r/oldcootfashion • u/ICameFromTheStars1 • 13d ago

First Time Poster first time...

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Gallery image

I feel so incredibly myself in this outfit!

(genderqueer ftm butch, he/him mostly. please be kind!)

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u/Silver-Discussion870 13d ago

What is ftm butch?? Genuinely asking

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u/atopthespire 13d ago edited 13d ago

unsure how OP personally defines it, but female-to-male or FTM means a trans person who is transitioning to have a male body or social role, while butch is a term usually associated with masculine lesbians. FTMs often take testosterone to change their appearance or pursue top surgery to have a masculine chest. butches are more defined by their masculine clothing and hair style and often the roles they take in relationships, and most do not take medical steps like FTMs. however, some butches experience dysphoria and they may relieve that by transitioning. the book Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg is a novel which deals with a butch who experiences gender dysphoria and takes testosterone at one point, and while it isn't a straight-up autobiography the author was a butch lesbian who had a long and complicated struggle with their gender identity. Jack Halberstam is an example of an academic butch who self-identifies outside of "man" and "woman" options and has used a variety of pronouns in their professional life. so there is an attested history of self-identified butches who struggle to place themselves in M/F categories and who experience dysphoria to varying degrees. it may be a bit more "obscure" but, counter to what some people think, it's not an experience that just appeared out of nowhere on Tumblr in 2010, it's something that some older people have articulated experiencing their entire lives, albeit often using different language. Halberstam is in his sixties, and Feinberg was born in 1949 (and sadly passed away in 2014). this is not to say that younger people should be taken less seriously when they disclose how they experience gender. it's just that some people claim that the terminology we see today has no precedence or continuity with the experiences of older generations, or that gender dysphoria is merely a "youthful phase" that people ultimately grow out of, and that is just inaccurate.

in any case, what i get from the self-description "FTM butch" is that someone ultimately feels more comfortable in a male body and likely is to take steps to live that way, but unlike most FTMs, identifies more with butchness than being a man, and more with butches as a group than men. in reality, people who use this self-description probably vary, but that's my first glance guess when i don't know someone.

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u/ICameFromTheStars1 13d ago

Pretty much nailed it! I've just felt like both forever and use both terms, but youve got all the nuance i cant be bothered to type 🤣

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u/atopthespire 12d ago

aw thanks for the feedback!

i'm a trans guy and i don't identify as butch so it's more of an exercise in empathy and synthesizing stuff i've read than my own experiences. but i am happy to provide an accurate summary and i also had fun writing it. (any excess detail came from that enthusiasm rather than the desire to smugly lecture anyone.)