[BullDog]

I think what butches have in common is having grown up with similar experiences and internal feelings that made us feel different from other girls/females. I use common and similar loosely, since our life experiences and internal feelings will vary from individual to individual as well as due to things like generation, geography, class, race etc.

Still, I think most butches grow up feeling different, being drawn to things that are often labeled "boys things," feeling an internal dissonance between what the world expects of us and how we feel about ourselves.

We may have had crushes on little girls, waited and waited until we could finally wear pants to school, longed to find others like us. Then we grew up and found other lesbians, gays, queers. Maybe lesbian fit, maybe it didn't, but even if it fit there seemed to be something missing that we couldn't quite figure out.

Some of us, before discovering the amazing femmes that were out there, maybe thought there was something wrong with us. Some us thought we were attracted to straight women because none of the lesbians really turned our heads.

Then we learned what butch was- in our various ways. It clicked. It fit. We felt more comfortable in our own skin.

To me butch is a journey and a place where I fit more comfortably in my own skin.