to the negative sexual definitions accorded black women's bodies as not feminine, as not woman, and as oversexed and aggressive (Harris 1996). They subvert and disguise but highlight a view of Black women physically and emotionally. Bentley, assumed a dandy style of dress on and off stage, but not always. Her publicity still photographs, 'top hat and tails', show her face heavily made-up.

The Myth & Tradition of the Black Bulldagger

Bulldagger

It is most commonly credited to this time because this is when the communal use wasn’t just spoken as slang, but embedded in Black art and music. It became a symbol embodied visibly by Black persons and their gendered presentations. It became visible to non-Black mainstream white-dominant society.

Non-Black people incl. queers co-opted it, but most initially used it derogatorily as a slur and added anti-Black perjorative connotations against Black people. Later, it ironically became a slur against non-Black queer people too. Yet till this day, only the history centered around non-Black people, has been reckoned with by non-Black people.

The coinage of ‘B.D Women’ and ‘Bulldagger’ to the Harlem Renaissance and the Black community has been the clearest widespread autonomous use of the term, which grants it greater legitimacy and significance than if it were just used as a slur applied TO others or as quoted/reported by secondary word of mouth.

Even if folks wanted to quote Stone Butch Blues (written by a white author, Leslie Feinberg), ‘Bulldagger’ was used 13 times, and 10/13 times were hurled around as a slur by non-Black characters to apply to others in a demeaning and hostile fashion. 3 times it was used in an endearing fashion. 8 times the world “bulls” was used to refer amiably to butches, but noting the history of the whole slur, this doesn’t exempt even positive usages from criticism where the book fails to talk about the racism embedded in the term.

And if anyone continues quoting non-Black people using the term for themselves despite this lengthy history research done and posted, you’re adamantly refusing to center QTBIPOC voices and Black history, whilst clinging to the skirts of colonial narratives.

1980s 'Dike/Dyke' as a Lesbian Term

American linguist Archibald A. Hill (1902—1992), a professor at The University of Texas, submitted an essay to the American Speech, in 1982, to dispute the 1972 OED claim that ‘Dike/Dyke’ as a lesbian term, comes from ‘Hermaphordite’ and ‘Morphodyke’.

In 1985, Richard Spears submitted this paper to the American Speech to contest this. He posited that the term ‘Dike/Dyke’ came from ‘Bulldiker’, with ‘Bull’ symbolised “masculinity”, and ‘Dike’ referred to women. Spears was a professor at the Northwestern University studying and writing more than 150 dictionaries on American slang and colloquial expressions. “He has written on West African languages and nonstandard English, including pidgins and creolized languages, and has taught courses in slang and unconventional English.” Source

Spears also wrote that since 1931, in referencing the 1926 literature, it was attested that ‘Bulldike’ is a part of Black American vernacular. It was attested again in 1970 and 1980. Source, Richard Spears (1985)

This corresponds with the first Harvey Neal newspaper record, Harlem Renaissance Black music and arts history, as well as oral history by Black persons INCLUDING those on Tumblr blogs, who I don’t believe should be delegitimised if we are going to be charitably centering QTBIPOC voices who have been most vehemently wiped from academe and minimised in the field of anthropology.

In 1995, Susan Krantz submitted a paper of her own to the American Speech journal, to reconsider the etymology of the term ‘Bulldike’, in analysing both Hill and Spears’ papers. She did not contest the Black American history behind the term, but she did suggest that instead of ‘dyke’ and ‘dike’ being in reference to ‘woman’ and ‘bull’ being the hypermasculinising prefix—‘dyke/dike/dagger’ refer to the clitoris as an appendage, or an elongated appendage, mirroring a phallic instrument. This giving rise to “diked out”. [ Source, Reconsidering the Etymology of Bulldike ]

This also corresponds to Perry Lichtenstein’s (however dubious) paper on the physical examination of the bodies of female prisoners who “abhors the company of men and gains sexual satisfaction from associating with other females”, which focused on the “abnormally large clitoris…particularly so on coloured women”.

While such physiological finds seem to support the focus on the genitalia and sexual activity of Black sapphics as a factor in the etymology of the term ‘Bulldiker/dyke/dagger’, I respectfully note that such medical examinations and bioessentialist notes are extremely racist and invasive. Readers please be aware that the scientific, psychopathology and medical field is steeped in racial prejudice, especially in racialised stereotyping of Black bodies by their person’s sexuality and sexual organs.

‘Bulldyke’ thus has substantial Black American context, written evidence, scholarly review, and oral history purported by Black communities to support that it’s rooted in Black history first and foremost, then was popularised as a term used by Black sapphics in the Harlem Renaissance much more profoundly and culturally before it was weaponised as a slur by others.

Erasure of the Black Sapphic History

This [international blog thread] (Feb 2005) by academics in different universities’ teaching faculties of women’s studies and the arts.

This [Pink News] article (2018).

This [HER article] (2023) written by Robyn Exton, a white CEO & Founder of the HER dating app. 

This [article “Terms of En(queer)ment”] published by the Digital Chicago History site which prides itself as “The relationship between Lake Forest College and the Chicago History Museum, along with other Chicago cultural and humanitarian organizations, continues with the Humanities 2020 initiative, a $1.1 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, to enhance and advance humanities education through deep engagement with issues of race in Chicago.” It states that “Bulldagger: Many blues songs performed in Bronzeville in the early 1900s used the term as coded reference to women who dressed as men.” The Blues was a music genre created by Black artists and that there were many Bulldagger Blues artists. [Bronzeville] has historically been known as “the “Black Metropolis” and the “Black Belt,” as core to African-American history on Chicago's South Side”. Yet of this failed to be explicitly stated on the page.

The famous SF Dykes on Bikes as a trademark term has not mentioned anything about the Black history behind the term Dyke in its [“Dykestory”] introduction.

r/butchlesbians where non-Black lesbians want to use "a butch version of bear" and suggest "bulldagger" while remaining ignorant to the history behind these terms.

Follow-up post by a Black sapphic calling out the racism in the sub and non-Black sapphics doing their thing in the comments. OP mentioned in one of the comments about the racism in associating hypermasculinised traits and other non-normative/commonly “non-feminine” traits with Bulldagger/Bulldyke (ie strong hairy fat). While such traits are not objectively non-feminine and certainly not unappealing, the negativity of these connotations were still previously mainstreamified.

Views by the Black Queer community surrounding non-Black usage of these terms

My brief google search revealed that there has been some controversy before on non-Black queers “reclaiming ‘dyke’” while failing to provide proper recognition of its racialised history as an anti-Black, misogynoir slur.

This history of both 'Dyke' and it’s Bull-prefixed origins, have been erased and whitewashed in Lesbian consciousness by both word of mouth and the many widespread articles which fail to attribute its origins in Black American history.

This makes the whole debacle on “Can non-lesbians use Dyke” such an ironic white queer conversation as a detraction from cultural appropriation and racists weaponisations against Black queer history.

When I asked several Black American sapphics for how they felt about this, the consensus was that they didn’t appreciate the constant appropriation of AAVE, the lack of acknowledgment of Black American Queer history, and the territoriality of non-Black lesbians over these terms that they barely knew the history of. Some share being exhausted from constantly having to call out non-Black queers for their anti-Blackness and appropriation, and how there was barely any time left to explore their own queer journeys. Black queers shouldn’t be required to tolerate anti-Blackness, nor should they feel like their lives are cut short by both its harms and its resource-draining battle.

Further search allowed me to find quotes sourced from Black users, I will not be linking some of them so as to preserve anonymity and their safety, since I already suspect a wave of hate is gonna come from this write-up.

Some Black sapphics say it is fine to use, as long as you provide recognition and acknowledgment of its history. [Source 1 , Source 2] But others are against it, especially with the continued ignorance and outright invalidation of Black voices speaking out against its use.

Well, in the past, I would have said acknowledge the history but as of now, I unfortunately came to distrust any nonblack person using Dyke at ALL since I recognised many do know the history but discard it in favour of whiteness. I hope this helps because personally I'd say stop.

OP: yt lesbians really said "bisexuals can't b butch/fem bc that's a lesbian thing" and then proceeded to use words like stud and dyke, which are aave then they turn around and tell bi woc to call themselves animals instead of butch/fem/dyke (stag, doe, tomcat) and see no issue w that commenter: bro this is the worst take ever-- d*ke has and always will be a slur targeted at lesbians, no matter the race. Stud is a term for black masc lesbians/black butches. D*ke is NOT aave WHAT OP: this post is about white lesbians demanding bisexuals call themselves animal names instead of historical identitifiers curious how they claim ownership of some words but deny black women the ownership of others bulldyke is aave and dyke is shorthand for it are u even black?

This [Reddit post] by a Black queer Reddit user in r/QueerWomenOfColor also explains how the erased history behind the term “Dyke” as it comes from Bulldagger, contributes to feelings of ostracisation and racist microaggressions in predominantly white Queer spaces when this history is explained to them.

Closing Words

‘Bulldyker/diker/dyke/dike/dagger’ and ‘B.D Women’ are Black American cultural terms. Black American Queer people, creators and writers today, have stated it is still used by some young Black masculine sapphics and was popular amongst Black American Queer elders.

Something which happens so commonly with appropriated terms is that it’s not just lost in its history, but also the fact that the meaning is warped to include perjorative connotations that wasn’t once there. It’s what happens when non-Black people steal and weaponise it against Black people with such crude handling.

It’s the way that they are quoted (as an action taken by people), without referencing and cross-contextualising to QTBIPOC history, which discredits and obscures said history. All the while white "authorities", elders and influencers claim to be self-sufficient experts in this history yet miss out all of this. This is complacency we should all be hypervigilant of and is responsible for why there is so much decontextualisation around racialised history, whether such was done by intentional omission or otherwise.

This is all important to the reclamation of the term by Black people only to restore its original non-perjorative connotations and to uncolonise mainstream vocabulary, thus removing racialised insults from what is and has always been a proud Black term. 

And because I have read enough responses that sound something along the lines of:

“But I, a non-Black lesbian, have been called bulldagger/bulldyke many times by white people. It was mainstream lesbian terminology when I first hung out with lesbians. It was part of the butch femme subculture. So I don't think it is a POC exclusive term. Language shifts from subcultures to mainstream and back again.”

Except this “but what about ME” view relies on casting aside the unforgettably relevant anti-Black discrimination against Black queers, their suffering, joy and resistance in spite of anti-Black white queers.

White and non-Black queers do not share in Black lesbian intersectional struggles, and have not been in the same fight enough to use a Black cultural term that was appropriated and slung by white people and white queers at Black people first.

Being called the slur too doesn’t warrant reclamation, especially noting the racialised history behind it for which the history of this culturally Black American term, corrupted into a racialised anti-Black slur by white queers. The Black queer community has yet to receive the acknowledgment and reparations it deserves. Not to mention the continued anti-Blackness and AAVE appropriation rampant in queer spaces, committed by non-Black queers.

White queers aren’t separate from whiteness, and non-Black queers have a long ways to go in working out anti-racism. This is our privilege at work in which many of us still benefit ourselves by clinching our power where we can at the expense of Black queer peoples and their visibility.

White and non-Black queers "reclaiming these terms", conveniently omit the efforts of Black peoples, while having the audacity to get territorial over anti-Black queer cultures, IS the actual appropriation and erasure. And I bet yall won’t want to talk about the backstory either because it makes you “reclaiming” the slur look a lot like bigotry.

There is no excuse of ignorance to justify continued appropriation, despite the thorough explanation given and due diligence done by QTBIPOC to raise awareness around this history. It would only be prejudice then.

Anyone who fails to understand this is being wilfully obstinate to carry on with their racism. It isn’t just about the appropriation or the ignorance anymore. It’s the lack of desire to listen to QTBIPOC voices and the lack of desire to uncolonise their known realities especially through language as the most pervasive instrument, and what this means for mainstreamified / appropriated vocabulary.

It would only be basic human decency to do our part and return the autonomy of reclamation ALL THE WAY back to the persons our predecessors stole it from, rather than continuing to fuel the oppressive silence.

[knightfaetality]

Chinese Indigeneity

I am diasporic Chinese AND a native citizen of an SEAsian country. I am also an immigrant in the Anglosphere dealing with such conversations. I’d appreciate input also from Chinese historians who ARE CHINESE, if they wish to clarify what I’ve said here is accurate.

As much as it shouldn’t be controversial to reiterate this, it seems like a majority of people haven’t yet decolonized their beliefs to see that:

Some Asian people are indigenous to their homelands.

Said indigenous Asian people experienced colonisation by Eurocolonialists and Japan, have been subjected to slavery and genocides. The only difference is a lot of them have won and survived in reclaiming their homeland.

Some Asian people are diasporic descendants and migrants and multigenerational descendants of migrants within the same Asian region itself. While ALSO bearing the status of being born citizens once nation-states aka countries became a normalised (Western) concept, and therefore being considered native to the country.

Some Asian people are multigenerational descendants of Asian immigrants in the Anglosphere, just like the Anglo-Saxon immigrants there—except without the colonial violence against the Indigenous populations.

Chinese people such as the Han, are indigenous to China. [Just as many Indians are indigenous to India, and many Malays are indigenous to the Malacca Straits etc].

Yet many people don’t believe it because they subscribe to the Forever Foreignor myth and most people in the Anglosphere encounter only diasporic Chinese persons and expats.

Furthermore, Chinese people are not afforded the same degree of respect for their cultural preservation, because they do not fit the Eurocolonial model of Indigeneity. This allows people to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that Eurocolonialists and Japanese colonisers have done to China, and what is continued to be done towards them.

Chinese people do not technically qualify as “indigenous” under the Eurocolonial standards for this term, as they do not fit the criteria of being ethnic minorities surviving on colonised land. This is also why Taiwan is seen as having “Taiwanese natives”, but not the Chinese.

Furthermore, given China’s cultural revolutions and multiple unifications as a systematic defense system against foreign colonial threats, many do not see them as retaining unique regional and tribal characteristics, cultures and spirituality. But I can say that Hokkien people ≠ Cantonese people ≠ Hakka people ≠ Teochew people. All of us have varying physical features, body shapes, eye shapes and sizes, hair texture and types, skin tones and colour, too. Some natives in China may identify as ethnically, culturally and nationality-wise as Chinese. Others differ in their preferences and may identify with only a few, one or none of these.

Our Chinese dialects and our types of food are NOT interchangeable. Some of my elders even insist we have different cultural characteristics [ie some are more hardened while others are more gentle]. But we are all Chinese at the same time and most of us can speak the unified Chinese tongue aka Mandarin, enough to find solidarity with each other.

Although the cultural revolutions and unifications were a “tribe-on-tribe” war, this wasn’t just in-fighting. It was an immune system reaction and defensive apoptosis aimed at preserving all of China and its hundreds of tribes as a whole, against the divide-and-conquer tactics of the West.

The unification of the dialects into the primacy of the Mandarin tongue, and how Mandarin has been legitimised as a “civil language”, means that people don’t view Mandarin-speaking Chinese as natives.

Many in the West doubt that an indigenous culture can be an ethnic majority. They doubt native cultures can be so globally recognised, civilised, romanticised, “cultured”, with such an extensive ancient history. The most baffling of all to them is that an indigenous culture can have a legitimate and fully autonomous governing body with a MASSIVE homeland ruled by its natives, not by white people.

Much of this enables them to argue the right of Chinese people in “occupying China”, and tries to split China into the “natives VS colonisers” per Eurocolonial models of Indigeneity.

Modern day China is literally one example of what could have happened if native peoples had defeated colonial rule. China successfully pushed out the Russian, American, British, European and Japanese colonisers, but it did all of this at the cost of so much blood, lives, pain, economic and infrastructural destruction, and an intergenerational spiritual-cultural wound that hasn’t healed.

It wasn’t just “wars”, as much as the West wants to frame it as an equal conflict. Just as they’re doing right now to the genocide in Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan.

It was colonialist influences attempting and sometimes succeeding in colonising parts of China, as they did to Aotearoa, Australia, America and many parts of Asia.

Even in SEAsia, although we have had lateral violences between ethnic groups, many of these were consequences of the involvement of British and Dutch colonial rule, the disastrous affairs, inequalities and political imbalances they created in their wake. Some Anti-Black, Sinophobic, Islamophobic and Xenophobic sentiments were brought over by these Eurocolonialists, which formed complex systematic racisms that extends beyond what is familiar to American critical race theories. They also permanently embedded things like homophobia and transphobia which different greatly from the queer consciousness of Asian cultures at the time.

It is NOT that there was a complete absence of xenophobia, queerphobia and ethnocentrism in Asia, but that it wasn’t to such an extent, it didn’t involve such strict binaries of “masculine and feminine” with ideals of such enshrined in whiteness, nor did it follow the same dehumanising colourist categorisations of Eurocolonialism.

Millions of Chinese natives were killed in these colonialist genocides, human-experimented upon, subject to war crimes, women children and the elderly raped city by city. Many were human trafficked as sex slaves, and even when they were “saved” by the West’s soldiers, they were just resold to White soldiers. Drugs such as opium were forcibly imported by the British for population control and to reduce economic power, and when the Japanese colonised parts of China, they established a global drug trade based in China which formed a significant percentage of drugs circulating the world.

Immigration, refugee status AND this slave trade created the diasporic populations across Asia and the West. It wasn’t just “Chinese people fleeing Chinese governments”, it’s also the fact that many were fleeing colonial influences in their regions, and many became collateral in the conflicts instigated by colonial influences against the Chinese governing bodies.

In SEAsia we even have myths and legends created by fear of the Portuguese & Dutch colonisers who would rape, kidnap our women and children and sell them as slaves overseas. So embedded in our culture was our fear for these people that our legends tell of these white devils, and we recognised them for their characteristic fair hair and red hair. Our people and ancestors have suffered systemic slavery; Look up the Pacific slave trade and Blackbirding. Chinese natives underwent indentured labour in extremely dehumanising conditions, due to legally-bound, coercive and frequently inescapable circumstances, which constitutes a form of slavery [6 Forms of Slavery]. Our women were subject to literal sexual slavery, human trafficking and even the adoption industry and the deceptive Philanthropism which has been built off child trafficking and the destruction of Chinese families.

In self-defense, China underwent violent revolutions to push out Eurocolonial and Imperialist influences from Japan, Russia and America. They had to meticulously exterminate the sneaky influences and strings pulled by the West to influence East Asian politics aiming to ideologically and religiously “convert” aka erase Chinese culture. And while the West may have secured relations and influence to commodify Japan and Korea for its Eurocolonial expansion, China did not give in, and sacrifices were made to reach this end.

Much of this defensiveness continues to this day. But in reading the publicly-accessible book published by the US FBI, where they admit to infiltrating the internal affairs of Asia, you’d realise that this isn’t unwarranted. Yet why is it that China isn’t afforded the same grace as if it were say, a Native American group investigating and protesting against white American colonisation?

This is why the views on Japanese and Korean people are so different from how the West views the Chinese as inferior labourers, uglier, lower class, uncivilised, backwards, and terror threats.

I’m NOT saying that:

China and Asia is devoid of issues with recognising ethnic minorities and existing tribes. China does have a history of Colonisation and Imperialisation, as well as violence against ethnic minorities. Countries like Indonesia have committed genocide and ecocides against the Melanesians and Papuans. And there have been lateral violence and race wars between ethnic groups within SEAsia.

Chinese Indigenous peoples should equate their situation with American Indigenous peoples and Australian Indigenous peoples.

But that Eurocolonial models of Indigeneity and colonialist violence often lacks salience when applied to international politics. Lateral violence and what is frequently presumed to be unprovoked authoritarianism and totalitarianism forgets the subtle involvements of the West in provoking such violent means of self-preservation.

The Chinese who form the ethnic majority ARE natives who survived the violence at the hands of their own government, but MOST OF ALL at the hands of Eurocolonialists and Japanese colonisers. They have won, but their losses, what they have had to do to survive, and their continued battle to preserve their cultures from the propaganda and politics of Eurocolonialists, should not be made invisible.

There are still existing tribes who wish to preserve their cultural traditions and some do not agree with the Unified standards of the “larger tribe”’s government. But this isn’t the same as the American government’s relationships with the Native American people and American Indigenous peoples.

Chinese people from China, and even diasporic descendants, should be given more recognition in Indigenous discussions for them to speak about their motherland and connecting with their native homeland.

At the same time conversations should be diverse enough to recognise diasporic Chinese people for their different backgrounds—some with immigration histories more violent than others.

[knightfaetality]

Some of yall genuinely think of Asian people only as those who keep their heads down and don’t stir up trouble, which is a fucking stereotype of the goody-two-shoes bootlicker grade A student, and that’s sinophobic and racist on its own.

Then you punish Asians who AREN’T quiet about shit and won’t sit down and tolerate it, who go against the status quo of their own people as well as yours. And no, just because you’re BIPOC doesn’t mean you can’t be fucking racist and Sinophobic and indulge in Orientalism. You’re contributing to a system of power that disempowers an ethnic group.

You disbelieving that Asian people HAVE stood together with other BIPOC historically to fight for human rights, against white supremacy, slavery and more; is swallowing Sinophobic bullshit that further paints Asians as passive bootlickers and assimilationists and that isolates Asian people and BIPOC ethnic minorities from each other. It erases our efforts and writes us out of history and that’s ideological violence.

Asians who have been revolutionaries in their own countries, against imperialism and colonialism. Their knowledge has expounded upon socialism and their ideas have been globalised so much so that it was Chinese thought which threatened the West and made its leaders fearful.

Many Asian countries have defeated their colonizers. Some have had to negotiate for the most favourable outcomes because of the state of affairs wrecked and instigated by colonizers, while others have suffered defeat.

I think many Asian people are visible revolutionaries with evidence of success and yall cannot fucking stand it nor perceive us as autonomous agents involved not just within our own homelands but also within our countries of residence.

[knightfaetality]

High Femme ≠ Stone Femme or Pillow Prince/ss

Updated: 20 April 2026

⚠️TW: some of these screenshots contain the t-slur and the f-slur used against gnc fems.

It is widely believed that High Femme = “stone femme or a pillow prince/ss” but this is a misunderstanding of how ‘High Femme’ as an identity came to be. This was unfortunately popularised when people made counter-responses to the equally misinformed “Futch scale” diagram which infamously decontextualised butch and femme into aesthetics.

I went through my trove of butchfem(me) books to pull quotes regarding what a high femme is, and it deviates greatly from the solely sex-position identity or the stone-butch-dependent identity it has become today. I am unclear how this reductiveness came about, but I’ll add a calculated guess at the very end.

BEFORE YOU DISMISS THIS— Read below the cut for a compilation of butch femme quotes, resources and my analysis thereof, that support my claim.

TLDR;

My definition: A High Femme refers to a person of any gender, sex and sexuality, who constructs their feminine-centered (but not exclusive) gender in the glamour of their unique sociocultural experiences. A High Femme emphasises their gender non-conformity and/or sexual signature, in a confrontational transgression to “normative” femininity. High femmeness is a tightrope of invincibility and vulnerability, in holding onto the integrity and significance of one’s own erotic voice, independent of partnership.

🌸 Are you a High Femme, or know any High Femmes? Wanna meet and discuss with Femme friends?✨

📌 Check out The Leather&Gold Bar Discord for more pertinent discussions !

Post by @femmefaetality · 5 images

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Firstly, ButchFEM =/= FEM(ME).

Most who study ButchFem(me) culture, have proposed a split between the pre-70s ButchFem versus the post-70s ButchFemme. This has been summarised best by Obviously Queer’s YT video on Femme who states that there was no evidence of 'Femme' within the mainstream usage within the pre-70s context of ButchFemme lesbians.

Beginning timemark 56:15:

From 1930’s to sometime in the 60s, Fem as in F E M was used in the butchfem dynamic. It's sometime between 1960 and 1980 that writers  start to use femme, as in F E M M E, instead. I’m not sure why. Joan Nestle, who is a fem icon, has  continued to use the spelling F E M  because she identifies that femme  (f e m m e) has grown too large and to separate fem as a part of a  butchfem from just, other femme identities, she continues to use its original spelling. “That was how we spelled it F E M. It’s not a French word. It’s a working class descriptive word,” Nestlé says in an interview with JSTOR. Nestlé is not alone in this  choice. Other academics, such as quoted Sally Munt, also uses Fem,  F E M, long after its mainstream shift. The author of “Old-Fashioned, Old-School:  A Beginner’s Guide for Butches & Fems” (2018) a text i’ve seen been thrown around in  well… old school butchfem communities, writes this on her website: From the birth of butchfem to around 1960,  beginning of 1970 this was how it was spelled. F E M. Femme is a complicated term, because it holds so many different meanings, as I hope you’ve learned from this video so far. Policing who can and cannot use Femme is… honestly impossible. But people do try. Many people talk and educate as if this Fem/Femme divide is the truth. It’s not the truth, it's a new concept. This is the truth only in a small, created filter bubble. There is no clear separation in real life and this divide, differently from what is occasionally claimed, has no historical value. The historical value is the opposite. Femme has been a word for ballroom queerness in the black community, longer than it has been a  word for butchfem dynamic, because the butchfem dynamic used F E M. So policing someone that Femme is and always  has been a lesbian exclusive word is incorrect. Many Fem(mes) today obviously need a word that signifies that their identity is a sapphic woman  who is exclusively into butchfem. Well here I give it to you. Femme as short for feminine. Fem(me) for those who study femininity. And Fem for those in dialogue with butches.

This is also corroborated in “Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: A History of the Lesbian Community”, by Elizabeth Kennedy & Madeline Davis (Note that the authors have expressed regrets for excluding bi femmes and butches from their book). P. 685/776, footnote 2:

We have chosen to use the spelling “fem” rather than “femme” on the advice of our narrators. This is the spelling they have always used. They also feel that “fem” is a more American spelling and that “femme” has an academic component that is too high-toned for their liking. For reference to butch-fem roles in pre-1970s communities see, for instance, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (New York: Bantam, 1972); Audre Lorde, “Tar Beach,” Conditions 5 (1979): 34—47; Joan Nestle, “Butch-Femme Relationships” […]

📘Stone Butch Blues (1993)

The 40s ButchFem culture was a pre-political underground development via cultural exchange amongst the African American and European American working class, SW, drag queens & kings, trans women and transfems, and most importantly, BIPOC communities. Some of the butches AND fems were married to men and had boyfriends, but came to the bars and house parties to form Lesbian community and embraced the erotic dyad. Lesbianism was non-exclusive to monosexuality and its culture involved people of different genders, sexual orientations and backgrounds. [ Scroll down to “📗 Femme : Feminists, Lesbians and Bad Girls” analysis for more.]

SBB was set in the mid-20th century, supposedly in the pre-70s ButchFem culture, during which time many spaces incl. LGBTQ ones, just getting over segregation. Feinberg uses Femme, likely because SBB was written and published in the 90s (and again in the 00s), which means the butchfemme Feinberg knew of, already had influence from the eras before.

‘High Femme’ in SBB was used by trans femmes and femmes, and as Jess says—regardless man or woman. High Femmeness were associated with activities concerning gender affirmation and romance as a femme.

Peaches, a trans femme character, codifies her high femmeness in the moon and in sensual lingerie.

Controversially, Edna’s high femmeness conflicts with the stone of her butch partners, Jan and Jess. She is described by Jan to be able to “seduce any stone butch love”. Her sensuality begins comfortingly and complementary with Jess, yet is indivisible from her desire to melt a butch’s stone. This renders her relationships with her beloved stone butches, fraught. Regardless of Edna’s relationship status, she is still identified as a high femme.

Safe to say in SBB, High Femmeness ≠ Stone Femme or pillow prince/ss reliant on the stone butch identity, but refers to the construction of femininity and a person’s sensuality.

📕Butch Queens Up in Pumps (2013)

The ButchFem(me) community in America and internationally, must recognise how entwined it is with African American and Latine American ballroom culture.

The American Ballroom scene we know of today, arose in the 19th century and has been around for a really long time. It is far older than even the first iteration of the 40s ButchFEM culture. But Ballroom, while popular amongst Black and Latine American membership, was only popularised into mainstream culture in the 90s.

The mainstream has very little access to this history (respect that). This is partially due to academic racism which presides over the presence of POC voices, and priorities on “formal” written literature. We have to acknowledge the limitations in accessible resources on Ballroom culture.

BQUiP has been indispensable for this reason.

While a lot of QTPOC efforts and pioneering roles are often erased, severed and whitewashed from global and American queer consciousness, BQUiP is amongst a corpus of QTPOC resources that challenges this.

It tells of queer history through information and oral history gathered in retrospect, and respects stories passed down through connection between the members and performers of American Ballroom communities and Kiki houses. In doing so, it clarifies its place in the lineage of queer identities and consciousness.

Ballroom was comprised of three dimensions.

1st—Gender System; sex, sexuality & genderdiversity which formed the basis of kinship, as well as competitive elements and categories. These helped to create visible “archetypes” to move towards or away from.

2nd—Houses; kinship structures of social/chosen family, who bonded and cared for each other across locations. These families were formed around mottos, symbols and haute culture references. Its members varied in age, sex & genderdiversity, race & ethnicity (mostly African American & Latine American), and backgrounds.

3rd—Ballroom Events; Ballroom activated families to prepare for competitions, including supporting and training protégés for realness, voguing, body presentation and fashion. It brought together the families to gather community, and accelerated the development of Ballroom across America and even, globally. This provided sanctuary to youths of colour who were marginalised by society for their identities.

The terms Butch and Femme already had identities to them. These identities had purposes tied to American Ballroom culture.

To serve “Femme Queen & Butch Queen Up in Drag realness”, participants had to present boldly and fearlessly as convincing women, with minimal deviation from the gender & sexual norms of cisheteronormative society. To be seen as a real woman is “Realness”. Whether the competitor was for transfems or trans women (Femme Queens) or a gay men performing as a women (Butch Queen Up in Drag). Butches, different from Butch Queens, were recognised as trans men, transmascs, or masculine lesbians or female persons.

Often, the Butch Queen was an exaggerated and flamboyant presentation, and is known as drag, while the Femme Queen is not necessarily drag as their gender identity matched their competitive realness. Both groups of participants, their families and communities shared in the visible performance of gender and the self-fashioning which transformed normative categories of sex, gender and sexual identity.

Fem(me), as an identity, began percolating in ButchFem culture especially catalysed by 2nd wave feminism and LGBTQ rights movements (late-60s—70s) which encouraged sexual autonomy in every queer arena.

It is likely that Fem(me) was inspired by the mid-20th century Ballroom’s spirit of gender reconstruction, gender affirmation, drag, and sexual autonomy, as well as the defiant protective qualities of the pre-70s Fems. It likely also promoted the focus of community-building, irrespective of the dyad.

The current general queer Fem(me) is not the same as the Black & Latine American Ballroom Femme. It has developed its own multiculturalism, communities and experiences beyond Ballroom. Nevertheless, the inspiration/lineage must be recognised for how Black and Latine communities pioneered American queer consciousness.

[ And if I may add from a social studies lens, BIPOC have typically been the reason that community building is a strategy of unity, solidarity and resistance, as well as the catalysis of (sub)culture independent of the wider society.

This is why governments know that if they must strike, it would be to isolate persons from each other and reinforce the nuclear family model (the dyad). It is no surprise that BIPOC influence has shaped the Femme & High Femme identity. ]

Racism within ButchFem communities

Black communities were legally allowed to enter into what were once “white-only” spaces, only following the dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the mid-60s. This did not necessarily translate into immediate acceptance and social allowance. Different regions varied in how safe and receptive they were towards integration regardless (or often because of the complicity) of law enforcement.

Prior to this, the general Black queer and ButchFem(me) communities of NYC Harlem and Buffalo ( hotspots of ButchFem history ) had their own segregated spaces or else favoured underground house parties, where they had built their own subcultures and engaged in the circulation of Ballroom terminology and concepts.

Black communities have always presented themselves in many different ways and understood presentation as a tool for social mobility, and resistance. This includes but is not limited to Black Dandyism since the 20s which involved the classy sartorial formal wear, nouveau riche “new money” aesthetics, and many more postmodern fashion subcultures since.

Embodied by Black Butches and Fem(mes), this contrasted against white pre-70s ButchFem fashion which consisted of predominantly flannels, jeans and attires associated with the blue-collar working class.

As far as racism and cultural ignorance went, Black lesbians’ gender expressions have been derided, mocked and appropriated by white lesbians including but not limited to those of the lesbian separatist crowd and the pre-70s ButchFem crowd.

Make no mistake. This extends all the way to present day racism, mockery and appropriation by white queers against Black queers.

Most BIPOC diasporas in USA necessarily had later, slower, more cautious and fraught transitions in diversifying binary and dyadic gender norms in their unique ways, because of the more severe marginalisations they faced and the ways race and gender intersected living under the Eurocolonial Cisheteropatriarchal hegemony. However, they have been consistently shamed for their traditions and cultures, cast as opponents to white liberal and leftist politics.

The Butch’s hypervisibility and the Fem’s invisibility that white ButchFems prided themselves upon, were not treated the same on Black bodies. Black lesbians including Fem(me)s were harassed, and far more frequently and violently targeted by racists, homophobes and law enforcement.

Simultaneously, QTPOC were moralised against for their greater reliance on dyadic dynamics and gender norms, which were tools of resistance against the state-designed killing machine that is white supremacy and its pervasive multi-level effects. They were often condemned by the ignorant crowd of white lesbians dismantling dyadic and binary norms, which included (but were not solely) radical feminists.

The late-60s was rife with radical feminists. The 2nd wave feminism was overrun with TERFism from predominantly white and cis women incl. lesbians who pushed for lesbian separatism, biphobia, transphobia, androgynous appearances and the exclusion of masculinity including any phallic associations. This often muddied the agendas and motivations for others in finding themselves and their belonging in lesbian spaces.

📗Femme : Feminists, Lesbians and Bad Girls (1997)

The pre-70s lesbian communities were governed by clear rigid norms about stone identities, with the “Butch only topping” and the “Fem only bottoming”, and the strict Butch-Fem pairing which pushed for a “queer-amatonormativity” to be upheld. When they were within the lesbian bar spaces, there were strict masculine and feminine roles to observe, including in appearances and the dyadic pairing. Beyond the bar, the roles in private sex lives may have deviated (ie Butch4butch, fem4fem, aroacespec butches and fems), but many were pressured not to talk about it due to its taboo nature.

While this provided safety and simplicity for a handful of butches and fems who required and/or desired clear outlines of this new gender binary to navigate society then, the Butches and Fems of the later decades had the means to encourage diversification.

Some, special mention to those of colour, were in favour of inclusivity for diversifying the strict binary enforcing of queer-amatonormative and sexual expectations. They challenged how the dyadic priority could be controlling and exclusionary.

While the impositions of OFOS ButchFem still affects butches and fem(mes) to this day, it would be incomplete to look at this without also addressing 2nd wave lesbian separatism and radical feminism, as well as the racism targeting the different progressive routes taken by QTBIPOC communities.

The ButchFem communities have historically already understood how gender style decides existence, and is always a matter of bodies and lives at stake. However, the pre-90s focus of queer validation was typically reserved for those who socially presented differently to their assigned sex, such as trans femmes and butches.

Butches were seen as the signifier of “obvious” lesbianism and the ButchFem dyad. Fems were sidelined as only tending to experience the “rawness” and risk by extension of the ButchFem dyad, and as such were often seen as “straight-er”. Femininity and androgyny were both seen as “not subversive enough”. Thus, Fems were often kept from claiming oppression and gender transgressiveness under the white cisheteronormative patriarchy.

Femme: FL&BG (1997) showcases interviews from Femmes who recognise the stigmatisations from “traditional” ButchFems as well as the radical feminists.

Butch Mystique (2003) interviewing nine African American butches addresses these stigmatisations too, and provide insight into how these interviewees deviate and transgress racialised cisheteropatriarchal norms and queer norms.

Between the 60s to 80s, Black lesbians and trans persons including transmasculine persons, Bulldaggers, B.D women, Bulls, Dykes, Butches, Fem(me)s, Studs, Fish, Drag Queens and transfeminine Femme Queens were the likely influencers for the Fem(me) identity flowing into the mainstream. Especially since Fem(me) was earliest used by the Black Ballroom community.

Stirring up of change and novelty in the traditional ButchFem dyad, the post-70s Fems began to incorporate Fem(me). They challenged the notion of “privileged passing”, addressed invisibility as oppressive, and argued against the invalidation of their struggles. By the 90s, the feminine-constructionist femme came to be someone who embodied their own unique signature, empowering themselves in the power and comfort of their own body.

Some Femmes pushed for the acknowledgement for their inherent gender non-conformity as separable from the erotic relationship with a butch. They were recognisably Fems, even beyond the Butch-Fem dyad. These Femmes coined the identity of the High Femme as a category of a transgendered femme experience which fucked with the ideas of normative Fem-ness and femininity. Many from diverse race and ethnic groups, and other subcultures, reached into their own sociocultural experiences to inform their gender performances. They likened this to a form of drag especially where it became a hyperreal self-emphasis. Like the Femme Queens of the Ballroom, they designed and publicly flaunted their own “girl-ness”.

The High Femme and the Femme were crucial to the creation of an independent Fem(me) entity, as an equal to the butch in all matters of visibility, gender non-conformity and lesbianism.

Fem(mes) emphasised the importance of creating community and solidarity with other fem(mes), which not only improved their partnerships with butches, but also challenged the discourse of a Femme’s independent relevance. They motivated Fems to claim their sexual and erotic autonomy beyond the ButchFem dyad, and voiced new perspectives in the transgender and genderdiverse consciousness of the ButchFem subculture.

It is evident that both Butches and Fem(me)s both white and especially QTBIPOC, have invested efforts through the many decades and revivals of Butch and Fem(me) consciousness, to balance the stigmatisations they face, challenge the social pressures of stone identities, and push for diversification and autonomy in gender reconstruction.

Closing Words

Today’s Fem(me) identity has fluctuated between recognising this legitimate divergence from the traditional ButchFem, versus lumping it together with the dyad’s emphasis.

I suspect that those who spread that High Femme = Pillow Princess or Stone Femme, were likely repeating what they heard from those within the community, who themselves either did not recognise this, or refused to witness this history.

The reductiveness of the High Femme identity as dependent upon the Stone Butch, takes away from this history. Not to mention the limitations on others to define high femmeness for themselves (verbally, physically, lifestyle choices +++) constitutes label-policing.

Decontextualising it from the Black Ballroom influences is whitewashing and ahistorical which contributes to academic racism, especially when QTBIPOC butches and femmes were frequently marginalised by white butches, femmes and lesbians, and have been consistently written out of American history unless as victims, dependents or threats.

It erases the feminist movements within ButchFem subculture that had little to do with the erotic aspect, and minimised the credit of fem(mes) who took the strides for autonomy in their gender and sexuality non-conformity.

Especially with High Femmeness once again being mistaken for Pillow Princess and many seeing it as inextricable from Stone Butches while shaming others for using it in the traditional (or other) ways.

Some attempt to re-assert a “sexual hierarchy” of Femmeness any which way, hindering sex positivity. It erases the work that Femmes throughout time have put into gender and sexual autonomy, to impose onto others pressures and standards to only see Femmeness and High Femmeness in the context of the dyad. This is comparable to how the prejudiced Gold Star Lesbian identity has been weaponised against people within the community.

Personally, I encourage people to defer to adopting the identity of the High Femme, in all of its historical glory, and separate it from the Stone Femme or the Pillow Prince/ss.

Doing so not only empowers Femmes, credits our Femme predecessors and challenges the white-washing of ButchFem history, but it potentially presents a strong counter against the criticisms of many lesbians who are not a part of ButchFem(me).

As many outsiders assume the “cisheteronormative” nature of it, the High Femme and Femme identity provides evidence contrary to the dismissal of Femme’s autonomous constructions of their own femininity and masculinity. Furthermore, it challenges the generalisations of “passing = privilege” for femmes, and diversifies the recognition of transgendered experiences.

[knightfaetality]

Femme Masculinity: Multicultural Genderdiversity

l assure you it's fine to acknowledge that some femmes incl. BIPOC femmes, can and want to be masculine. And that their presentations don't have to be feminised to "respect that they are a femme".

Femmes can be masc-, men-aligned, androgynous or xenogendered (cannot be defined by current gendered schemas).

Femmes can have short, long or textured hair. Have any physical features and statures. Wear makeup or be entirely makeupless. Have the most gorgeous manicured acrylics, or bite their nails into choppy tips. Dress to their heart's content or not care about fashion at all. Wear stiletto heels or worn-in boots, long swishy skirts or a suit and tie.

Femmes can have straps, packers, penises and any genitalia—and they can call these whatever they want, too. Femmes can sweat, curse, have a voice like a foghorn. Have any kind of personality and take up space. Be emotionally and sexually unavailable. Have financial independence and even oversight. Be strong, body build, do the heavy lifting, or not do physical exercise at all. Engage in physical and gruelling labour. Have body hair or none at all. Not be great with kids or to love taking care of them. Be family-centric, or have no ties to family at all.

Some femmes see these as feminine things ( and yes your packer/strap/penis can absolutely be feminine if you please ), others as masculine things. Some might be genderfluid and see these as characteristic of multiple genders. Others might not associate with gender at all. Some prefer masculine compliments, some feminine, some neutral, and others dependent on the giver & the context.

None of these makes them less femme, all of these can be of any gender or a-gendered. None of these require a white person's gender-detection skills to be validated and absorbed into Eurocolonial standards. And sometimes what you believe to be a compliment, may contain oppression, erasure and violence to another. Insisting otherwise is Racism, Femmephobia and Exorsexism.

Some of you with your femmephobia and ignorant white feminism, will insist that some BIPOC femmes' practices and attributes are "very feminine". When the whole point of BIPOC allyship is to not generalise gender, feminise nor masculinise BIPOC practices.

At this point, some of you are repeating the inverse, while believing that's allyship. Meanwhile it's your voice and generalised POV centered over a BIPOC's individual voice, and you're rewarded for your ignorant impositions. This is still white-centrism as arbiters of multicultural genderdiversity.

We are typically misgendered and stereotyped under Eurocolonial standards, when we each have unique associations with our own cultural practices and traits that might differ from people within the same culture.

We don't have to do away with our intracultural AND intercultural genderdiversity, just to fit white-dominated discourse.

We don't have to be reduced to a monolith, to please white performative activism.

And while we are at it, we can, but don’t have to participate in your language and terms if we don’t want to.