"They Still Don't Understand Why I Hate Wearing Dresses!" An Autoethnographic Rant on Dresses, Boats, and Butchness

Abstract

Using autoethnographic scenes from her lived experiences, the author argues that butchness is a discursive and performative practice in a sexist, heterosexist culture that engages female-bodied people, in particular lesbians, in the expression of ableness. The author uses the notions of dresses and boats as metaphors for requisite femininity and ableness, respectively, and argues that butchness is used as a resource to respond—personally and theoretically—to a culture that sees the female body as less competent than the male body. This article suggests that theories of gender and sexuality must be more attentive to practices of constructing self in everyday life and that they must give greater consideration to how individuals present themselves to various audiences.