A Retrospective Study of Sexual Minority Women’s Gendered Sexuality: Butch and Femme Sex at the Turn of the 21 st Century

This study is a retrospective examination of how sexual minority women have experienced their sexuality. The analysis examined a national archival dataset that was collected online in the US and Canada to examine the relationship between gender and sexuality in 1084 sexual minority women in 2003, with a focus on butch and femme identities. It provided an understanding of how gender and sexuality interacted at the turn of the last century when the gender identity landscape differed from that of today. While this study collected data from butch and femme women approximately 20-years ago, the results have implications for how we develop situated understandings of the relationship between gender and sexuality. Findings indicated gendered patterns in sexual preferences and attraction that can shed light on how gender and sexuality have evolved in connection. At the same time, there were no differences in sexual satisfaction, which suggests that the enactment of gendered sexuality (in which attraction is structured by a gender dynamic) was experienced as empowering rather than oppressive. We examine our findings in relation to current scholarship on gendered sexuality to consider how sexuality is constructed and reconstructed across time. The findings support a view of gendered sexuality as a source of pleasure, affirmation, and positive embodiment. We theorize gendered sexuality as functioning to enhance experiences of authenticity and resist heteronormativity. The study holds implications for research on the interaction of gender and sexuality.