Brief Summary Of Stone Butch Blues By Leslie Feinberg

Stone Butch Blues is a novel of autobiographical fiction based on the author, Leslie Feinberg’s life.The story is full of heartbreaking struggles of gender, sexuality, the law, abuse, and finding home in a world where being yourself is against the law and dangerous. The book begins with the main character, Jess, as a teenage butch lesbian in the 1960s when being gay, and dressing in what were considered “Men’s clothing” were not only illegal, but behaviors that opened the character up to harassment, assault and rape by simply being her truest self.
Basically, this is a complicated and heart wrenching story about Jess trying to find a home and community when the whole world is against her. The places where she feels comfortable, in undercover

“Is that a boy or a girl?”, Jess was asked constantly as a child. As she grew, her physical and emotional masculinity only grew. She never wanted to be different, Jess just was. Later, in high school, Jess overheard a coworker talking about a gay bar in Niagara Falls, so Jess started taking the bus from Buffalo to the bar whenever she could in the summer while school was out. Though still nervous to fit in, Jess felt like she had found her people when she walked into her first gay bar. She built strong relationships there and learned about the whole world of femmes and butches, and found a model for what she wanted in life -- Jess wanted a femme. But Jess’ time at this bar would only last so long until she and her friends at the bar were arrested. This is our first look into the way cops brutalized gay people during this time. The police assault the patrons and arrest most of them. Then Jess sees what really happens- the cops sexually assault the lesbian women. Jess’ world of friends shattered after

Her classmates also refuse to accept her, and she is ostracized, bullied and brutally raped on the football field. After Jess was raped by her classmates, she decided to drop out of school entirely. She went to work looking for a new gay bar. Things escalate between cops, the queer community.
Although Jess escaped the trauma of her youth, Jess is now faced with a new trauma of simply surviving in the world. On one of the nights they are arrested, a femme says to Jess, “stay tender.” Jess doesn’t understand what the femme means, but throughout the book, Jess is conditioned away from being tender and sweet to others because a darkness has taken over- a stoniness to protect her from the brutalities of the world.
Later in the book, Jess continues her work in factories. She is a butch working with some of the most traditionally masculine men and attempting to fit in. Jess is, in her own eyes, a working class dude in need of the love of a femme, just like any man.
Jess starts taking testosterone and begins passing as a man. While this seems like a cure for the reticule and abuse Jess has faced throughout her life. Jess says it's nice to have people look at her as a real person instead of a freak. But passing has also made her invisible; it has robbed her of her