Abstract
In the queer historiography of mid-twentieth century Britain, the figure of the butch lesbian looms large. However, in stark contrast, very little has been written about butch identity in the landscape of the late twentieth century, despite the growing visibility of queer lives in general. In this respect, queer historians are out of step with contemporary butches themselves, who, I argue, are keen to trace a more joined-up and coherent history of butchness that threads its way to current iterations of butch. Further, within what we might call this ‘public history’ of butch, self-identifying butches position themselves as part of an evolving lineage of butch and masculine of centre (MoC) female gender nonconformity. Looking forward to their descendants, as well as back to their ancestors, butches thus position themselves as agentic actors in a history of butch. In this chapter I utilise excerpts from oral history interviews conducted with self-identifying butches to explore the ways in which they understand and place themselves within this history. In so doing I explore the ways in which lesbian feminism of the 1970s and 80s curtailed butch expression and identity, findings its traces in my narrators’ testimonies who, nonetheless, reclaim butchness through searching reflections.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Routledge Handbook of Contemporary British History |
Editors | Sarah Crook, Sarah Kenny |
Publisher | Routledge |
Publication status | Submitted - 2025 |