Overview
What futch means.
Futch is a presentation word from lesbian and sapphic life. The record describes a lesbian, bisexual or otherwise sapphic woman, or a feminine-aligned non-binary person, whose look mixes femme and butch. In practice that means one of two things: a settled androgyny that does not lean far either way, or a swing, more butch some weeks and more femme others, without the person underneath changing.
It is not a gender. You can be futch and a woman, futch and non-binary, futch and trans in any direction. The word describes the surface and the culture the surface belongs to. Chapstick lesbian is the older synonym, built on lipstick lesbian. Stem, from stud-femme, is the Black-specific version, and stud is not a word for non-Black people to take.
The history is older than the meme. Some people think futch was invented for the futch scale joke; the record cites a 2004 Urban Dictionary entry and, earlier still, a 2002 piece in The Advocate in which a lesbian describes herself as futch, meaning a feminine butch. It has been a real word in real mouths for a while.
A presentation between butch and femme, mostly in lesbian and sapphic culture.
Futch in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
Futch has no single named coiner on record. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki's history note points to two early citations that show the word already established in lesbian slang rather than being introduced: The Advocate used it on 20 August 2002, and Urban Dictionary carried a definition from 28 December 2004. Both treat 'futch' as a familiar blend of 'femme' and 'butch' rather than a new coinage, which suggests it had been circulating informally in sapphic communities for some time before either was written down.
It sits inside a long-running lesbian bar and community vocabulary — butch, femme, stem, chapstick lesbian, soft butch — built to describe presentations the plain butch/femme binary did not cover. In the 2010s the word gained a second, separate life online as the 'futch scale', a meme format for self-placing between butch and femme, which the wiki treats as a later development rather than the term's origin.
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
Half your wardrobe is from the men's section and half is not, and the halves get worn together.
Butches read you as a bit femme.
Femmes read you as a bit butch. Both are right and neither is the whole answer.
The futch scale meme made you laugh and then made you slightly annoyed, because you could not find your square.
Getting ready involves a decision that is not about the weather: which way today.
You don't look gay and you look really gay have both been said to you in the same month.
The question butch or femme has never worried you.
It has bored you. That is the tell.
You have been the one asked to explain, in a queer space, what you actually are, and you had a shrug ready.
Pronouns
Pronouns
Whatever you use. Most futches use she/her; plenty use they/them or two sets in different rooms. Nothing about the haircut tells anyone which. Ask.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You are straight and want a nicer word than androgynous. Futch belongs to sapphic culture. Androgynous is right there and it is not a demotion.
- 2What changes is not your clothes but your gender. Look at genderfluid or genderflux; a presentation word cannot carry that.
- 3You are Black and stem is the word your community uses. Use it. Futch is the general term, not the better one.
- 4You want a gender identity out of this. It is not one. You can be futch and still have the whole gender question in front of you.
Close by
Related identities
Butch
Masculinity built inside queer life, and the pole futch measures from on one side. If the masculinity is load-bearing, how you move and how you want to be seen, butch is likely the truer word.
ReadFemme
Queer femininity, chosen and worked at, the other pole. Femme can usually pass unnoticed when it needs to; futch often cannot.
ReadSoft butch
Softer edges, still butch. The overlap with futch is nearly total. Soft butch says I am a butch, gently; futch says I am neither pole.
ReadMasc
Masculine presentation for anyone, no lesbian history attached. If the dyke-bar lineage is not yours or not wanted, masc or androgynous may be the more comfortable word.
ReadTomboy
Boyish girl or woman, no queer history required, widely used by straight women. If your look is tomboyish and the sapphic part does not apply, tomboy is the plain word.
ReadFutch, side by side
Questions people ask
Frequently asked questions
Is futch a gender?+
No. It is a presentation: a place between butch and femme, or a movement across both, inside lesbian and sapphic culture. Futches are women, non-binary people, and trans people of any modality.
Where does the word come from?+
It is femme and butch pushed together. The record cites a 2002 piece in The Advocate and a 2004 Urban Dictionary entry, both before the futch scale meme that many people wrongly think invented it.
What is the difference between futch and stem?+
Stem is stud-femme: the Black lesbian version, between stud and femme. Stud is a Black-specific word, so stem is too. Futch is the general term.
Sources
- Futch — LGBTQIA+ Wiki Fetched. Definition, futchfluid, chapstick lesbian and stem, and the history note citing The Advocate (20 August 2002) and Urban Dictionary (28 December 2004) against the futch scale meme.
- Butch and femme — Wikipedia Fetched. Names futch (feminine butch), soft butch, stem (stud-femme) and chapstick lesbian as terms for women with characteristics of both butch and femme.
Still figuring things out?
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