Scan barcode
A review by mbzoller
Butch Is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman
informative
2.0
I think this book would have been great at its publication.
There are a few things that no longer hold up due to changing popular culture, such as the distaste for plural pronouns to refer to gender non-conforming people.
There were so many times where I could see where Bergman was going with a story but I found that it was often diverted from that point that would have been impactful. Often at the end of the essay Bergman would qualify hir statement by acknowledging that there are many contrary or differing opinions and a breadth to the identity of butch that goes beyond what they spent the essay building. Resulting in the essay constantly falling flat.
I also found that Bergman refers to any non-butch, non-heteronormative or non-masculine woman as "femme". This struck me as not dissimilar to the term "female" in toxic alpha male culture today. Continually ze referred to butchness in a way directly contrasted to "femme"-ness, as if the butch identity only makes sense as the black to the white of femininity. It felt reductive and misogynistic.
I found that the anecdotes of Bergman's personal life and gendered experiences were deeply moving and poignant, whereas the generalities and prescriptive essays were where the problems persisted. Identity is not stagnant, monolithic, and restrictive, so such definitive ideas of identity necessitated the qualifying statements I mentioned above.
There are a few things that no longer hold up due to changing popular culture, such as the distaste for plural pronouns to refer to gender non-conforming people.
There were so many times where I could see where Bergman was going with a story but I found that it was often diverted from that point that would have been impactful. Often at the end of the essay Bergman would qualify hir statement by acknowledging that there are many contrary or differing opinions and a breadth to the identity of butch that goes beyond what they spent the essay building. Resulting in the essay constantly falling flat.
I also found that Bergman refers to any non-butch, non-heteronormative or non-masculine woman as "femme". This struck me as not dissimilar to the term "female" in toxic alpha male culture today. Continually ze referred to butchness in a way directly contrasted to "femme"-ness, as if the butch identity only makes sense as the black to the white of femininity. It felt reductive and misogynistic.
I found that the anecdotes of Bergman's personal life and gendered experiences were deeply moving and poignant, whereas the generalities and prescriptive essays were where the problems persisted. Identity is not stagnant, monolithic, and restrictive, so such definitive ideas of identity necessitated the qualifying statements I mentioned above.