Gender Non-Conforming on The Runway – Results

Screen Shot 2014-08-31 at 9.10.59 PMLast week, I conducted a survey to understand more about my audience, as well as communities understanding of the What Is Butch? Movement and Fashion Show and how people’s thoughts and feelings when it comes to this particular organization.

Thus far, the results areĀ amazing. Thank you to everyone that participated. I learned that several people think that the organization is too inclusive, when it comes to including transgender males in their fashion shows. However, there is an equal amount of support for the organization and believe that the organization is headed down a good path. This means that there is an audience for the organization and its work. However, there are also questions about how transgender males can be included in the framing of the term Butch, by the organization.

There are several on going conversations about the inclusion or exclusion of transgender people from organizations and movements, because of their transgender status. Several people within the LGBT community identify Transgender Exclusion Radical Feminists (TERFs) as people who do not support the inclusion of transgender women as feminists. Thus questions, “what is feminism?”

In the same way that people prefer to exclude transgender people from feminism, some people wish to exclude transgender people from identifying as or with the term Butch. Therefore I must ask, “What is Butch?”

https://twitter.com/ButchOnTap/status/498346574016040961

According to Mirriam-Webster dictionary, a butch persona is a person with “notably or deliberately masculine in appearance or manner.” By this definition, any person can identify as butch. However, some people think the term is more deliberate or specific to a group of people, lesbians with masculine traits.

How would you define the term “Butch”?