gender troubles: the butches (2016), dir. lisa plourde

“When we say Marxism is correct, it is certainly not because Marx was a “prophet” but because his theory has been proved correct in our practice and in our struggle. We need Marxism in our struggle. In our acceptance of his theory no such formalization of mystical notion as that of “prophecy” ever enters our minds. Many who have read Marxist books have become renegades from the revolution, whereas illiterate workers often grasp Marxism very well. Of course we should study Marxist books, but this study must be integrated with our country’s actual conditions. We need books, but we must overcome book worship, which is divorced from the actual situation.”

— Mao Zedong, Oppose Book Worship, 1930

Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives

Faggy butch was good. It accurately described my pink button down shirts, my giggles, the fact that I talk with my hands. I once saw a tape of myself in which I made a gesture that looked more like it belonged in A Chorus Line than in the middle of an interview. Faggy butch was like genderqueer—not quite this or that, a little of both, maybe. A friend once said to me, “I access my femininity through my masculinity.”

Coming Back Around to Butch - Miriam Zoila Pérez

“What is it that the child has to teach?

The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everybody should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness. The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not.

And the child is right.”

— Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

“Westerners are fond of the saying ‘Life isn’t fair.’ Then, they end in snide triumphant: ‘So get used to it!’ What a cruel, sadistic notion to revel in! What a terrible, patriarchal response to a child’s budding sense of ethics. Announce to an Iroquois, ‘Life isn’t fair,’ and her response will be: ‘Then make it fair!’”
–Barbara Alice Mann

“Who was I now–woman or man? That question could never be answered as long as those were the only choices; it could never be answered if it had to be asked.”

— Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues

“The woman who checks her makeup half a dozen times a day to see if her foundation has caked or her mascara has run, who worries that the wind or the rain may spoil her hairdo, who looks frequently to see if her stockings have bagged at the ankle or who, feeling fat, monitors everything she eats, has become, just as surely as the inmate of the Panopticon, a self-policing subject, a self committed to a relentless self-surveillance. This self-surveillance is a form of obedience to patriarchy. It is also the reflection in woman’s consciousness of the fact that she is under surveillance in ways that he is not, that whatever else she may become, she is importantly a body designed to please or to excite.”

— Sandra Lee Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power”

“Does the sun ask itself, “Am I good? Am I worthwhile? Is there enough of me?” No, it burns and it shines. Does the sun ask itself, “What does the moon think of me? How does Mars feel about me today?” No it burns, it shines. Does the sun ask itself, “Am I as big as other suns in other galaxies?” No, it burns, it shines.”

— Andrea Dworkin, Our blood: prophecies and discourses on sexual politics (1976)

“Do you know what I mean? I always feel like I have to prove I’m like other women, but in the dream I didn’t feel that way. I’m not even sure I felt like a woman.” The moonlight illuminated Theresa’s frown. “Did you feel like a man?”

I shook my head. “No. That’s the strange part. I didn’t feel like a woman or a man, and I liked how I was different.”

Leslie Feinburg - Stone Butch Blues