Butch Vulnerability: An Expression Of Concealed Emotions

Being butch refers to female masculinity, which does not have to be based on an individual’s anatomical position, but on their behaviours, traits, and self-perception, as defined by Halberstam. Ann Cvetkovich defines “butch untouchability or stoneness” as an emotional style. She further states that “butch emotional untouchability is actually a form of vulnerability, but we can only recognize and be touched by it if we understand the expression of emotion to be a matter of style, a performance of interiority in which the display of feeling can take the form of not showing it”. The characters of Jess and Amy strongly exemplify what Ann Cvetkovich calls “stone butchness as emotional style” through their moments of vulnerability, throughout the pieces of literature, and how they choose to challenge the limitations of the society in which they live in.

The narratives Stone Butch Blues and If These Walls Could Talk 2 both take place in the time period of the 1970s. During the 1970s, ‘he-shes’ or ‘butches’ often partook in the same factory work as men and were linked to the working-class culture. The working-class butches were widely considered as an outlaw and were forbidden from involving with the middle-class feminists’ movement, as a result of their female masculinity. Butches, along with femmes and drag queens, hung out in gay bar cultures as a space for social interactions; however, these social spaces were often shut down by police during violent raids. Also, there was an increase in gender divide between the Gay male culture and Lesbian separatist culture, and a class divide between the Gay working-class bar culture and middle-class university culture was established. The 1970s witnessed significant cultural changes and marked the beginning of the political sense of sexuality.

Jess Goldberg in Stone Butch blues is a ‘he-she’ who is an outlaw and outcast along with her other butch friends. While conversing with Theresa, a femme who she is in a relationship with, Jess expresses her vulnerability as she states “maybe I don’t have feelings like other people. Maybe the way I grew up changed me inside. Maybe I’m like the plant: my feelings got so chocked up that I grew in a different way”. Jess conveys her pain of having to prove herself to be like other women, when in reality, she doesn’t completely feel like a woman. Jess’s plight of feeling different, isn’t considered ‘normal’ by society. As a way to fight back the constraints of the society she lives in, Jess decides to start on male hormones, which would allow her to pass in society as a guy. Jess believes that “the hormones are like the looking glass for her. If she passes through it, her world could open up, too”. She views the male hormones as an alternative to prevent the society from questioning her masculinity, her butchness.

The character of Amy from If These Walls Could Talk 2 is a politically incorrect, young, butch woman, who dresses up in shirts and ties and rides a motorbike. Throughout the movie, she is seen “dressing like a man” and is reprimanded constantly by Linda’s lesbian friends. Amy is continuously judged; however, she still chooses to dress the way she is comfortable. Amy goes against the restrictions imposed by the world and is proud of being butch, as “she doesn’t need other people to define who she is”. She carries herself confidently and does not allow anyone’s opinions to change her into becoming someone she is not. Amy’s vulnerability is tested when she is invited to her girlfriend Linda’s house where Linda’s friends are also present. Linda’s friends rebuke Amy for the way she chooses to dress, in a suit and tie, and force her into trying on a “normal” women’s t-shirt. Amy eventually agrees, telling them “I’ll try it on”. Amy is frustrated with the constant attempt by Linda’s friends to provoke her into wearing feminine clothes, but eventually gives in as her feelings for Linda overpower her. Amy is disappointed with Linda’s friends, as they disapprove of her, just like the rest of the people in society and expresses her displeasure to Linda, explaining that her “clothes are only a part of who she is”.

Jess Goldberg and Amy are two individuals from different narratives that live very similar lives based in the 1970s. Their perceptions of how to deal with society and its retaliation towards their identity of being butch differs greatly; however, the complications they face in the world they live in are similar and interconnected. The characters’ expressions of vulnerability and methods to deal with the constraints of the world exceptionally illustrate Ann Cvetkovich’s implication of “stone butchness as emotional style”.