Butches, Femmes, and Heteronormativity

The heteronormative view of sex and gender that holds people fall into two distinct categories of gender, male and female. Heteronormativity assumes a strict alignment of biological sex, gender identity, and gender roles. The terms “butch” and “femme” inherently go against the basic ideology of heteronormativity – that men and women should act fittingly based on their sex. After all, most butches and femmes act opposite to heteronormative standards, with lesbian females exhibiting overly masculine traits and gay males displaying feminine qualities. Undoubtedly, an individual characterized as a butch or femme does not conform to heteronormative criteria; however, what the two terms entail essentially reinforces the binary classification of gender that heternormativity supports. Butch and femme are regularly used to describe the identities or roles of people in homosexual relationships in order to make them analagous to heterosexual relationships. Regardless of biological disposition, someone always, as they say, “wears the pants” in the relationship, with the butch embodying the conventionally male role.

Judith Butler’s theory states that there is no true ideal masculinity or femininity – these terms are a product of a repeated enactment of what we or society collectively perceives as appropriate ends of the spectrum. These “performances”, over time, create distinct opposites, or what we understand to be masculine and feminine. Gender performativity is the process of constructing a cogent appearance of belonging to one gender or the other. The terms “Butch” and “Femme” do this exactly, as they are terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine conduct, style, or appearance.