A butch lesbian, at least in the ideal, is not the best of both worlds, male and female — she is a new world. She is the discovery, every day, of how a woman can be a woman without the trappings of femininity.

The set of a woman’s shoulders, the way she crosses her legs, the angle of her hips when she walks — all of these are signals of butchness. And we know it when we see it. That kind of recognition takes place in the gut.