Nothing much at all really.Originally Posted by DemonicDaughter
I mean "feminine" relates to female and to woman, as "masculine" relates to male and man. But there are infinite ways for a woman to be herself, as there are infinite ways for a man to be himself, even if western society frowns on some of them (as many of us here will know). And that's if we're only talking about a binary gender model.
I prefer "femme" and butch", since they float free of gender essentialism. Femme and butch are performance of gender; self-expression, of feelings, of style, of attitude. If I feel a greater need to cross-dress than usual I might "up my femme"; or maybe I'll feel the other way so that someone might say "you're looking very butch today".
Basically anyone can do butch and femme, irrespective of how their gender is defined. You can have butch transwomen and femme transmen too (though Standards of Care may try to impose the "appropriate" one). They say nothing about your essential gender, so you can forget bothering about it.
Does that make sense to anyone else?
