About

Top Hot Butches was created by Sinclair Sexsmith, the kinky queer butch top behind Sugarbutch Chronicles.

HISTORY

This project began after seeing the top 100 roundup on Grace the Spot, which included AfterEllen.com’s annual hot 100. Yet again, readers of After Ellen chose their top hot list based on contemporary standards of feminine beauty, with a little bit of lesbian pop culture thrown in. Not to mention that the list featured primarily white, straight, young women, primarily from the US. And in this, the year of Rachel Maddow, of New York Times articles on butch fashion, there were fewer than a dozen androgynous, butch, or masculine folks represented on this list. Yet again, I was left to feel like my own gender variance and expression and genderqueerness was clearly outside of the dominant lesbian cultural paradigm.

This year, After Ellen also released supplemental lists: Out Women, Women of Color, and Women Over 40. Well, nice try, kind of – at least they are acknowledging that those categories are significantly lacking on their final hot 100 list.

But again, what about diversity of gender representation?

So I set out to compile my own list. In the process, I ran across an After Ellen list of the 15 hottest butches, and was yet again appalled: it was filled with characters, moreso than women or dykes or butches themselves, and included women who, when not in that particular role in that film, present very feminine, and are straight. (I know, the list is a few years old now – but still. Butches did exist way back in 2007!)

I did not include characters on my list. No, you won’t find Corky from Bound, Amy from If These Walls Could Talk II, or any of the other fictional butches here – these are real dykes and trans men who are out, and whom visibly reject compulsory femininity in some way, meaning they present in a way that is intentionally androgynous, masculine, transmasculine, AG, stud, genderqueer, transgender, or butch.

THE PHOTOGRPAPHS

I have tried to credit the photographers when they came from personal sites. If I am using one of yours, I would be glad to give you credit and I mean no harm in reproducing your photo here; it was hot! Please email me and let me know how I can properly credit you, and I will update it.

ABOUT OBJECTIFYING HOT BUTCHES

Yes, this list is based on a totally subjective rating of attractiveness. Though objectification when coupled with degradation is a problem, I support objectification with respect. In fact, being objectified has been an important step on my own way toward gender identity development: being seen as attractive and desirable by others, and seeing representations of people like me in culture who are also desirable, has helped me feel more confident and strong about my own gender. That is partly why I run Queer Eye Candy and why I started this Top Hot Butches list.

But, as the panel will tell you, attractiveness is not only about physical appearance: it is about how intellectually or emotionally stimulated we are by their work, it is about what they do in their lives and who they are as people. The whole package, if you will. You may find very few people on this list hot, or be appalled at my choice of the order. I encourage you to make your own hot list (maybe you can use this one to get some ideas!) and keep the discussion going about queer masculinities and attraction.

THANK YOU

To the panel of judges, to everyone who tweeted in response and suggested hot people that I googled and learned about, to everyone who added a comment to the thread on Sugarbutch suggesting names and adding links, to Kristen for supporting me through this craziness, to DJ Haha for being a fantastic culture maven and knower of all-things-dykey in the performance world, to Femme Fluff for her consult and further suggestions of names for this list, and, last but certainly not least, thanks very much to Alisha, who spent many hours on this project assisting me. Thanks!

CONTACT

Sinclair Sexsmith can be reached at aspiringstud[at]gmail.com.