Lesbetween

First a definition:

Lesbetween [lez-bee-tween]
-noun
1.
a lesbian who identifies as neither butch nor femme
Is she butch or femme?
Neither, she is a lesbetween.

I invented this new word because I am tired as identifying as not identifying and want a tangible label that I can use to describe my status on the infamous butch-femme spectrum, thus lesbetween. I assure you that this was an original thought that I had today while shopping (a I was struggling to decide whether to should shop in the men’s or women’s section at a department store). I thought myself clever when I first thought the word but this amusement faded when I returned home and Google informed me that the idea is not that original. Regardless of whether I was the first or last to label myself as such I think it fits.

If you know anything about lesbian culture you know that there is a so called spectrum under which each woman who likes women inevitably falls. Mostly the spectrum is about the way a lesbian looks but can also be about the way a lesbian acts too. For those of you that may not be familiar with this subject let me give you some more definitions (according to the highly reliable UrbanDictionary.com)

Butch [boo ch]
–noun
1. an overtly/stereotypically masculine or masculine-acting woman. can be used to denote an individual, or the dominant role in a lesbian relationship
Marge is pretty butch. she's really strong, fixes cars better than a mechanic, and takes damn good care of her woman.

Femme [fem]
-noun
1. an overtly feminine dressing/acting lesbian. as opposed to a butch woman.
All the others girls think Brit's acting femme to fit in with the straight chicks, but apparently that's just her personality.

It should be made clear that I am by no means unique in the lesbian world as a lesbetween; in fact I think the majority of women would probably identify as such but we find ourselves bound to picking one or the other (or at least which side of the spectrum we fall). There is striking similarity to the political spectrum in that although we may be conservative on some issues and liberal on others we must ultimately choose to identify as republican or democrat (yes, I do realize that you can also choose “independent” but that just complicates the matter and my attention span is short).

So, now that I finally found a label for myself I feel empowered to share it with the world and build a strong coalition of women who fall in the middle and do not wish to decide if they lean to the left or right of the butch-femme spectrum. All hail the lesbetweens as we wear baggy men’s jeans while showing off our cleavage, grow our hair out only to cut it all off again and continue to challenge the gaydar of humans everywhere.