🍊'And when I look at a history book and think of the imaginative effort it has taken to squeeze this oozing world between two boards and typeset, I am astonished.' - Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit 🍊

"We go from store to store, trying to things on and inspecting them. I give my opinions on dresses and shoes, blouses and lipstick colors. Sometimes I say things that make the other women look at me, agape, as though my mouth has been possessed by that flighty queen from Queer Eye even while the rest of my body still looks like any other big dumb boy's. I say that I like a skirt but I wish it were bias-cut instead of A-line, or that I am not fond of the fashion for surplice tops, or that the post-WWII idiom in shoes this season is amusing but rarely looks good on actual feet, or that I like the look of a bolero jacket. I know the names of colors, heliotrope and coral and Nile blue, and I can say without hesitation whether a lipstick might look better matte with a bit of powder.

These other women look at me with wonder, their boyfriends and husbands having made a fetish out of refusing to learn such words under any circumstances, as though merely pronouncing the word "periwinkle" or "princess seam" could easily turn a strong man gay as a box of birds. They say to her, "That's your husband?" in voices that loiter between admiring and disgusted, as though they know that there's no force on earth that could make their men or boys take such interest in their clothing and they think they might really prefer that to the spectacle of me, filling an armchair, legs crossed ankle over knee, looking just right until I say "tea length."

The point is that she wants other girls to see what it looks like to have a boy so cracy in love with you, as I am, that he will spend an afternoon talking about capri pants to have a boy so delighted by you that he never calls you by your name, but addresses you always as "beautiful girl," or "my love" or occasionally and with great fondness, "boss." To have a boy who will happily fetch your next-size-down and carry your bags and charm the salesclerks at the register without flirting overmuch and just generally try to make himself as useful as possible, all for the dizzy and undying pleasure of making you happy. And even though I am not a boy, I look like one, and so I can be complicit with her in this kind of wonderful afternoon, part indulgence of her great beauty and style, part guerilla feminist activism.

Later, when we walk through the mall or down the sidewalk, me laden with packages that are clearly hers, I watch the eyes of the people we pass: the women who look at me with a certain longing, wishing they had their own boys to carry the bags. The men who look at her with an unmistakable hunger, wishing that they had the honor of schlepping for a girl like her, and then look at me with a certain edge of disbelief, not quite clear about why I get to squire this marvelous example of femininity around when they are clearly wealthier, more handsome, better hung. I have learned to meet all of these gazes with a calm kind of sweetness. There's no point in defensiveness or sheepishness or challenge. I'm the one holding her bags."

"Being a Shopping Switch” Butch is a Noun essays by S. Bear Bergman (2006)

Butch is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman

ID: image 1 - text reading:

"AND ON FEMMES COMPORTMENT

1. Femmes are not defined by their clothes, hair, or makeup. Not all femmes are inclined toward superfeminine clothing. Do not be surprised when you meet a girl and get all types of marvelous femme signals from her even though she's wearing jeans and a pullover and Birkenstocks, even if she shows no interest in makeup. Although I would make a sizable bet that you'll find a matched set of lingerie under there."

Image 2 - text reading:

"2. That being said, many femmes are interested and invested in their clothes, makeup, hair, nails, or some combination thereof. Many femmes have large wardrobes, great bags full of confusing cosmetic items, stacks and stacks of shoes, a rainbow of nail polish colors.

And mousse, and gel, and hairspray, which do not, I have it on excellent authority, serve the same function. Warning: Do not make the mistake of thinking that a femme's interest in Estée Lauder is incompatible with great intelligence, or you will miss many pleasures of life. Not the least of which is the company of femmes."

END ID

READ BUTCH IS A NOUN

free (pdf)!

If you're butch, femme, or love someone who is, read this book. SO slept on.

Hey does anyone know where I can buy a physical copy of Butch is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman? Everywhere I look it says it’s unavailable

From one tme person to another, please stop making trans women/woman one whole word when you use it and turning into a noun instead of using "trans" as an adjective. I've noticed a bit of an uptick in posts by other tme folks doing this in post with the intention to be positive and supportive but to do so is ultimately harmful to lots of our sisters who are uncomfortable and even upset by its use.* To turn trans woman into a noun is to basically denotes that trans women are not women, instead it divides them into some sort of "other" from other women. Using "trans" as an adjective on the other hand, simply adds a descriptor to a woman. Notice how we don't tend to do the same for "cis woman" or other descriptive language of identity.

*some trans women spell it all together and given they are TMA (transmisogyny affected) its perfectly within their power to do so! The issue is with us who are TME (transmisogyny exempt).

Love when a new trend crops up on some other platform but I don’t learn about it until there’s a post going around about why it’s generally problematic/a dog whistle/etc.

tomorrow im a bday girl omg........

settled on boydyke femme for my identity cool cool ok.

my nasty little trait is how annoyed i get when people use femme instead of fem or blonde instead of blond

"I KNOW WHAT A BUTCH IS I know what a butch is. I know, and I'm going to tell you, so listen up and take notes. First of all, butch is a noun. And an adjective. And a verb.

Butches only ever wear jeans and boots, except if they're wearing suits, and they keep their hair clipped down to a flattop you could putt off. Except if they have to for work. Or if they want to for sex. Or if they want to for some other reason. But otherwise it's denim and leather and butch wax, kid, and don't you forget it. Unless you're vegan.

Toughness, even at the expense of gentleness, is a butch trait. Butches are outlaws. Also gentlemen. Gentlemen who open doors and pick up checks and say "after you" and hold your umbrella over you in the rain while the water drips down their sleeves. But butches not gentlemen if being a gentlemen if being a gentleman means imposing on the unsuspecting their sexist modes of acting out the cultural paradigm of the helplessness of women. Except if the unsuspecting are crying and need a handkerchief, or elderly and need a seat to sit down in, then it's all right. Probably. But butches should never wait for a femme to tell them specifically that it is all right to behave in a gentlemanly fashion, they should just go ahead and do it because femmes like a butch with confidence, unless it turns out that she finds it offensive and feels as though you have imposed your gender fetish on her, you arrogant bastard."

-"I KNOW WHAT A BUTCH IS", Butch is a Noun, essays by S. Bear Bergman (2006)

Butch is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman

ID - text reading:

"the gifts of femmes. My hands, my gaze, my walk and my manner, the referent of my eyes, mark me as a butch who appreciates femmes, who honors and cherishes and delights in them, and when I am away from my wife, my home, other femmes soothe me as though it were as much my birthright as my religion."

END ID

I did too much research on neopronouns and now I have too many options

DP x DC: Homme Fatale

Noun. homme fatal (plural hommes fatals) An ultimately seductive and dangerous man; a womanizer.

On a bit of a Film Noir kick right now, so blame that

Imagine, if you will:

Danny, a private eye in Gotham, ever the hard boiled detective, sitting in his dark office, drinking coffee you could use to tar a roof. The office isn't in a good neighborhood but rent still ain't cheap. He's fixing to get a new case on his desk soon

Enter one Timothy Drake-Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprizes. He walked in shirt unbuttoned dangerously low in a suit sharp enough to cut yourself on and bags under his eyes to large to be counted as carry on. Mr. Drake has a job for him, one he wants to keep quite, and one important enough that he's willing to add a couple zeros to Danny's usual rate. This job is a dream come true... almost too good to be true...

or

Tim Drake aka Red Robin(yummm) needs plausible deniability on a case tied to his civilian identity and so hires a PI and lays down a trail of clues for him. All the while playing up the Noir tropes to flirt with the cute detective.

why doesn't he just take care of it as Red Robin? Shhhhh... the detective is cute and he's having too much fun playing the homme fatale

Bonus: Immediately after wrapping up Tim's case Kon walks into Danny's office dolled up in a vintage dress, period appropriate makeup done, all to play the part of the Femme Fatale and do the exact same thing Tim did. Does he know Tim literally just did that? Maybe, maybe not