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Title: The Lesbian Erotic Dance: Butch, Femme, Androgyny and Other Rhythms by Joann Loulan, Sherry Thomas, Jo Ann Loulan ISBN: 0-933216-76-9 Publisher: Spinsters Ink Pub. Date: October, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2 (3 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Good, for its time
Comment: When this book was written, the lesbian community was only beginning to come out of the "butch-femme backlash" of the 60s/70s, so Joann was very brave to take on the topic at all. However, there have been a lot of other, better books on butch/femme issues since then, and this book shows the author's and the lesbian community's inexperience in talking about the issue. Joann is dead-on right when she talks about butch/femme being an "is" rather than a "role." Butch and femme are adjectives that either fit or do not fit particular people, much as "tall" or "short" either apply or do not apply. Each lesbian (or each person for that matter) can claim "butch" or "femme" as a significant descriptor of themselves or not.

If you're interested in real-life butch/femme, one of the best books in my opinion is "The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader" edited by Joan Nestle.

Rating: 2
Summary: Yes, everything the previous reviewer wrote, except...
Comment: ..the first chapter is beautifully written. Loulan's lost credibility these days, however, and it's perhaps a political statement to purchase (or not to) her books.

Rating: 1
Summary: Author Furthering Personal Agenda?
Comment: I'll admit, I'm one of the loudmouthed, politically minded lesbians who doesn't buy into the butch/femme dichotomy. Yet, for some odd reason, it fascinates me, and I bought this book, hoping to better understand the duality. Unfortunately, my understanding of the butch/femme thing has not improved. And I have developed a lack of respect for the author. It is obvious that she is out to prove her own agenda. Using clips from Personal Ads and statistics from a survery she conducted at a Women's Music festival as "proof", she claims that butch/femme is very important to lesbian lives and culture. Yet, a look in Appendix A at her stastic results shows that 18% of her respondents identified as femme, 15% as butch, with the remainder as either androgynous or none of the above, and 66% of respondents said that butch/femme is not important in their lives. Loulan manipulates her stastics to "prove" that lesbians are oppressing themselves by not actively embracing butch/femme roles- an ironic argument, because so many lesbians refuse to identify as butch/femme because they believe these roles are oppressive. This is what it boils down to, for me: how can I take butch/femme seriously, when an author has to manipulate her stastics...to "prove" the importance of butch/femme duality to lesbian life?