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Butch is a Noun

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 422 ratings · 45 reviews

"Butch is a Noun is a book that a) should be required reading in any gender studies curriculum; b) femmes should read whenever they're feeling unloved, lonely, or misunderstood; c) butches should read; d) all of the above. The answer, of course, is d. Thank you, dear Bear."
—Kate Bornstein, author of Gender Outlaw"

Bear's poetry of butchness lets us see into facets of gender

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Paperback, 192 pages

Published August 31st 2010 by Arsenal Pulp Press (first published November 2nd 2006)

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Sep 24, 2007 christy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: queer-stuff

I love books about gender studies, gender bending, queer stuff, sexuality, and all things in between. So this seemed promising: a book of essays by a butch, concerning her experiences as an atypical female. This is something I can relate to deeply. However, the problem is twofold: not only do the points of too many essays overlap with others -- which is frustrating -- but the writing style is unabashedly self-aggrandizing and arrogant. It gets old quick. I don't need to read in every other essay...more

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May 04, 2012 Forth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: genderqueer, transgender, lesbian, gender

S Bear Bergmann is currently my favourite queer author. 'Butch is a Noun' is a series of exquisitely framed windows into the life of someone who does not fit neatly into either of the usual gender boxes that we're all expected to choose from and neither does ze particularly want to.

Each chapter is a story or discourse that takes an aspect of what it means to live as someone who doesn't fit into the gender binary and makes it real rather than abstact. Bear draws entirely from hir own experience...more S Bear Bergmann is currently my favourite queer author. 'Butch is a Noun' is a series of exquisitely framed windows into the life of someone who does not fit neatly into either of the usual gender boxes that we're all expected to choose from and neither does ze particularly want to.

Each chapter is a story or discourse that takes an aspect of what it means to live as someone who doesn't fit into the gender binary and makes it real rather than abstact. Bear draws entirely from hir own experience and lays that experience before the reader with an articulate flair that butches are, by hir own account, supposed to lack.

Butches and transmen may well find parts of their own experience fleshed out and articulated here. As a transwoman in the process of constructing my own identity, I found myself reflected both as a near diametric opposite to hir, but so neatly so that it's sometimes disconcertingly like looking in a mirror. I also found myself reflected in some ways in hir fond and acutely observent view of femmes. Not everyone subscribes to the butch/femme dichotomy of course, but having them shown as aspects of identity and gender, both being able to be played out in a variety of flavours and across the full spectrum of sexes provides a real sense of just how rich our options are when it comes to defining our genders and sexes and sexualities.

This book has produced both giggles and tears and provided astonishing food for thought during my own period of transition. For anyone who is trans or genderqueer, gender questioning, gender ambiguous of just wanting to understand someone who counts themselves amongst the menagerie that is the gender diverse community this will touch on all sorts of fundamentally important topics.

I realise that this is a gushingly positive review but I have read and re-read this book and even now it's tucked into my bag because I was reading it on the train on the way home. It hasn't changed my life, but it has made changing my life a great deal easier.(less)

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Jan 19, 2010 Ellen Shull rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In addressing the world of the butch, this book comes at the issue of nonconformity with what the author amusingly calls Standard American Television Gender in a different direction than the largely MTF TG books that I've read to date. So for readers who live that other direction, maybe it's basic, maybe it's repetitive, maybe it just doesn't reflect their experiences. But for me, it was an amazing personal and heartfelt study in contrast.

Here is a person who doesn't just accept so many of the p...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't decide if I'm in love hir or think ze is a sexist pig. A good conversation starter and thought provoking when thinking about gender and gender stereotypes.

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 05, 2013 M. Allen Pinson rated it 3 of 5 stars

The rating is perhaps an oversimplification of my feelings on this book--it is a book of great high points but numerous mediocre ones. At its best it is exploratory, illuminating, and deeply personal but more often than that it is repetitive, contradictory, and borderline accusatory. Too much purple prose and not enough force or direction. However, those aforementioned high points are certainly worth the read (and the chapters are short so the low points don't last long, either), provided the to...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer, memoir

I found this book both illuminating and troubling. While it was very interesting to hear Bear Bergman's perspective on butchness, I couldn't help but feel that hir reflections smacked of entitlement and the kind of misogyny known as benevolent sexism. It seemed to me that no matter how many times the author proclaimed hirself as a feminist, referring to femmes as "things" that needed to be protected was just plain problematic. But maybe this just means that I don't personally find the strict but...more

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Jul 15, 2008 cat rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

meh.

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May 11, 2012 Dani Peloquin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got this book for my partner for Christmas this year and after she flew through it in a day, I thought that I would pick it up. Typically, I am not a fan of essays. I find them dull and many times narcissistic. Bergman's book did the exact opposite!

Each of the essays focuses on a different aspect of butches beginning with "what/who" butches are, which she is unable to define. Hir writing ranges from reflections on the special friendships that butches have with each other to the complexities of...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Suade rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: glbtq

The second chapter in this book is titled "I Know What Butch Is" and in my opinion it's the best chapter. This chapter basically describes ALL of the ways in which butches are the same and yet so very different from each other; all I kept thinking was "riiight...just like any other human beings". Honestly, I could have stopped reading there. For the majority of the book the author describes how wonderful, kind, caring, helpful, etc ze is (ze being the author's pronoun of choice).
I wanted to read...more

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Nov 19, 2008 Sueb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gender

S. Bear Bergman’s delightful collection of essays, Butch Is A Noun is all about paradox. Zie (Bergman’s preferred pronoun choice described in the essay entitled “Fire the Copy Editor”) bravely talks about taboo subjects like butches getting fucked and the over-arching need to be all things to all people.
Zie starts out the book with a humorous essay “I Know What Butch Is,” listing all the things butch is and isn’t, which of course presents a myriad of contradictions. This essay challenges gender...more S. Bear Bergman’s delightful collection of essays, Butch Is A Noun is all about paradox. Zie (Bergman’s preferred pronoun choice described in the essay entitled “Fire the Copy Editor”) bravely talks about taboo subjects like butches getting fucked and the over-arching need to be all things to all people.
Zie starts out the book with a humorous essay “I Know What Butch Is,” listing all the things butch is and isn’t, which of course presents a myriad of contradictions. This essay challenges gender and our perception of it. The wit and willingness blows up the box called butch. Bergman says in “Note to the Reader” that zie’s not trying to write the one true Way about butches, but zie chose this declarative title for the book. The title, coupled with hir occasional declarative statements like “…I am stubborn. It is a butch trait.” makes Bergman’s “I’m speaking only from my experience” harder to accept. The paradox presents again and again.
Bergman is declaring Butch as a gender unique from male or female and yet in the essay “Cocks,” zie talks of seeing hirself as broken for not having a cock. Is that locating butch outside of normative categories of male and female? Bergman is such a champion of normalizing the concept of not using primary sexual characteristics to determine gender yet if Bergman truly sees hirself as flawed because of the absence of a factory direct penis that does little to empower butch as a noun, as a complete thing regardless of what physical parts we were born with. It again locates masculinity or at least the sexual performance of masculinity in the male body.
In what I found to be the most moving essay in the book, “When I Can’t Fix It” Bergman explains the phenomena of hurting the people you are trying most to care for “…because I am
so conditioned away from showing any kind of fear, sometimes my fear expresses itself as anger instead.” This essay explained this phenomenon which has long been a mystery to me. Bergman articulates the constraints of paternalistic masculinity on emotional and relational maturity.
Bergman travels around the country speaking to gender studies classes and to the queer community. One such talk is entitled, Introduction To The Only-Mostly-Dead Art Of Chivalry (Now! With 200% More Feminism!). And it’s here I find another paradox. I wonder if another 200% is needed. In “Walking With Femmes” and in “High Heeled Shoes” zie speaks of “my blinding fear of not being strong enough to protect her.” I certainly can appreciate that intention of protecting feminine-presenting women on the street as I have performed and perform that same type of interference for femmes and random strait women in my life daily. I present as masculine and yes that does mean I avoid a certain type of male harassment. I know my presentation offers a bit more power during a stroll down a city street. Perhaps it does make some men refrain from harassing a woman walking next to me, but to perform gender as a method of protecting my loved ones rings of a kind of paternalistic power I’d rather not engage in. And as appealing and good hearted as Bergman’s brand of “fixing” is, it’s also constrictive and patronizing “I am reminded of Sarah Hogland’s ambitious work Lesbian Ethics in which Hogland says, “Paternalism is perhaps the most pervasive justification for exercising power over another’s choices and controlling or trying to control a situation […when she is in crisis it is appropriate for us to take over for her].” (119-120) Bergman’s form of masculinity and chivalry might be more thought-out and examined than the standard fare but it still reads as paternalistic and casts the receiver of such attention as one who needs protection. Hogland
pointed out that paternalism is the essence of heterosexualism, “an entire way of living which involves a delicate, though at times, indelicate, balance between masculine predation upon and masculine protection of a feminine object of masculine attention.” Bergman knows his methods are suspect…but zie still celebrates his dominance in a way that is too reminiscent of every other masculine show of power. I couldn’t help but wonder about Bergman’s femme; her agency, sense of self-protection and desire for attention, or the desire to be free from masculine attention, paternalistic or predatory. Bergman and other transmasculine folks seem enamored with zie’s otherness yet, hir protection and hir masculinity reads as the same proprietary behavior at the root of unwanted male attention. It’s very sticky stuff this masculinity without male, this paradox of butch as OTHER than woman but not man.
Bergman’s writing is not without feminism though and does provide amazingly profound, unconcealed acknowledgement of female masculinity. In the same paradoxical essay “Cocks” Bergman writes “I am offering my desire to balance my female body with this item of our pleasure…” In “Being an Asshole” Bergman talks of a butch in a bar making a sexist comment about a woman. Zie laments this misogyny, “these embodiments from, people who have cunts themselves, whatever they call them these days, and were raised and socialized as women no matter how little they felt that really described them, and therefore should bloody well know better, of the notion that all things female or feminine are weak, silly, and easily disregarded.” Thank you very much!
Butch is a Noun should be read, by butches, by femmes, by anyone curious about these gendered times the queer community finds itself in. But it will leave you wanting more, a deeper examination of butch as it breaks you open with its paradox.(less)

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Dec 06, 2010 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Most of the essays went on much longer than necessary, and the book felt narcissistic. A lot of the self-description was lacking reflection or a larger purpose, for example, I was bugged by hir need to be always taking care of people and thought it was pretty unhealthy that ze couldn't stand to see anyone ze loved hurt at all ever, but I don't know if Bear saw this as a problem or was trying to understand where it came from.

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Jan 22, 2010 DDog rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to DDog by: Trin

Shelves: at-home, essays, feminist, from-trin, humor, non-fiction, queer, trans

I hate to say it, but this book should have been shorter. Either that, or I should only have tried to read one essay a day, or perhaps one a week. I read it slower than in one sitting, but the pace at which I read it meant I felt I was reading the same thing over and over again at times. Most of them are pretty short but others feel too long, giving the book as a whole a choppy feeling.

Many of these essays were very personal, very intimate, and I felt rather voyeuristic reading some of them, al...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Briana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know my gender theory pretty well, but butch is one gender I've never fully understood. Bergman makes the theory accessible through telling stories and touches on some concepts that unite all people, regardless of gender. I only wish ze had included a deeper discussion of misogyny in and around the butch community. Maybe that's a book waiting to be written.

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Jul 12, 2008 Andre rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: students, butches, femmes, people who loves gender

Recommended to Andre by: Caitlynn

Shelves: essay-collection, queer

As pride season is coming to a close, I’ve began reading Butch is a Noun and it’s been one of those books that I instantly connected with because was given to me at exactly the right moment. It’s jubilant, celebrative, and playful-everything pride should be, but it’s managed to save itself from tilting over into triviality, subsuming honesty for rhetoric, or recycling inspirational platitudes. A collection of personal essays by Bear Bergman, Butch is a Noun addresses topics that range from sex t...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Taz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: queer-gender, favorites

One of the few and best books to explain and discuss that Butch is not simply an adjective describing a person, a synonym to masculine, but also a now, a person, one of the Homosexual Genders, A 'born masculine female,' whatever, THE WORD IS A NOUN BABY, NOUN, LOL not simply an adjective.

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Jul 30, 2011 Cheryl Mccormick added it

Amazing book that everyone in my community should read. It answers lot of questions in a way i never could. A must read for anyone who wants to know or understand more about people being individual and that we all do not fit into little boxes

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Jan 05, 2011 Caitlyn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book made me start using the word butch for myself, and had a huge effect on my senior year of college photo project, in which I explored masculinity. Tender, sweet, with room for everyone. Must-read if you like non-theory gender writings.

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Nov 08, 2007 Elena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: folks interested in gender and sexuality

Shelves: gendertheory

This book is a collection of short essays about Bergman's experiences as a butch. The essays themselves stand alone well -- they are well-written, thoughtful, and often moving. The book as a whole can lean a bit towards repetition, especially if you read it quickly, as I have. Some of the themes which didn't bother me on first read (notably Bergman's discussion of hir own tendency to caretake, and particularly to pamper and/or protect femmes), started grating after a while.

Despite this, I found...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: glbtq, gender-sexuality, nonfiction

It was interesting to read this one after having read The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, because clearly, a lot of things changed in the intervening years between the two books, and reading them in reverse order gives one a sort of odd feeling.

But Bear, as always, is a fantastic storyteller, uses language beautifully, and speaks loudly and bravely about things some of us are afraid to talk about with our intimates, let alone put down on paper for complete strangers to read.

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May 28, 2009 lia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gender-feminist-queer-studies-stuff

The first word that comes to mid in describing this book is 'sweet' which seems incongruous, I know. Its a series of short essays on gender, family, friendship and very personal stories of figuring out what the labels that we apply to ourselves mean to each of us. I'd like for many people I know to read this, not to gain a better understanding of what 'butch' means to me or to this author, but to be able to read a terrific example of a person who is able to describe how confusing all of this is,...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Bart rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

How much can someone write about how much of a gentleman one is? Read to find out.

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Dec 28, 2008 Oliver rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Totally embarrassing, I know! At first it was nice to read about the author's experiences, and I admit I had not thought of butch as a gender before and that idea kind of makes sense to me. But, I can only read so many chapters about the amazingly selfless, gentlemanly things that this butch does constantly and how that is what being butch is all about. I admit I did help some gays carry a giant tv up some stairs tonight but I'm not gonna write a book about it. Soon I'll read Minnie Bruce Pratt'...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Angela Chaos rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some essays are pretty great, some are just ok, and some are downright annoying. I understand this is one butch's subjectivity, but sometimes the "gentleman" schlock annoyed the hell outta me. I did identify with some of the ideas, but most other topics I thought we just dated/"old school" and running along the a razor-thin line of sexism. Again, I understand ze's not trying to speak for everyone, this is one person's subjective experience. I am giving 3 stars because I would recommend selected...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Mariana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I learned a lot about gender and sexuality.

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Aug 22, 2012 Autumn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: queer

my fav queer author.

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Jan 02, 2008 Josephine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Josephine by: The Author

Shelves: just-for-fun

I had the pleasure of meeting S. Bear Bergman and the book is written exactly as ze is. When I talk with hir one-on-one, the passages about truly listening to another are right on. Ze lives as ze has written.
This is a fast, but not-so-light read at times. I love the essay written about butches who love other butches (sexually, not just the brotherly love). I was very excited to see that included. Beautifully written.

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Nov 30, 2007 Krista rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: my queers, feminists

Amazing. Bear's book is the most heartfelt, loving piece of work that I've seen about butches. It is personal, it is political, and it is very very very true.

I didn't always love the style of writing - it felt sometimes like I would have liked to have some of the shorter essays flushed out a little more - but I ADORE the writing and the sentiment.

Absolutely absolutely important to read.

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Jun 03, 2013 Laine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aside from the interesting perspective of the butch/femme dynamic, S Bear Bergman has a wonderful voice and makes reading easy, even with the wide, intelligent vocabulary ze possesses. I absolutely adore gender based narratives (so I may be a tad biased) but this is a great book, especially those who need, or want, to understand how to be a gentleman.

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Mar 11, 2010 Sonya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had to take the writing style with a grain of salt, but I really like the way S. Bear Bergman makes me think about gender and identity, and so much of it seems like making fun of our rigidity. If it's being written with humor (the way I took it), then it is a great commentary. If not, the "butch is, butch isn't" is a rigid rhetoric of it's own.

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Jul 08, 2008 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I absolutely loved this book...hir writing style is warm and accessible and I had many head-nodding moments as well as Aha! moments.

Working my way through a difficult breakup with a butch and this has given me good food for thought, as well as lots of nostalgia ! and a different level of understanding as to how we got where we are.

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About S. Bear Bergman

S. Bear Bergman is a storyteller, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. Ze is the author of Butch Is a Noun (reissued with a new foreword by Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010) and Lambda Literary Award-finalist The Nearest Exit May be Behind You (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009) as well as the editor (with the inimitable Kate Bornst...more S. Bear Bergman is a storyteller, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. Ze is the author of Butch Is a Noun (reissued with a new foreword by Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010) and Lambda Literary Award-finalist The Nearest Exit May be Behind You (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009) as well as the editor (with the inimitable Kate Bornstein) of the multiple-award-winning Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Seal Press, 2010). Bear is also the creator and performer of three award-winning solo performances and a frequent contributor to anthologies on all manner of topics (see hir CV for an extensive list of publications of presentations). Bear can be found many days in an airport lounge, writing stories on hir laptop and letters on any piece of paper that can pretend to be stationery.

A frequent lecturer at colleges and universities regarding issues relating to gender, sexuality, and culture, Bear enjoys digging in to complicated ideas and getting dirty doing it. Ze also works extensively helping to create queer and trans cultural competency at universities, corporations, health care providers, and governmental organizations. This work has included training, policy development, policy reviews, and process/barrier audits, as well as cultural awareness consulting for external marketing.

As a Jew, Bear also speaks extensively about how hir religious and cultural lives have shaped one another and the intersection of identities, especially as it relates to being both Jewish and queer. Ze remains exceptionally pleased to have been asked to write the chapter on trans inclusion for Hillel International's LGBTQ Resource Guide

Less recently, Bear was one of the five original founders of the first Gay/Straight Alliance, a frequent lecturer at high schools and colleges on the subject of making schools safe for GLBT students, and a founding commission member of what is now called the Massachusetts Safe Schools Project. Bear was an insufferable know-it-all in high school, but is reformed these days. Somewhat.

Bear was educated at Concord Academy, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts. Ze currently resides in Toronto, Ontario where Ze has set up housekeeping with hir husband j wallace, son Stanley.(less)

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