Bi Butch - Blog Posts
I’M LITERALLTY SO OBSESSED WITH THE COLORS AND SYMBOLS OH MY GOD THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE SET THANK YOU OP
𐙚 ﹐bisexual butch + femme
a flag for bi femmes and bi butches!! i love you bi femmes and bi butches <33
bi femme flag symbolism ꒱
flag color meanings
blue : community and bi femme men
purple : queer spirit
pink : romance and love
white : femme diversity + trans and nb femmes
orange : gender nonconformity and butch solidarity
hot pink : passion and sex
violet : sapphism and bi femme women
bi butch flag symbolism ꒱
violet : sapphism and bi butch women
purple : queer spirit
blue : community and bi butch men
white : butch diversity + trans and nb butches
orange : gender nonconformity and femme solidarity
red orange : passion and sex
magenta : romance and love
the double crescent moon represents bisexuality, and i put them in the middle of the femme and butch symbols!
requested by no one ꒱
Bi Butch + Bi Femme flags!
This is not to discourage anyone from using the most commonly used bi butch and bi femme flags, but rather, I am personally uncomfortable with some views from the creator of those flags and I wanted to make butch and femme flags that weren’t “blue is masculine and pink is feminine”, and with the bi butch sun and moon mace, and the bi femme moon lipgloss symbols I made! (the symbols on all my flags are with various free to use images from png sites!)
My beloved bi butch bestie @bisexual-coala advised me while making the bi butch flag! especially the brown colour for butches, and I wanted to use purple and a strong shade of red for the bi femme flags!
Flags are symbols f2u! I hope you enjoy my take on them!
Presenting two new bi Femme/Butch flags!
As a bi Femme I decided to make two new bi Femme/Butch flags that are meant for ALL bi people,regardless of gender! :) It's for bi people ONLY! Feel free to give me tips for improvement,especially regarding the colours!
can u make a bi butch glitter thingy? because i rarely see bi butch positive shit and we gotta exsist😂😂(butches arent just lesbians)
of course my love!! <3
In case you prefer a different font/colour, I’ll link the website I use to make them below, since they really do take me all of about 5 minutes to make, & I don’t want to gatekeep. I’m by no means a graphic designer or tech wizz, lol.
can u make barbie a bi butch?? im tryna see sum
What are you asking for? For like an icon of Barbie with the bi butch flag? For a stick figure drawing of Barbie with more visually masculine or butchy clothing? Like do you want me to make Barbie a bi butch like march down to Mattel and create canon bi butch Barbie? Oh if I was a superhero that’s how I’d use my powers :)
THIS MIGHT BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE POSTS OF YOURS I'VE EVER COME ACROSS MARI OMG THESE ARE ALL SO GORGEOUSLY PRETTY FUCK I LOVE YOU MUTUAL /P
@xxcalicofemmexx i know you make wallpapers like this, look! 🫶
Various Bi Flag Wallpapers ✨
Pastel Bi (same meaning as OG bi flag) 🩷💜💙
Bi4Bi (bisexual who dates fellow bi’s) 🩵🌙💜
Selenic (specific to bi wlw/bi sapphics) 💜🌙🤍
Bi dyke (selenics who reclaim dyke) 💜💛❤️
Bihet (selenics who reclaim bihet) 🩷🖤💙💜
Camellian (selenics choosing saph4saph) 🩷🌸💜
Bi femme (a bi who is femme) ❤️🩷💜
Bi butch (a bi who is butch) 🩵💛💙
biphobic wlw who insist bi women cant use butch or femme, while giving the reason that bi women dress or present themselves to get the attention of men as their justification, are repeating biphobic stereotypes - bi women are all hyper feminine, are less committed to women, etc - that have a very ironic history considering current discourse, its very strange.
like, in the 90s and further back, it was assumed that femmes were bisexual and butches were lesbians (keep in mind, i am using modern terms here, ‘bisexual’ was not in common use as a sexual identity in the 50s as bisexuality was deemed an impossibility by the medical establishment at the time. bisexuals were seen as switching between the straight world and the gay world). nowadays, thanks to some biphobes who cant read their own history, a lot of ppl think bi women arent allowed to id as femme or butch at all. but, although the word ‘bisexual’ has been erased, bi women’s participation in butch femme bar culture is obvious in the similarities between femme stereoypes and bi women’s stereotypes.
femmes were seen as ‘less committed to the life’, they were distrusted bc they could pass as heterosexual, femmes were assumed to take the passive role, they often struggled to be considered ‘true’ lesbians, and were thought to not truly be interested in other women. bi women on the other hand, will inevitably end up with men, they have straight passing priviledge, are stereotyped as submissive, have their attraction to women dismissed as a phase, and are just straight girls who hook up with other women to get the attention of men.
spot the difference lol. the reason both sets of stereotypes are so similar is bc femmes (while not always bisexual just like butches arent always lesbians), were assumed to be bisexual to the point where a great number of negative attitudes towards femmes at the time are probably due to biphobia, and modern attitudes towards femmes still reflect this history even if bi women themselves are currently being pushed out of iding as butch or femme. considering this, its ironic to see these same biphobic attitudes being repeated as the apparent reason why bi women cant use the terms at all now.
it makes me wonder how much of the misguided effort to push bi women out of these identities was done to have femme become a legitimate lesbian identity with the same complexities as butch. if femme lacks complexity its due to biphobic stereotypes associated with the identity. therefore the solution becomes to state; “bi women are gender conforming and therefore cant be butch or femme, because obviously they cant understand the complexities of either identity and any bi woman who ids as femme must mistakenly view butches as men lite with no real understanding of how femme is a subversion of femininity that deliberately rejects men.” the same biphobic sentiments that discredited femmes before are now used to bolster the identity for some by saying there is a wrong way and right way to be femme (and butch by proximity), then, pushing the ones doing femme wrong out of the community.
but if thats the solution it doesnt solve the underlying problems of biphobia (and misogyny lets be honest here), which has a negative effect on all wlw not just bi women. not to mention basing an identity on a rejection of men alone isnt a stable identity itself bc it means you always have to outwardly perform that action of rejecting men over loving women to be seen as correct in that identity, all wlw will be under scrutiny for their identities until the actual problem of biphobia gets solved.
also here are my sources: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
(This used to be a part of this post, but I figured it wasn’t especially relevant to the topic at hand, so now it’s here.)
Many books discussing butch/fem(me) history point out that a number of women in the scene, particularly fems, were behaviorally bisexual. Due to this—as well as their femininity—fems and fish (a black fem identity) struggled in lesbian communities to be considered “true” lesbians as they were often stereotyped as bisexual. Many butches/studs assumed they were more likely to leave the “lesbian life” because they could “pass” for straight, which, y’know, totally doesn’t sound like how people talk about bi women today whatsoever.
While I’m not necessarily equipped to provide a full MLA-cited deep-dive analysis on butch/femme identity, here are a few quotes (and a very long paper about femme bisexuality if you’re especially curious).
From Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (1994):
Fems, who never ceased to act on their own initiative, in some contexts were defined as other, as not really lesbian, because of their traditional feminine looks or their active heterosexual pasts.
In keeping with narrators’ varied experiences in finding their identities, the community did not have—nor does it now have—a hegemonic view about how to draw the line between the homosexual and the heterosexual. Many narrators see the butch lesbian as the true lesbian. Other narrators consider anyone who stays with women and is part of the community a lesbian.
The boundaries between heterosexual and homosexual have always been difficult to draw… The gay liberation model made the boundary clear by categorically including every woman who is attracted to a woman. But throughout the twentieth century there have been women who have spent some time in the heterosexual world and some in the homosexual world… Most narrators were aware of these ambiguities and took them into account by speaking in terms of bisexuality, or the pure versus the less-pure lesbian.
It may be important to note that even up until—and during—the 90s, “lesbian” was sometimes defined as “any woman who has at some time in her life loved another woman” (see pg. 11).
Bi butches have been around for a while, too.
From the 1995 essay “Too Butch to Be Bi”:
But being a butch woman who is also bisexual can be difficult. It feels sometimes that the the idea is so challenging—since the assumptions in our communities are that all butch women are lesbian women and all femme women are bisexual women—that often a butch woman trying to come to terms with being bisexual is stuck.
[…] But once we find a community that is accepting of our same-sex interests, we run into an entirely different series of messages. A number of these are about appearances and what they are supposed to say about who we are. The ideas about femmes (femme women aren’t really interested in other women, and femme men aren’t really interested in women at all) and butches (butches are always the aggressors in sex, whether they are men or women) permeate our queer culture. These ideas make it difficult for us to explore who we are and who we want to be. Many people feel too threatened to challenge the status quo of an already fringe community, for fear of being outcast from the one place where they have struggled to belong.
From a 1996 interview with Leslie Feinberg:
And I would say that people who were referred to as drag queens, [sh*m*les], female impersonators, drag kings, diesel [d-slur]s, butches, et cetera, uh… Nowadays we think of them sometimes as just being synonymous with a certain kind of sexuality, but in fact there’s a lot of butch women who sleep with other butches, or who are bisexual, and the same thing is true with feminine men.
From the 1997 book Femme: Feminists, Lesbians and Bad Girls:
[Heather Findlay]: Negative Message number three: ‘Don’t date a femme, because she’ll leave you for a man.’ […] I know tons of butches who have slept with guys, and for some reason there’s not some big stigma attached to that. That doesn’t threaten their membership in the lesbian community, but with us [femmes] it does.
From a 2000 issue of Bi Women: The Newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network:
But I also think bi women like to experiment with the wide range of possibilities along the butch/femme continuum without feeling confined by them. And that’s fun to watch! And I think many people assume that because bi women are also interested in men that they all would be femmes. Oh, how wrong they are—hallelujah for butch bi women!
Femme/butch identities are not static and they are not necessarily constricting, but they can be. Femme/butch arose out of a historical context where woman to woman love was not safely or openly acknowledged… As queer people have established a safer, more visible place in the world, femme/butch have become much more fluid (and perhaps diluted) identities or presentations.
actually here’s some nifty links discussing butch/femme history and how it’s not lesbian exclusive and never has been
this one includes quotes about butch mlm, who have been using the term butch since at least the 1960s
this one discusses bi women using femme, even when they’re with men
this discusses the history of femme and butch in wlw spaces
this discusses how claiming butch/femme is lesbian exclusive is antiblack and racist
this one talks about femme as a term for all lgbt people (includes the d slur and f slur)
some more discussion of bi femmes
here’s a long article about femme bisexuality
some more quotes about bi femmes and bi butches, including a quote from leslie feinberg about butch bis
this talks about femme as a community wide term
this one is about butch bisexuality (d slur)
this is about femme bis and butch bis
read about polari
this is about butch/fem(me) history
here’s this about ball room culture, and this, and this
aaand here’s butch is a noun
the other bi butches i know do not include it in their bios, and as for myself i tend to lock my accounts if possible. one of my mutuals on twitter (probably yours too, i’d imagine) works way too hard to defend us and it’s really frustrating to witness because people refuse to even read/listen.
I wish people talked about how alienating it is to be butch and bisexual.
Almost everyone acts as if it's only lesbians who can be butches and even the lesbians who know that butch is not exclusive to them don't bother educating fellow lesbians. It's up to us and when we do try to educate others, we get harassed by terfs and exclusionists saying that we are "stealing lesbian culture" as if bisexuals weren't right beside yall helping build butch femme culture.
Heck even the butch bisexuals who are vocally active in the butch side of the internet don't call themselves bisexual and butch proudly in fear of getting harassed for being openly themselves. It's so fucking sad. I wish we had more solidarity. From lesbians, other queer people and especially other bisexuals. I wish I wasn't made to feel so isolated from the community that is supposed to be accepting of me.
Alright *cracks knuckles* let’s list all of these (from left to right, each row starting from the top)
Violet bisexual (bisexual who is saph4saph) flag made by @pinescaperers
Bi femme and Bi Butch flags made by @disasterbisexual-moved
Bi Dyke flag made by @dykenotdeer
Lovecore Bi flag made by @ yuzukuro-archive
Bisexual flag made by Michael Page in 1998
Hecatic flag (for all bi sapphics) made by me!
Hesticarn flag (a “girly” version futch) flag made by me!
Goth Bi and Blood Bi flags made by @man4jiro
Selenic Flag (for all bi sapphics) on twitter made by @ LUV4SAPPHICS
Bihet insult-reclaimed flag made by @femmebis
Toxic Bisexual (stereotype reclaimed) flag made by @toxic-bisexual
Bi Girl flag made by @ bizexuality on twitter!
Bisexual Feminist flag made by me!
Hesticarn Flags 🌸🌸❤️🌺🌺
Hesticarn, bi hesticarn, lesbian hesticarn, and sapphic hesticarn flags (in that order)
Hesticarn is a mixture of butch, femme, and futch, at an almost even balance, but is always/often incorporating a sparkly, pink, or typically feminine aesthetic
Hesticarns might feel liberation from wearing pink dresses but with sneakers, being a motherly/maternal figure to others but like in a fruity big bro sense, doing traditionally masculine activities but with a girly aesthetic like working out but with pink weights or pink gym clothes, dressing completely masc but with glittery pink lipgloss, and redefining what a mix of butch and femme means to them. It’s giving Barbie Butch. Think pink suits and ties rather than pink dresses. Or pink dresses but with hairy legs and “sitting/behaving masculine”. It’s however a sapphic transforms butch and femme identities while always/often incorporating girly/pink aesthetic in some form.
The name is derived from Hestia, the Greek Goddess of the Hearth, and Carnations, a flower (which is also the flower on the sapphic hesticarn flag!)
Why is the in-general hesticarn flag (for bisexuals, lesbians, all sapphics) almost identical to the bisexual hesticarn flag? 1. The crescent moon on the bi hesticarn flag will tell them apart and 2. It’s okay for different identity flags to look similar, the genderfluid flag would basically be the asexual flag if you swap the pink and blue with the grey, 3. Bi women are pushed out of butch and femme spaces so much I wanted to create a butch/femme identity flag that was centred on bi sapphics, even though it does represents all sapphics!
Flags open to all sapphics! Bisexuals, bi+ wlw, lesbians, unlabelled sapphics, nblw, etc!
