Discover Top Posts Tagged with #stud-fish

Happy international lesbian day to the recently discovered and newly out lesbians!

Happy international lesbian day to lesbians who live in areas with small lesbian communities.

Happy international lesbian day to the trans and GNC lesbians!

Happy international lesbian day to the butchfemme community!

Happy international lesbian day to the BIPOC lesbians!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN DAY

Bisexual & BIPOC Diversifying ButchFemme History

From ‘Femme: Feminists, Lesbians & Bad Girls’, Chapter “Fishes in a Pond”, interview with Jewelle Gomez. A Fish, a Black Femme author, poet, playwright, who was in the lesbian bar scene from the 60s and 70s.

#faetality.femme #faetality.reads #faetality.bipoc #faetality.intersectionality #faetality.queer #lgbtq #sapphic #lesbian #bisexual #stud #fish #stud-fish #butchfemme #Butchfemme history #butch #femme #bipoc queer #qtbipoc

Fish Flag

Original Flag, Inspiration, and Palette by @estrogenism (Thank you for the permission to edit this flag!)

What does Fish mean?

Fish is a black exclusive term for a femme lesbian. This label was first recorded as a counterpart the label 'Stud' in a Masters of Arts thesis titled, 'A Study of a Public Lesbian Community' by Ethel Sawyer. Black masculinity is to Stud as Black femininity is to Fish.

The Flag: Symbols and Colors

School of Black Fish: In the original flag I found on my dash, estrogenism uses an image of a tropical fish to represent the body diversity among black femmes. I decided to go with a school of fish to represent the community among black femmes. Initially, I wanted the school to look like a crescent moon to represent femininity further, but I wasn't fuckin' with it.

Colors:

The darkest purple: Womanism (a feminist school of thought centered around the black experience)

2nd darkest purple: Black sapphicism

2nd lightest purple: Black sapphic history

Lightest purple: Unity between all fish (trans, cis, intersex, aspec, arospec etc)

Lightest pink: Subversion of femininity

2nd Lightest Pink: Vulnerability (????)

Orangey-Pink: Persistence

Red: Love

Recommended Reading

Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls (Edited by Laura Harris and Elizabeth Crocker) [There are two relevant segments. Fish Tales and Fish Pond]

A Public Study of a Lesbian Community by Ethel Sawyer (This study was done by a heterosexual woman. Due to the time it is from, harmful stereotypes of both studs and fish are portrayed in this thesis. These misconceptions are incredibly dated.)

Note: Based on the reading that I have done (Including the original thesis itself), some bisexual women were involved in the lesbian bar culture and identified with the label Fish. Out of the 7 fish interviewed by Sawyer, 2 out of 7 (28%) enjoyed sex with men. That being said I don’t mind or care if black bisexual femmes use this flag. But please understand the difference between presenting femininely and femme culture within the sapphic context (specifically butchfemme/studfemme/stud-fish community) before using this label.

Butchfemme and Studfemme/Stud-fish story ideas for AO3

Childhood Rivals/Enemies to Lovers Stud Goldilocks/ Femme Baby Bear. Please tell me you can see the vision. Plus size femme Baby Bear, Dreadhead Goldilocks.

I talked about them on here but Mothfemme + Cryptid Obsessed Butch. I still wanna write them

Angsty Detective Butch + Criminal Femme Fatale

That’s the post

I finally hit my femme rite of passage….Slip nightgown as an everyday dress. When I wear it as a fit and I get pictures?!?! Prepare to be SICK OF ME!!!!!!!!!!!

#femme posting #butch bait #stud bait #butchfemme #studfemme #stud-fish #fish lesbian #fishposting #femme lesbian #dykeposting #lesboposting

“Members of Jim’s group are generally separated into the two categories of studs and fish. Studs dress similarly to males (slacks zip up the front, short hair cuts, no lipstick or makeup, men’s shirts or women’s boyish-looking blouses, etc) and attempt wherever possible to minimize their female characteristics, many wearing t-shirts underneath clothes to replace bras. Fish on the other hand dress as women in every respect, and to a causal observer might not appear to be in the life. However, aside from this obvious physical distinction (which services at once to designate who is and who is not available as a possible mate), there are the matters of appropriate mannerisms and behavior, domestic responsibilities, attitudes towards homosexuality, the larger society and towards oneself which accompany each of the two roles. These two roles are complementary, ie, a stud and a fish make up a homosexual couple. These two sets of persons, their corresponding values, beliefs, roles and expectations comprise the homosexual subculture under study.”

Note from author: Studs are those female homosexuals who assume, both physically and sexually within this homosexual subculture, the role modeled after the masculine role. Fish are those who take on the feminine role.

Source: A Study of a Public Lesbian Community by Ethel Sawyer (September 1965) [shout out to my moot @goldxnfemme for finding this thesis 🖤 CANT THANK YOU ENOUGH!]