When I blogged about Chaz Bono I said gender is complicated and that I felt like I needed to write an entire series in order to cover everything that Chaz's announcement brought up.

Well, gender is complicated and here I am blogging about gender identity much sooner than I expected to be.

Thanks @hedonia and @honeybeast for suggesting BlogHer might be interested in blogging the Top Hot Butches. It's a very bloggable topic and I thought I'd just pitch to Zoe since she's our GLBT blogger. But first, I decided I had earned a bit of eye candy surfing time.

I was already familiar with Sinclair's Top Hot Butches site. I'm a big fan of SugarButch and I'd already surfed my way through a few of the Top Hot Butch photos. (Melissa Ferrick #51, awesome! Have you seen her new haircut, HOT! Err, sorry, where was I?)

What I thought was going to be a quick surf became a long read about Sinclair struggling with the removal of 13 Trans Men from the Top Hot Butches list.

Wednesday, 24 June, 9:30am EST: This morning I removed 13 transmen from the list. There has been much, much critical feedback and discussion about the inclusion of transmen, and I appreciate all who have taken the time to email me and to comment and to participate in the conversation. I am reading through as many of the discussions as I can. I’m working on a full statement, which I will issue later today, and will try to figure out what to do about the holes in the 100 (now 87).

Now that's bloggable.

Look at the opening paragraph of Zoe's post about butch identity.

butch identity is at the other end of the spectrum, playing with masculinity and masculine roles, but not necessarily seeking to lose femaleness or to become male.

That's a pretty good start at looking at the butch identity. Let's look at it a bit more from the Top Hot Butches site, why butches?

I use the term here in the broadest sense – as an adjective descriptor, meaning an intentional display of masculinity.

I am using it instead of another term – like androgynous, genderqueer, or transmasculine – because I, personally, want more butch reclamation and visiblity, because I think butch identity is more widely varied in range of expression and identity than is usually represented, because I think it is the most accessible and recognizable word representing some sort of female masculinity, because I want to encourage its reclamation and intentional display, because it is sharp and satisfying as a title, and because it is slightly controversial and will stir up interest.

Clear right? You know a butch woman when you see one. Now, let's look at what happened on Top Hot Butches.

When I saw the list the first time, it did include some Trans Men. I found that odd and a little troubling because as I've said before - Trans Men are not women, they are MEN. Including them on a Top Hot Butch list undermines their identity.

Sinclair got some amazing feedback from the blogosphere and this helped her make the decision to remove those men from the list. Here's a snippet from her statement about why she removed the guys. You should read the entire thing.

The main critique of this list has been that trans men are not butches. Yes, of course, I know that, thoroughly. One of the ways I anticipated addressing this issue was that I clearly differentiated between butches and trans men in the copy of the Top Hot Butches site: I know trans men are men and not butches, but this is a list of butches and trans men, not only exclusively butches. What if I had a list of “favorite birds and cats” – no one would say “hey, you can’t include cats on that list, they aren’t birds!” But of course that is not an accurate equivalent: cats don’t spend significant time differentiating themselves from birds. I think a better equivalent is more like, “I’m making a Top Assholes List, and you’re on it. But don’t worry, I made a note and said you aren’t an asshole.” That would still be insulting to most (unless you self-identify as an asshole, I guess), and I think that is closer to the level of insult here.

You should also check out the comments where people very nicely jumped in with more butch women to fill in the gaps once the men were removed. Our very own Sarah Dopp was suggested (by someone other than me!)

We live in a world where people only barely understand what it means to be gay or lesbian. A lot of people think being bisexual just means you get to sleep around a lot. Even more people don't have a clue about what it means to be transgendered. The discrimination of trans people by everyone, including the queer community, is overwhelming. If we lived in a different world, I don't think it would have been nearly as problematic for Sinclair to have included Trans Men on her butch list. But while we're still educating people, (and ourselves), muddying the waters of identity and orientation is too risky.

Look at some of the links I collected between the time Sinclair began dealing with the problem on the Top Hot Butches list and the time I started writing this post.

Poison?

Does the term cisgender mean a whole lot more than: a person whose biological sex and gender identity are synchronous?

Certainly, there are times when I suffer oppression. The restroom hassles at work come to mind. And maybe then I need some strong language to describe what is happening to me. But in my day-to-day life, the trans and cis prefixes are becoming next to meaningless. And that's what I always wanted, right?

Grandpa's Agenda

The Human Rights Commission in Maine has been getting it right lately when it comes to protecting trans people in that state. Back in May they found that a trans woman banned from using the restroom in a Denny’s had indeed been discriminated against. Now they’ve backed a little girl who was forced out of the girls bathroom by transphobic attacks.

March a Mile in My Shoes

I shouldn’t need to point out that this kind of website endangers the lives of trans women. It also contains more of the same jokes about how some women look like trans women that we’ve already pointed out (over and over) as massively misogynist and transphobic. Even when you do it to Ann Coulter. It’s not really “appreciation” or “admiration” at all. It’s like creepy birdwatching… of human beings. Human beings who are targeted for violence.

Women and Trans Health Care Really Ought to Mean it

Queen Emily was trying to find trans friendly health care services in Louisiana. Believe me, this is not an easy task even in regions that haven’t been economically devastated by disasters and disastrous government. I have risked my own health more than once because it’s so hard to know if walking into a random doctor’s office is going to result in some kind of problem just due to being trans.

Gender IS complicated. Gender identity is even more complicated.

Now go look at some really hot butch women...

Do you have a favorite? Do you want to talk about how this list makes you feel? Any confusion over why someone is labeled butch? And, the elephant in the room now that trans identity has been addressed... is this misogynist?

~~Denise
Flamingo House Happenings