If you were in South East London last Saturday, you may have wondered why there was such a preponderance of queer women on the streets heading to the Old Nunshead Pub.  They were heading to take part, or just spectate, in the very first event of its kind in London :a performative butch’ contest……. which had us reaching for our Queer Dictionaires to be educated.

Turns out there have been performative male contests for some time (who knew?)  These are men who pick up “traditionally feminine hobbies with the sole intent of cultivating an inauthentic aesthetic that might appeal to progressive women”.  Still not totally clear we dug deeper to find out there are “twenty-something guys reading green-flag feminist literature and drinking overpriced matcha lattes. They carry Labubus and disposal cameras. Not because they especially love those things – although, yeah, some of them do – but because it’s a material signal to the female gaze, a horny homing beacon blinking out into the Hinge-era dating universe”.

The London contest saw 42 butches sign up to compete, who showed their chops by stripping for the crowd, pulling out measuring tape, displaying feminist literature and opening up their bumbags to reveal nail clippers and trans flags.  The packed crowd of some 300+ women went wild for taped chests and heavy leather jackets teasingly slipped off and dropped to the floor as much as they did for one butch pulling a cigare.

The contests were whittled down for the second round a: “With so many strong contenders, from shy, poetic butches to maximalist masc lesbians, we wanted to feature a full range of butch representation”.