It’s not very surprising that butches aren’t seen widely. My sense is that a lot of butches themselves aren’t really clamoring to see characters that look like them and are fine with watching the same gaggle of femmes that entertain the wider public. A market that consists of only a percentage of the gay community is not worth going after in most cases.

sittingoverheredreaming:

docholligay:

I think I have a number of butch followers who would disagree on the nature of seeing themselves

OH ANON. You’ve really hit a button for me, there’s SO MUCH I want to say, but I’m on mobile so I’m gonna take a short cut and just say that there was literally a song about the importance of butches seeing themselves performed at last year’s Tony Awards. SEEING OURSELVES MEANS A LOT.

Okay, I’m doing this. Like, I obviously can’t speak for all butches, but working in retail in nyc, I see quite a few. And there is almost always a moment where I see joyous recognition on their faces when they see me and realize we’re the same. AND I AM JUST A RANDO IN A BOOKSTORE, NOT A CHARACTER WHO DOES AWESOME THINGS. JUST IMAGINE.
And as far as me personally, I take every scrap of representation I can get because there’s SO MANY THINGS telling me being this way is wrong. People either pressure me to be more feminine or they pressure me to be something other than a woman. The few butch characters I have showed me that I can be this way, and they give me something I can hold onto in this tide of bullshit. I mean, I’ve said before I wouldn’t have figured out how to be myself without Haruka Tennoh, and it’s absolutely true. She resonated with teenage me SO MUCH, and it still took me years to finally dress the way that makes me feel good and comfortable. If I had seen myself on regular television, or in books I read, or in movies, I probably would have figured things out so much sooner. And now, even being sure of myself, I wish I had more well known characters to point to when people question me, ask me why I don’t wear big earrings or get breast implants (yes, real thing a woman said to me) so they could tell more easily I’m a woman, or ask how I can think I’m a woman when I dress like this, aren’t I non binary, or a man?I wish I had more loved butch characters to think of whenever I hear a girl say there’s no point in liking butches, because what’s the point in liking a girl who doesn’t look like a girl. I WISH SO MUCH ANON.
ALSO. I get the implication from the “butches like watching femmes” bit that you mean we care about seeing people we’re attracted to than ourselves, which, fuck off with that bullshit. Not to mention butches can also like butches. We’re people, believe it or not, there’s some variance among us.