Summary

Throughout this fifth chapter, Halberstam introduces and explores the relationship between butch women and transgender men. Halberstam notes the antagonisms on both sides of this “border war”: some lesbians see trans men as “traitors” or believe trans men only “believe in anatomy,” while some trans men feel attacked by feminist, anti-masculine discourse or believe that butch women are “too afraid” to transition (144).

In the section “Transgender Butch,” Halberstam introduces the need for the category of “transgender butch,” defined as a masculine female who does not necessarily identify as a woman, but who also does not seek full or possibly any medical transition with hormones or surgery. Halberstam considers the criticisms of his essay “F2M: The Making of Female Masculinity”; although some critics believed Halberstam was arguing that “butchness was postmodern and subversive whereas transsexualism...