"The butch and butch-fem image, as projected in this community, contained three explicit elements of resistance. First, butches, and the butch-fem couple, by “not denying” their interest in women, were at the core of lesbian resistance in the 1940s and 1950s. By claiming their difference butch and fem became visible to one another, establishing their own culture and therefore became a recognizable presence in a hostile world. Second, in the 1950s the butch, who was central to the community’s increased boldness, had little inclination to accommodate the conventions of femininity, and pushed to diminish the time spent hiding in order to eliminate the division between public and private selves. Third, butches added a new element of resistance: the willingness to stand up for and defend with physical force their fems’ and their own right to express sexual love for women.

This culture of resistance was based in and in turn generated a great deal of pride. Narrators are fully aware of how powerful their visibility was, challenging gay oppression and thereby creating a better world for lesbians today."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

"The pressure on butches and studs not to deny their difference and to defend themselves generated an extraordinarily complex and confusing relationship to maleness, which is vividly expressed in Sandy’s statement quoted above: “You were there, you were gay, you were queer and you were masculine. Men hated it.” These 1950s butches, particularly the leaders, were extremely masculine, and often thought of social dynamics in terms of male and female roles and relationships. At the same time, they were not men, they were “queer.” Throughout their life stories they counterpose acquiring masculine characteristics with not being male. The prominence of masculinity in their vision of themselves and in their understanding of the world is perhaps responsible for the contemporary confusion between these butches and passing women, and the assumption that these women must have been trying to be men. But to recognize their masculinity and not their queerness distorts their culture and consciousness and negates their role in building lesbian community."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

I'm sorry for asking for help. I'm so goddamn sorry asking again and again and again. I'm doing my best everday but it's... Not enough. All the donations I got this week went to build that were higher than expected. Higher water, rent, electric, and internet took everything.

I don't like asking because honestly I don't think I deserve help or kindness or love or anything. But I've broken down so many times. And today was very hard. I'm spiraling so fucking hard. And I know I'm going to have to ask every month for stuff and I'm sorry. I really am. It's not fair to you but all I can do is beg and ask for pity. I know I don't deserve it. I know I don't. But I'm.. not okay. I wanna be able to eat, or take a shower, or wash my clothes. And I'm sorry I'm being greedy asking for that. I'm so sorry. I...just really need help again. I don't have an amount in mind. I'm just sick of crying and wishing I wasn't here. I'll leave them the same below as before. I'm... sorry again.

Payton Pals: harphazardly (Legal Name on this one and a picture of a plush Flareon)

Cashmere Applications: $Generallyalive (Has the name Chuck on it)

Venice Monet: mindnum (Also Legal Name)

platforming palestinian joy is just as important as sharing the suffering they're enduring during this genocide. despite continued displacement and bombardment, you cannot steal their joy and spirit. happy birthday to this sweet baby 🖤🇵🇸 may they grow up to see a free palestine

I'm sorry for asking for help. I'm so goddamn sorry asking again and again and again. I'm doing my best everday but it's... Not enough. All the donations I got this week went to build that were higher than expected. Higher water, rent, electric, and internet took everything.

I don't like asking because honestly I don't think I deserve help or kindness or love or anything. But I've broken down so many times. And today was very hard. I'm spiraling so fucking hard. And I know I'm going to have to ask every month for stuff and I'm sorry. I really am. It's not fair to you but all I can do is beg and ask for pity. I know I don't deserve it. I know I don't. But I'm.. not okay. I wanna be able to eat, or take a shower, or wash my clothes. And I'm sorry I'm being greedy asking for that. I'm so sorry. I...just really need help again. I don't have an amount in mind. I'm just sick of crying and wishing I wasn't here. I'll leave them the same below as before. I'm... sorry again.

Payton Pals: harphazardly (Legal Name on this one and a picture of a plush Flareon)

Cashmere Applications: $Generallyalive (Has the name Chuck on it)

Venice Monet: mindnum (Also Legal Name)

"Despite the varied forces working toward lesbian unity, class distinctions remained prominent in bar life. The differences were represented spatially in the Carousel. The more affluent, status-conscious lesbians tended to stay in the front, at the bar, where the men also congregated. The younger rough and tough lesbians were in the back room, if they were not barred, while the older ones were comfortable in both areas. Class-based distinctions were elaborated by a discourse which heightened the differences in all aspects of culture—appearance, manners, sexual expression—and encouraged distance. Those in the front of the Carousel were not interested in getting to know those in the back. “I mean they weren’t appealing. They weren’t appealing to me. So I didn’t want to get to know them” (Whitney). A primary objection was to their violence. “No, I never particularly got in with the rough, tough crowd, bottle-swinging and bat-swinging bunch. I’m not a violent person” (Dee). But it was more than this, it was their overall manner—their style of being butch-fem, their appearance, their overt sexuality."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

I'm sorry for asking for help. I'm so goddamn sorry asking again and again and again. I'm doing my best everday but it's... Not enough. All the donations I got this week went to build that were higher than expected. Higher water, rent, electric, and internet took everything.

I don't like asking because honestly I don't think I deserve help or kindness or love or anything. But I've broken down so many times. And today was very hard. I'm spiraling so fucking hard. And I know I'm going to have to ask every month for stuff and I'm sorry. I really am. It's not fair to you but all I can do is beg and ask for pity. I know I don't deserve it. I know I don't. But I'm.. not okay. I wanna be able to eat, or take a shower, or wash my clothes. And I'm sorry I'm being greedy asking for that. I'm so sorry. I...just really need help again. I don't have an amount in mind. I'm just sick of crying and wishing I wasn't here. I'll leave them the same below as before. I'm... sorry again.

Payton Pals: harphazardly (Legal Name on this one and a picture of a plush Flareon)

Cashmere Applications: $Generallyalive (Has the name Chuck on it)

Venice Monet: mindnum (Also Legal Name)

Sketches 🕊️ °˖➴

Bro, I’m not joking, we NEED more butch representation in media. Its not enough to have a skinny woman with short hair, we need like, more diverse butch lesbian content in mass media productions and I don’t know who I have to shake and scream at to get it. Probably 0.01% of queer representation in media are actually butch, and the ones that are are weirdly stereotyped as cops or assholes (somethings butch lesbians have been getting since the dawn of time). Most butches are pretty sweet! That desrves to be reflected

Don’t just demand butch rep. Demand good butch rep.

"In the context of Black culture’s long tradition of organizing to resist racial oppression, the Black lesbian community took responsibility for creating its own social life. They increased the public presence of lesbians and developed a strong sense of community solidarity by supporting lesbian and gay bars in the Black section of the city, gaining access to the lesbian and gay bars in the downtown area, and developing house parties explicitly to create the best possible environment for their people. Their approach to building a better life had the confrontational elements of the tough bar lesbian style, as well as a concern for building bridges with the larger society. The Black studs were tough on the street and in the bars, demanding respect and fighting to defend what was theirs. At the same time, the fems, or sometimes butch-fem couples, gave parties which they handled with great pride and diplomatic skill, welcoming gay men, and reaching out to sympathetic straights. They forthrightly negotiated the boundaries between Black and white, heterosexual and lesbian and gay, and at times temporarily neutralized the power of hostile straights and the law."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

"Class divisions, which crystallized around the distinctions between the Carousel and Bingo’s, or the Carousel and the street bars, were woven throughout 1950s lesbian culture and imprinted firmly in its participants’ minds. Stormy, obviously of the Bingo’s set, reminisces: “The Carousel crowd wouldn’t be caught dead in Bingo’s. They would look down their nose at us. They drove better cars; we drove wrecks. … If you went into the Carousel with white pants on, they would stay white, in Bingo’s you’d come out gray” (Stormy). After further thought, she adds that the Carousel crowd was “more quiet and reserved. They’d come in with gay men. They had more gay men friends. They sat with them; this protected the bar. They sat in the front and us riffraff would sit in the back.”

Those in the Carousel distinguished the Bingo’s set as “dykes” or “bull dykes.” Whitney explains, “A dyke was generally a very masculine appearing, acting woman.” When asked why the women of her crowd who were also masculine looking wouldn’t be called “bull dykes,” she explains, “Because it was also a status thing. Society was lower-class and middle-class and what have you; no, it was generally, as far as I know, it was always used for people that were not as affluent.” When asked what made the difference she adds: “Well, I think to work, say in a plant, you have to have a certain amount of crassness about you, just for survival. And so I think the less privileged people were the more they assumed those type of roles just for protection.”

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

"The rough and tough bar butches—Black and white— with their male appearance and manners, were brazen rebels against injustice, defying society to accept lesbians for the “queers” they were. They, and the fems who associated with them, projected a vision of a single community that could take care of itself. Those of the more upwardly mobile white group believed that they could bring about the acceptance they were entitled to by living “normal” lives, and carrying on an individual dialogue with the world. Black lesbians effectively protected their own institutions through both diplomacy and physical confrontation. Black and white lesbians together created a pattern of interracial socializing that has perhaps not been matched by gay liberation, and certainly not improved upon."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

"The tradition of house parties had a significant impact on leadership in the Black lesbian community. Like the tough bar community, with which it overlapped, it respected those butches who could take care of business in the difficult environment of the street. But unlike the white bar community, it recognized and respected fem leaders. One reason for this may be the structural significance of home life in the Black lesbian community. Home-based parties gave fems, whose role was associated with domestic life, an arena for contributing to the social well-being of the community. They were key organizers for the house parties, dealing with problems internal to the community as well as relations with the outside world. In addition, fems opened their houses for visitors, nurturing those who needed a place to stay. Arlette, who was an important leader in the community, had the nickname, Mother Superior. When asked how she got this name, she explains, with a mixture of embarrassment and pride, that she always took care of people."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

"The tradition of house parties had a significant impact on leadership in the Black lesbian community. Like the tough bar community, with which it overlapped, it respected those butches who could take care of business in the difficult environment of the street. But unlike the white bar community, it recognized and respected fem leaders. One reason for this may be the structural significance of home life in the Black lesbian community. Home-based parties gave fems, whose role was associated with domestic life, an arena for contributing to the social well-being of the community. They were key organizers for the house parties, dealing with problems internal to the community as well as relations with the outside world. In addition, fems opened their houses for visitors, nurturing those who needed a place to stay. Arlette, who was an important leader in the community, had the nickname, Mother Superior. When asked how she got this name, she explains, with a mixture of embarrassment and pride, that she always took care of people."

- Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis

TWO HOURS AGO: an incredible photo taken by a ut austin student capturing something deeply poetic in my opinion, a line of state troopers eagerly waiting to arrest student protesters standing just behind a sign that reads "what starts here changes the world. its starts with you and what you do each day."

Alright friends I don't usually do this but I'm desperate!

I've just done 14 weeks of unpaid work and during this time I haven't been able to do any paid work. Because of this work placement, plus a recent family thing, I haven't worked since November.

As my birthday is this weekend (28/04) I'd really appreciate if some of you could consider donating to my Ko-fi as a little bday gift to help me get back up and running as I won't be able to go back to work until July.