Jesse Goldberg: Trapped Butch to Stone Butch

When asked, "How do you know your not a transsexual?" by her friend Grant, Jess replies, "I don't feel like a man trapped in a woman's body. I just feel trapped." It may be that Jess feels trapped, but because we receive her answer through the filter of a gender binary, it is difficult for us to comprehend the true meaning of her response. According to the concept of definite gender that requires attributing gender to a specific body, if Jess is in a female body, then she is female. However, in a system that only recognizes male and female biological gender, Jess, who does not identify herself as either gender, will be forced to either accept the dichotomous gender structure or be punished for violating it.


Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg, narrates the story of Jess's "decision" to deviate from the dichotomous gender system. From the start of the novel, Feinberg reveals that flaws of the gender system for the purpose of proving that the system in itself assumes gender to be wholly visible. It is not possible for Jess to develop a healthy gender identity in a society that does not recognize her ambiguity. Speaking on her childhood Jess says, "No one ever offered a name for what was wrong with me. I only came to recognize its melody through this constant refrain: "Is that a boy or a girl?" Before she even understood the concept of gender, Jess was beginning to understand that whatever the rules were, she was not abiding by them. Furthermore, she did not have the answer to that constant refrain. She could not even anser that question for herself. The significance of including Jess' childhood is to show that her later feelings of being trapped are not self-imposed, but an accumulation of questions, regulations, and punishments that were suppose to force her into accepting her role as a female in a dichotmous gender system.


Despite society's strong influence on Jess, she does not allow society to assign her a generic sexuality and gender that is not a true representation of herself. Jess even rejects the term transsexual which means having the physical characteristics of one sex and the psychological characteristics of the other. Those who do not understand Jess' gender identity crisis offer the possibility that Jess could be a transsexual. Biologically, she is a woman, and while she does live the lifestyle of a butch (tends to denote masculinity displayed by a female beyond that of what would be considered a tomboy) with a sexual orientation for women. With so many possibilities available that could solidify Jess' gender identity, why does she feel trapped? Because Jess developed accostumed to being trapped, attributing a label to her ambiguity would only reinforce her entrapment. She would be expected to abide by the rules of her label although she doesn't believe in them, because even though the gender system is extremely unstable, the rules that uphold it are intended to be followed rigidly. Just as she cannot simply pick a gender identity from a hat of options, Jess knows that she will be equally punished for not choosing. This is evident from the criticisms fo other gender variants like Milli, who leaves Jess because she exhibits behavior uncharacteristic of a butch, and of bigots like Roz, who harasses Jess because she looks like a man. Through Jess, Feinberg is attempting to prove that transsexual may be the termt hat describes a person's identification with the opposite gender, whih appears to be Jess' identity in that she looks and behaves like a conventional man, but it does not define Jess' lack of definitive identification. For Jess to claim the orientation of transsexual would mean fortifying her feelings of being trapped.


While it may be true that Feinberg is showing the distinction between what Jess feels herself to be and transsexuality, the novel is also explicitly showing the connection between Jess' feelings of being trapped and the phenomenon of being "stone." In nature a plant is turned into a stone when it it infiltrated with water and mineral particles. In the same way, being stone butch in the novel refers to weathering the elements, (assault, discrimination, injustice) to the point of petrification, creating a new identity within the same body. To be stone, rather than to be transsexual, appears to be a more accurate depiction fo the way in which Jess has developed. Over the duration fo her life Jess has been ostracized by her famliy for "walking a difficult path in life," attacked and raped by men, mainly police officers who serve as enforcers of the gender system, for threatening their status as "authentic men," and emotionally and psychologically scarred by her relationships with femmes for not being a consistent butch.


During a conversation, Angie discovers the depth of Jess' "stone-ness." "Who hurt you, baby? The cops? Who else? Aw, baby, you're already old too." This part of Angie's talk with Jess shows that Jess has become stone much earlier than other stone butches. "Do you open up to your girlfriend? Have you ever had a girlfriend?" At this point Jess has never had a girlfriend and she implicitly says that if she did she would not be able to open up to her. Despite Jess' status as "a good-looking young butch" her being stone has affected the way in which she behaves in intimate relationships with people. She has been hurt so much in her life that even the love of another person is threatening to her. Angie sees that Jess has built a wall inside herself, one that intended to protect her from all potential danger. Because of the betrayal of her family and the cruelty of strangers, Jess finds it hard to trust anyone. Lastly, Angie asks, "How many times you been busted, baby?" For Jess, and other stone butches, stone is measured by the number of attacks they have lived through, each one adding a brick to the wall.


By the end of the novel, we see that stone is a lifestyle for Jess just as much as it is a condition that she had no choice in developing. Stone butches are frigid, give no response to touch, arousal, or sex and are emotionally withdrawn. This behavior is exhibited by butches because sexuality is not learned in a healthy way, instead it is through a series of events that are not consential. By having to regulate her desires and curiosities for the demands of the gender system, Jess as a result finds herself at the end of the novel identifying more with being stone, a lifestyle that was socially constructed.



Interview with Joan Roughgarden, author of Evolutions Rainbow. This brilliant and accessible work of biological criticism has the potential to revolutionize the way readers conceive of gender and sexuality in the natural world. Roughgarden, a professor of biology at Stanford University and a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, argues that the diversity of gender and sexuality one finds in many species suggests that evolutionary biologists of a strictly Darwinian bent are often misguided, since, according to Roughgarden, they erroneously assume a universally applicable gender binary in all species.