"Is she a butch or lipstick lesbian?"

Halberstam writes, “I was trying to talk about the ways in which desire and gender and sexuality tend be remarkably rigid.” We often associate butch lesbians with sagging pants or lipstick lesbians with lace and frills, just as gay men are often divided into those with muscles and those with purses. Butler points out that “such acts, gestures, enactment generally construed are performative in the sense that the essence or identity that they otherwise purport to express are fabrications manufactured and sustained through corporeal signs and other discursive means.” Therefore, an individual’s desire to act in a certain way does little, or nothing, to dictate their self-identification as a homosexual. Whether one takes hormones or not does not determine her level of being a woman or being a man. It seems that heterosexuals have consumed themselves with trying to expose “are you gay” and homosexuals have consumed themselves with trying to figure out “How homosexual are you?” or even “what are you?” I was shocked to read that some lesbians view female-to-male transgendered women as traitors or that FTM consider butches (who prefer to dress like boys but not take hormones) as punks, who are scared to really make the change. Halberstam identifies this behavior as “border wars” between butches and transsexuals. It seems it would be better to let individuals come up with titles for themselves, because few individuals are totally stone butch, transgendered, lipstick lesbians, soft book or androgens. It is astounding how much energy our society puts into labels.

Butler and Halberstan’s readings have really changed the way that I have considered sexuality. Questions such as, “Are you gay or straight?” have always crossed my mind when meeting someone new. If they were gay they could be followed by thoughts of “Is she butch or femme?” or in the instance of a homosexual man “Is he a top or a bottom”. These readings have broadened my conception of sexuality to extend beyond the boxes that society has created to identify levels of homosexuality and now such questions, as those listed above, seem trivial and superficial.