Join us as we celebrate this special awareness day
BY LUCY CHUNG, IMAGE BY PABLO MERCHAN FROM DIVERSIFYLENS/ CANVA
Butch Appreciation Day is celebrated annually on 18 August. It is a day dedicated to uplifting butch identifying individuals for their unique contributions to the lesbian community. Butches have long been advocates, activists and cultural powerhouses, pushing lesbianism to the front of the zeitgeist.
Authors like Leslie Feinberg revived butch-femme gender dynamics in the 90s. The phenomenon initially began in the 40s/50s but was later shunned as being “heteronormative”. When authors like Feinberg challenged this and presented that butches disrupt the status quo, people began to newly appreciate the contributions of the butch community.
As a more visibly othered demographic, butches are more likely to face discrimination for their sexual orientation. The day is all about showing support for masculine-presenting lesbians and all that they have done for lesbians and the wider queer community.
Butch Appreciation Day likely came from a string of appreciation days which emerged in the 2010s. Yet, considering the unique challenges and experiences of butch and stud individuals, it seems only fair to separate this day from the trend of celebrations like Cupcake Appreciation Day.
So much of lesbian history has been either undocumented or unarchived. Though there is a preconception that everything on the Internet is there forever, many archived sites from the early noughties will never see another click again and are lost in the web surfing backrooms.
The earliest online echoes of Butch Appreciation Day appear to have begun in 2011. One of the first photo contributions to the Facebook page “International Butch Appreciation Day” was posted this year.
Similarly, a Tumblr blog post by user @solidlifechoices was posted on 18 August that year, reading:
“It is Butch Appreciation Day. Butch tops, stone butches, leather butches, and my all-time favourite, butch bottoms, I am thankful for you in the bedroom and out. I appreciate every butch identified friend in my life. Especially thankful for the ones I have been lucky to call lovers, and specifically the one in my life now who completely and utterly rocks my world. You ladies are amazing. Much love, DD.”
Clearly, @solidlifechoices post already had the now official date penned, suggesting that Butch Appreciation Day was an agreed-upon celebration within the community already.
However, further internet archive searching has proven more difficult. Unaided by tags, and lone-rangering through the Internet Archive “Wayback Machine”, meant a disorganised yet charmed exploration of butch appreciation past.
Sites such as The Butch Femme Network clearly championed the idea of celebrating butches and bringing the community together.
“The Butch-Femme Network was founded in Massachusetts in 1996 and quickly developed a global reach. This pioneering initiative responded to an emergent need for isolated Butches and Femmes to make community connections, and find love, support, and education.”
The web domain has now been sold, and the site can only be viewed in its archived form. Other sites which presented themselves on Internet Archive were Shoe International and blogs like Lesbian Dad. These were places the online lesbian community could use to connect and offer each other advice at every stage of life.
Butch Appreciation Day goes beyond a date on a calendar. It exists as part of a rich history of queer resistance. As bars close, cultures shift, and web domains and blog posts are lost to the passing of time, it’s important to memorialise lesbian history as the blueprint for future generations. Butch appreciation day exists as part of a wider online cultural trend oflesbians seeking each other out for community, guidance and acceptance.
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