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Gender Identity In Stone Butch Blues By Leslie Feinberg

1592 Words7 Pages

“Warm memories flooded me: Butch friends, drag queens' confidants, femme, lovers. I couldn’t find them now. I was alone at this crossroads. I couldn’t bring myself to sink the needle into my thigh. Then I pictured my Norton (motorcycle), all smashed to smithereens in the parking lot. I stabbed my thigh with the needle and injected the hormone. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.” Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (Pg 178)
I began with this quote to show it can be challenging for the lesbian community, especially butches (lesbians of masculine appearance or behavior), to find the threshold between gender. As well as bringing up the topic of Lesbians, the male gender, and the FTM community in the 1900s. Many lesbians, nonconforming, …show more content…

The similarity between butch and FTM is a very blurred line because both use a more masculine presenting gender expression. The difference that sets the two apart has more to do with gender identity itself. As a butch, they have a “Sense of humor about one's discomfort in the world (with gender). The butch laughs at her gender discomfort, which the FTM finds his discomfort to be a source of great pain.” (Findlay, Heather) Heather explains the emotional aspect that separates the two from one another. Displaying that for a butch, gender is not a source of pain because they are fine with the gender they were assigned at birth. Whereas, an FTM gender is a source of pain and discomfort emotionally because the gender they were assigned no longer aligns with their identity. This is where gender dysphoria comes into play which causes FTM’s, and more, anxiety about their body. FTM in modern society is defined as a cisgender female who now identifies as male or with a male-aligned identity. This creates the foundation for the clear distinction between what butch is compared to someone who is FTM/

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In her article, “A Scar is More than a Wound: Rethinking Community and Intimacy through Queer and Disability Theory”, Karen Hammer examines how Jess’ traumatic experiences in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues becomes the foundation for her and other transgenders to find “community and intimacy” (160). In doing so, Hammer expertly highlights Jess’ constant need to establish a home of acceptance to combat the violence she faces throughout the novel. Therefore, Jess uses her traumas to form connections with other transgenders to provide a sense of community. However, Hammer fails to acknowledge the consequences of forming a community based on shared experiences of violence. Jess expresses these consequences in her willingness to give up on the

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