Customer Reviews

Butch Is a Noun

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a self-identified femme who has always loved women of the butch persuasion, I have been asked a million times, "If you want to date a girl who looks like a boy, then why don't you just date a boy??" This book finally gave me the words to explain what I already knew I loved: the compassion, the cockiness, the fear, the struggles, the toughness, the sensitivity, and the oft-hidden inner world that makes butches who they are. My very favorite paragraph explains it best... a butch is "someone who has taken on the best gendered characteristics of both woman and man, left a lot of the stuff born of misogyny and heterosexism behind, and walked forward into the world without apology."

I think that from now on, THAT will be my answer to the question I am sure I will never stop hearing.

Thank you, Bear, for this great book!

A previous reviewer stated that this book buys into the misogynistic patriarchy, that's not the point of the book. Butch is a Noun is about what and who and why butches are the way they are. It's not about challenging the man, it's about celebrating butches in all of their flavors and forms. It's about looking at the gendered world around us and seeing it differently and how a biologically born woman can be a man in a gender binary world.

I highly recommend this book to any and all readers who are curious about the butch/femme dynamic, gender, and sexuality.

At times funny and at times so true that I cried, this is a book worth not just reading, but savoring.

Bear confronts identity where most of us would prefer to quietly take it for granted, and does so in entertaining language and single-serving essays. Explaining up front the benefits and how-to's of gender-neutral language, ze lays out the realities of living as a non-normative gender in a way that is both authentic and intense.

This is a book for butches, for those who love them, for all flavors of identity outlaws, and for anyone who needs a little help understanding why not everyone in society meets hir expectations (and how to deal with it).

Bear is sweet, funny, honest, and charismatic. You'll fall in love with hir.

This book is well-written, accessible, touches on theory without ever getting bogged down in academic language or references, and will help you to understand what butch is and can be if you come to it with an open mind. Bear's voice comes through clear and strong, as if you were sitting there listening as ze told hir stories to you personally.

Those reviewers referring to "lesbians" and "gay women" are missing the point of this book and might want to consider re-reading it. This book isn't about women or lesbians; it is about BUTCHES, whose gender identity might be woman, man, genderqueer, BUTCH, or some other designation, and whose sexual identity might be gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, or any other orientation.

Butch is a noun and an identity all its own, in many cases a gender identity. When butches partner with femmes, there are often aspects of heteronormativity to their relationships, because they arise out of the identities and inclinations of the partners, but this does not in any way validate heterocentrism or misogyny in the culture at large, invalidate the experiences and preferences of those who do not identify as butch or femme, or say anything at all about lesbians or women or what they should do or say or be.

If you do not identify as butch (or possibly masculine genderqueer), this book is not about you. Do not expect it to showcase your experiences or resonate with your identity or validate your feelings. Expect it to tell you about the identity, experiences, and feelings of Bear and many (not all) others who do identify as butch. Expect it to give you the opportunity to explore a world beyond binary gender, where not everyone identifies as man or woman, boy or girl, heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.

Highly recommended reading if:

- You are working out/building your gender identity

- You are studying gender identity or sexuality, either academically or personally

- You have a loved one (or are attracted to someone) who identifies as butch and you want to understand better or just read essays and vignettes that reflect a butch perspective

This book is amazing. I rank it up there in the top five books about queer gender. I found it funny, moving, and very smart. Bear's prose reaches inside you to hold you close, show you something you never thought of, offer a mirror to the things you always knew, and just delight in your big belly laughs. Enjoy this book; I know I did.

I totally enjoyed this book on many levels. I found thought provoking essays that will keep me ruminating for a while. I found amazing personal depth shared and explored in prose. And the writing was endearing, I found myself wishing I knew how to waltz by the end. Thank You Bear for a wonderful book I know I will read again and again.

So far this is turning out to be one of my favorite books of 2007, mostly because the writer's voice comes across so strongly. The short pieces are something like meditations on various aspects of butch life, masculinity, femmes, chivalry even.

Butch is a Noun has a thoughtful quality that is simultaneously political which I think is an ideal combination for a book about living in the world as a misunderstood gender.

I am a queer woman who feels little personal connection with a personal experience of either butch or femme who also has a great deal of personal connection to butches and femmes. This book gave me a framework for the kind of butchness that can be gentle and loving, a butch love that is fierce.

Butch is a Noun is a collection of essays that comprise that framework. At times, I felt that the essays were too short, that a certain amount of narrative depth was lost by the almost journal-style of the essays and that a couple of them could have been combined to provide more variance in style and form.

However, I think Butch is a Noun found it's best footing as a gender critique. Butch is a Noun is an often loving experience of genderqueerness and transgressiveness, but Bear never stops asking questions like "How can we do better?" I was particularly appreciative of the essay addressing misogyny in butches and of the essays shining a loving light on butch-butch love. Bear doesn't simply tell hir stories, zie provides a range of experiences as a framework to start to ask questions and (maybe) explore some answers.

I found this book absolutely delightful. The author did a wonderful job of delving into topics that are generally spoken about, and ze did a wonderful job of painting an undiluted portrait of butches in general. A must read for all, especially parents with butch daughters.

I purchased this book not knowing what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the author's emotions. Bear is very articulate as ze describes the warmth, comfort, and safety within the queer community versus the dangerous and painfully hurtful rest of the world. This book is educational but delightfully entertaining at the same time. I highly recommend it.