this local woman who has a tomboy kid reached out to my butch group to see if a few of us wouldn’t mind having brunch with her family and a couple more of the girls tomboy friends, cuz she read that it’s important for your development to have adult versions of “people like you” in your life when you’re growing up. which is definitely true. so we’re going over tomorrow. can you believe that? like, I’m gonna cry.
Op how did it go if I may ask?
Hi! Figure I’ll answer everyone at once here. It was kinda incredible… it was three little tomboy kids, 5 adult butch pals, and a couple of the parents, eating pancakes and muffins and playing games for a few hours. Learned a lot about each other and told each other stories, both good and bad. We lent the kind of advice that these good natured straight parents just don’t have the frame of reference for, and we talked about what we did for work and school, learned about what sports they play, suggested reading Tamora Pierce. Colored some protest posters too — the kids came up with all the words on their own, stuff like “were here whether you like it or not!”
It is awful to think about all the BS that these children have had to go through already — weird to think that we (the adult butches) know these stories of exclusion and hostility so VISCERALLY from our own and each other’s lives and childhoods, but hearing them come out of the mouth of a 10 year old girl is… something else. they have had to learn how to stand up for themselves, and they’ve got such thick skin now, but… most of us learn that so much later, or lose it as we leave childhood, and I’m so confident that at least THESE KIDS have a very real support system, parents who love them for who they are and want to encourage them to be happy and healthy even if it means life in the outside world will be harder. I dunno. I feel really hopeful.
i’m sure someone probably commented on this post already but this is calamity jane, they eventually move into a tiny cabin together and sing a song about how “a woman’s touch” can fix anything. i watched this movie daily when i was about 7 and now i’m a dyke
my butch lesbian professor who is well into her sixties had told me that this was her first real exposure to the concept that a woman could not only be attracted to other women, but be butch while doing it. she said this movie propelled her into her sexuality with a sense of pride and remains a cornerstone of her coming-out journey. in short, representation matters and always has.
BUTCH/FEMME: Butch-femme relationships, as I experienced them, were complex erotic statements, not phony heterosexual replicas. They were filled with a deeply Lesbian language of stance, dress, gesture, loving, courage, and autonomy. – Joan Nestle, 1981]
with the help of my friends, I made a new lesbian flag that has a meaning since the widespread lesbian flag we use has no meaning and was just posted as the lipstick/femme lesbian flag on a blog back in 2010. I know a lot of lesbians including myself who would rather have a flag with a meaning, so my friends & I are hoping this is gonna catch on eventually!
from top to bottom, the meanings of the colors are: loyalty/trust, freedom to love women, trans/nb lesbians, serenity, and pride/love for oneself.
after a lot of input from people on this post, I’ve realized some things that need fixing about the colors of this flag. with the help of my friends again, we’ve made modifications to the flag. the two top colors have changed to fit better together, and the flag as a whole is more saturated. thank you all for your criticisms on the flag because that helped a lot with fixing it! this is the finalized version:
since a couple of people were asking as well, it is okay to use this flag as icons/headers/etc and is okay to use without credit but I would appreciate it since the flag is fairly new. I also 100% don’t mind people who aren’t lesbians reblogging this, as long as you’re being respectful and are spreading this for your lesbian followers I appreciate it!
special thanks to @cerebrite & @maidofluck for helping me with the original flag, and @lesbistani & a friend who does not wanna be mentioned for helping with the finalized version!
this flag is also a lot more inclusive of butch lesbians because the old flag was based off of the lipstick lesbian flag, which was a flag for femmes, and made butch women feel isolated from its symbology
this flag is brand new! so it doesn’t carry that connotation. i am butch and i love this cool new flag, personally
knitting in the dark 