Emma Crandall
Brooklyn, New York
writer, college professor, organizer, fashion inspiration
1. What is your relationship with the word or identity “butch?”
I haven’t always identified as “butch,” but it was definitely my first queer identity. There have been people who have told me I’m not butch, and people who have laughed in my face if I said I wasn’t. So many people assume “butch” is a rigid category, but I don’t find that to be true. Still, I like how polarizing butch can be as an identity/identification. I love our history as butches. For me, butch is the only word that explains my past experiences, my particular lesbian heritage, and my style of queerness.
2. Which words and labels, if any, do you use to describe yourself and your identities?
BUTCH BRUT.
3. What do you wish you could tell your younger self about sex, sexuality, or gender?
I think I had really good instincts as a young queer, but I should have trusted them more. I always interrogated identities and made up my own vocabulary. I understood my queerness as something that was inborn but also creative. I feel really lucky that I had that knowledge at a young age.
Oddly, I think the biggest thing I would teach my younger self would be about self-protection. I put myself in damaging situations just because I didn’t feel valuable yet, or didn’t know how to love myself. I want queer kids to know they don’t have to put up with all the damage that’s thrown at them, from within our communities or outside of them. Standing up and saying, “This is violent and damaging to me and it has to stop” is one of the most empowering things you can do.
I love the “BUTCH BRUT” identity. I’d like a further explanation about that one.
as in champagne, as in *art brut,* as in my loyal cheap cologne!