the body you have

[chthonictonic]

shahn and naomi have got me thinking about butch(tm) in particular and gender in general again. Naomi with her fabulous(???) glasses and shahn with hir recent post. The general feeling that I've been getting is butch is definately less popular that it was in the 90's. Or is it that I am less in that space, trapped out here in suburbia with sippy

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[twostepsfwd]

Shahn is now a hir?

Butch is WAY less popular than in the 90s, in my world at least.

Genderqueer and FTM are as "in" as ever... But butch? Not so much, at least not with the under-40 crowd.

I have a very ambivalent relationship with my gender right now, too. I am feeling pulled in a variety of directions by a variety of influences. I am more in touch with my femininity than ever, but don't really like it. I am fully unclear of how much my trying to be less macho and be more comfortable with my femaleness is my authentic self showing and how much is just pressure to be less masculine, less gender ambiguous. I feel pulled/forced/pushed into femaleness as much as I was into maleness, but just by different people and forces and life circumstances and choices.

[chthonictonic]

regarding pronouns, i don't know which shahn wants, and my default for humans is "hir" (thanks scifi!).

Most of the butches I once knew are redifining themselves to be either more genderqueer, ftm or femme. Maybe its a natural progression of gender. I think I share some of your lack of clarity regarding being less masculine.

Though last night I made lemon poppy bread, which, was super butch because, in my house, baking is men's work. :P

[twostepsfwd]

I am definitely still butch, that part hasn't changed and won't. But the kind of butch I am... Is definitely changing and I don't know if I like it.

Lemon poppy bread = yum!

Funny, baking is men's work in my family. As is cooking. Grandpa (a very manly man) was a union baker his whole life. My dad was a chef. My mom doesn't know hwo to make anything except spaghetti and tuna-noodle casserole.

[chthonictonic]

we sort of have a psuedo gender divide amoung the men (mark and naomi) the woman (michelle) and the betch (me! thanks to kelly, betch is the new biatch). Usually cooking is betch work, baking is men's work and failing to boil water is women's work. Though some times the men cook and the betch bakes.

[rexlezard]

"As you know, you go to war with the body you have... not the body you might want or wish to have at a later time."

I love that.

I'm feeling...I dunno. I'm hearing you, though. Loud 'n clear.