Yeah, I’m Butch

Close-up of Chrissie, in interview format, sitting in front of a track sewing machine.

Chrissie: If you’re able to tap into community and find spaces where you can feel safe, then I think a lot of that growth can happen there and then allowing yourself to be vulnerable, that’s where you know that authentity- authenticity can grow, you know, and blossom.

I feel like now I’ve reclaimed the label of tomboy and I feel like I’m able to then define it for myself, as opposed to it being a label that was kind of put on me as a pejorative to kind of dismiss and kind of dehumanize my- you know, my attempts of self-expression at a time when I was much younger and at a time, too, where gender identity and gender expression was not something that was widely known at younger ages.

Certainly now, today, it’s more embedded, I think, socially and more openly discussed, but at the time, like, it didn’t really exist. And so now, I feel like I can be like, “yeah, I’m a tomboy” or “yeah, I’m butch.” And I love that. I love that for myself. It empowers me and makes me feel really great about myself and I don’t see it as a pejorative or a negative statement, it’s completely reclaimed in my mind, and just further inform- like, affirms my identity. So, I just wanted to mention that, as well, yeah.