Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation.

Women's Review of Books, The, April, 1998 by Kahn, Karen

How many lesbian parties have I attended in the last few years where, somewhere late into the night, the rating game begins? As individuals rate themselves on a butch-femme scale of one to ten, the audience laughs uproariously, usually a sign of disbelief at the self-designator's score.

I always give myself a four, a wanna-be butch whose identity fit neatly into the androgynous seventies, when butch/femme was relegated to history, and jeans and flannel shins were in. Though I'm fascinated by butch/femme culture, I know it's not really me. On the one hand, I wouldn't be caught dead in a dress, I never wear makeup and I have yet to pierce my ears (in short, I'm not particularly feminine); but on the other, I...

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