Stone Butch

The term stone butch originated in the 1950s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) bar culture and is used to refer to a particularized expression of female masculinity. The female counterpart to the masculine role of the stone butch was typically the femme, a feminized role of a lesbian. Although the stone butch has [Page 811]been typified as a top, sexually aggressive relationship role, social roles of stone butches have varied greatly in their significance in queer subcultures.

The stone butch is typically referred to as an expression of female masculinity in same-sex, female relationships. However, its experience varies greatly from relationship to relationship. Butch often refers to masculine lesbians. The title stone butch is linked to a masculine, impermeable exterior. Historically, the stone butch has been characterized by a distinct form of gender performance, where one is defined as not being treated sexually as a female. Although not the same for all stone butches, many do not receive sexual stimulation associated with female sexual organs. Sexual pleasure is derived through other forms of contact, often through friction and wearing dildos. Some stone butches have sexual reassignment surgery, but do not necessarily identify as transgender. Others exhibit masculinized gender expression, taking a dominant position in relationships. The partner to the stone butch, traditionally, is a femme, a softer, feminized lesbian persona. A distinction of the stone butch from a sexual replication of male sexuality is the centrality of the femme's pleasure. Some stone butches prefer the use of masculine pronouns, but others do not. Similarly, some identify with the LGBT community, although not all. Stone butches today are not confined by the butch-femme relationships. Instead, there has been an emergence of stone butch relationships that are experienced within a continuum of masculine expressions. Although it was once frowned upon in the 1950s and 1960s bar social environment, it is today more acceptable and even common to see different types of butch performance in both sexual partners, rather than masculinity embodied in only one half of relationships.

Socially, the stone butch has been one of the least understood and deviated forms of sexual identity. Stone butches were often singled out by their masculine attire and hard exterior by police and openly harassed and shunned in the public eye. However, academia has praised the reversal of traditional gender roles and the incorporation of masculinity into an entirely new form of lesbian expression that is neither wholly female nor male; thus transcending binary gender roles all together