Esther Newton | On Being Butch

No dissection of Anne Lister’s life could be complete without some discussion on the subject of being butch. On Saturday, we welcome a true expert on the subject, a woman who walks the walk, teaches the talk and has spent over a half-century fighting for the our rights. Join me in discussion with SUNY Purchase Professor Emirata Esther Newton, distinguished anthropologist, gender studies pioneer and LGBTQI+ activist.

[@averageavocado7052]

Thank you Esther Newton, for everything you have done and thank you Pat for everything you do here. For sacrificing almost everything, for standing up and fighting all those years ago so the LGBTQ community can be what we are now. Our community is only getting bigger and better because of you and everyone else who fought along with you and I hope to help continue that fight, to inspire, to spread love and to teach acceptance so we can keep building a better world for everyone however we can. We need LGBTQIA+ history to be taught, we need to support queer owned businesses/artists/musicians/podcasts/television shows/movies, we still need people like you. I am very proud of who I am because of women like you both. I very much enjoyed this episode Pat. Thank you agian.

[@crisdelgado1008]

Cutting edge, culturally relevant, historically significant interview to gender. I would love for you to bring Esther back and discuss Lesbian aging relative to this context.

[@roxorange6022]

Another great interview thanks Pat and Esther for bringing these historical insights and perspectives to us. Context is everything! Many don't know the background to this long journey. It's so important in this day and age to uncover and preserve Lesbian Herstory and it's intrinsic part in the Feminist and Gay Liberation Movements. I believe safeguarding the hard-fought rights that women as a sex have gained (particularly vulnerable populations and in developing countries) is critical. All things are not equal sadly so I would hate to see any erosion of protection by a dissolution of sex identity - at least until a new framework of true equality is developed. I totally agree with the comments about queer integration into the mainstream. I miss those days when we had lesbian bars, coffee shops etc where we were guaranteed to meet our "own kind" in safety and build up our communities and culture. But wait! Gentleman Jack and AL - Birthday Week is doing the business. Anne Lister and Ann Walker would be amazed beyond measure at how they are bringing the conversation back to masses of tables around the Globe. Let the healing begin. Love the humour you bring also Pat and Esther - a very enlightening and entertaining hour! 😄🎩💜

[@j.m.strasia2719]

This was so great to come across, thank you both for speaking your truth. Esther, thank you for your understanding of femmes, and their strength. Often we are invisible in the queer community (still the notions of playing it straight are there), so most femmes, although we pass easily in mainstream society- feel unseen and misunderstood. When you said that you first saw your desirability through a femmes eyes, it resonates, it's reciprocal. The protective ways we take care of one another, the bathroom situations/confrontations alone can fill a book (even today)! There is an undeniable energy and respect that goes beyond the clothing or presentation. Thank you both for your work in elevating the understanding of who we are and taking pride in living authentically.

[@tracyufitz]

loved the idea of a badge for femme lesbians! as a lesbian incest survivor I have always been really careful to not impose my desires on anyone, which makes letting a femme someone know I am interested, without "talking " about it, very difficult... it seems that the femmes who are not lesbians, might act interested but deny it if asked directly asked. And then the knee touch or back of hand brush, that electromagnetic feeling can be turned off if it is not "supposed" to be there. And then there is sex with feelings thoughts and sensations that are not gentally based at all, internal body sensations, transformative consciousness, like the aurora borealis

[@downeastxg]

I wonder if Esther ever met Mary Daly. This was a profound interview. I am 71 yr old lesbian, more dyke than fem but not in my earliest years (dated boys to try and fit in; nope didn't work), a mate for 32 years to a (once upon a time) straight women who came out at 40 after a marriage, child and dating men. I have passed through some of the times talked about, thus this was a nostalgic walk in many regards. You are both appreciated and admired for your experience, wisdom and wit in surviving this walk in life. So glad you are my sisters.

[@sue120502]

Great interview. Had the great pleasure of meeting Esther at ALBW 2022 - oh my what a woman. My wife and I are like a lots of heterosexual couples, in that we keep pretty much to ourselves. So what an eye-opener ALBW 2022 was - I/we had no idea about the feeling of community. At 70 and 80 respectively we just thought people were people - OMG how wrong were we. We felt like we belonged. So thank you Pat for organising ALBW and thank you Esther for hosting such an amazing workshop. I will treasure the book you gave to me and signed it too. Wow, I'm in awe. Can't wait until ALBW 2023, when we hope to meet you "flat Pat" but as a real 3D Pat.

[@frogmouth]

I remember in the 70s lesbians copped it for wearing lipstick and heels, for wearing overalls, basically you couldn't win.

[@monicaperez2843]

Interestingly, most transwomen identify as Lesbian and most transmen identify as Straight. However, I feel where a Lesbian is on the feminine/masculine spectrum is more organic (inborn) rather than cultural or by choice. In my case, I have always been a mid-butch, between a soft butch and a heavy butch.

[@unnamed3932]

'Trans' is utterly absurd, no human can change sex but they can hormonally/surgically mutilate their bodies and ruin their health by pretending to be something they are not. 'Transgender identity' is misogynist and homophobic to its core and is primarily for the benefit of male, heterosexual cross-dresser sexual fetishists, autogynephiles/transvestic fetishists, men w/ paraphilias who supplant women's sex-based rights and opportunities and mock women w/ their parodies of women. The T was force-teamed onto the LGB for greater acceptance of the T but it is a men's rights movement that tells 'tomboy' girls and 'girly' boys (many who are or will be LGB) they were 'born wrong' and should mutilate their healthy bodies and their health and render themselves sterile and anorgasmic by becoming fake heterosexuals. That is homophobic 'gay conversion' and 'sex lobotomy' of LGBs, it is criminal.