Many people may have only just heard about Semenya - after the highly publicised IAAF ruling against her a few days ago. If she wants to continue to compete she will have to take contraceptive medication to bring her testosterone levels down to ‘normal’. All, they say, so there can be a level playing field. In fact what they are doing is punishing her for being - in Hannah Gadby’s immutable words - ‘an incorrect woman’. Isn’t there something haunting about forcing a lesbian to take contraceptives? A message to the rest of us that we will be drugged and forced kicking and screaming into the he ..read more

The theme of the next Butch, Please! is Butch Icons - which got me thinking about what that means and who are some of mine. I often think about my Great Aunty Lilly. Over dinner last year writer and activist Amrit Wilson encouraged me to write about her. But I hesitated, if I’m honest. It’s hard to break the vow of silence so many of us tacitly take over our own queer lives and of those that came before us. I like to think of Lilly as a butch icon. But of course I never heard her say the word butch or any other word relating to her sexuality - and no one else in my family ever did either. At ..read more

It's so awesome to see so much going on around the 50th anniversary of decriminalisation. The focus, of course, has been on gay men - who were so terribly criminalised. Sex between women has never been illegal in the UK. The erasure of lesbians affects - all - women deeply to this day and sits at the heart of patriacharcal thinking around gender and sexuality. That sex without a penis is not sex at all. Those who think that lesbians have suffered less should walk a day in my shoes. To walk the road of being a different kind of women, one who looks different or lives without a man can result in ..read more

In the last month, the entry on ‘Femme’ has been re-written on Wikipedia. You can read that entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme There is now no mention of the historical origins of Butch and Femme - as people of colour and working class lesbian identities - and according to the anonymous author, these relationships were ‘hegemonic’ and is when 'lesbians perform and embody the traditional stereotypes of cisgender-heterosexual couplings’. This is completely untrue and is a fundamental misunderstanding of what butch femme relationships are about. It’s a misunderstanding of lesbian se ..read more

This is a post from Facebook by Hank Bobbit, (Berlin based musician, barber and butch) who performed at the last Butch, Please! Dykes on Bikes. I think it speaks to so many of us who identify as butch - and the ways in which our way of life is misunderstood. It is in response to an article written by Michelle Tea - which you can read here: http://www.ozy.com/true-story/let-me-introduce-you-to-my-husband-wife/5992?utm_source=aah1&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pp&utm_content=inf_10_92_2&tse_id=INF_b6909d1058e311e6bb4f3bae7d1b3728 Michelle Tea writes: "...masculine - what was once ..read more

I came out in clubs. Age 20, I didn’t know any gay people. I didn’t know where to start. With my shaved head and ripped 501s, I was unsure how to find acceptance, let alone love. I picked up a copy of City Limits, and volunteered at the Lesbian and Gay Centre. Trembling, I worked on the lesbian disco, moving back the chairs. I was picked up that night and my confidence skyrocketed. After that, clubs became my playground. I went to Heds, The Bell, The Ace of Clubs. I studied by day and by night entered another world. Sometimes working; sometimes playing. Finally, finding song. Over the years ..read more

The term was first used when 'Dykes on Bikes’ opened San Francisco Pride in the late ’70’s but women had been causing a stir on motorcycles long before then. The idea and the sight of a woman on motorbike was and still is seen as radical and defiant. A woman who rides her bike is in control of her own destiny. She might take off and ride free on the open road. She might just know how to fix up a bike better than a man and she might even ride it faster. Dykes on Bikes, like butches, have been criticised for not presenting a more ‘acceptable' face of the LGBT community, often being labelled as ..read more

The blue dye used for denim was originally taken from the Indigofera tinctotia plant and has been used across time and the world over because of it's strength of colour and resistance to light and water. But it was also, and perhaps more interestingly, because of it’s gradual and often beautiful fading, that it became known as the ‘the living colour’. Many of us, it seems, walk around wearing the rubs, stresses and strains of our lives on our jeans - whether we’ve washed and pressed them or not. Denim is synonymous with radicalism of all types as well as a potent symbol of masculinity (think ..read more

A few months ago I walked some friends (a straight couple) to the tube from our house after dinner. We’d had a lovely evening and lots of drinks so I didn’t think too much about why I felt so relaxed. Later I realised it was because I had been walking the streets with a man - and it felt completely different. Different as in less vulnerable. I felt unusually invisible. It felt really good. In the anonymity of the street when a man sees a woman accompanied by another man there’s some kind of tacit agreement over ownership. For that short walk, I was owned, I was protected. The amount of street ..read more

I feel butch in boots. I feel grounded, literally, and I feel like whatever happens in the world I’m better placed to handle it in a pair of well made boots. For many years I yearned after men’s boots that didn’t come in smaller sizes, until I discovered Red Wings about 7 years ago. Initially attracted by the classic masculine styling and the white crepe sole, I’ve also come to love them for much more. Red Wing’s are handmade in Minnesota with Texan leather by crafts people who are paid a proper wage, on machines that can be over 100 years old. I like to think I wear those good vibes on my fe ..read more