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"Normal" Man Discovers Butches!  News at 11!

12/4/2013

6 Comments

 
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I mentioned this on my Facebook page recently, and it continues to chap my proverbial hide. 

The New York Times ran this story about how one butch went to a (male) tailor and asked him to make a men's suit for her.  Last year.  Yeah, you read that right: when Tomboy Tailors, Saint Harridan, Androgyny, and other companies were already on the scene.  (I profiled some of them back in January and April.)

Worse yet, the Times's story implies that this tailor had some amaaaazing new idea.  The story begins with, "Breakthrough ideas often come from the least expected sources."  The idea that a mainstream male tailor would make some suits for butch women is not a "breakthrough;" he was merely introduced to a market that he didn't know already existed.

I don't fault the tailor--his quotes don't make it sound like he thinks he's a pioneer--but "discovery" is the thrust of the Times's story.  Here's a quote:

In a coffee shop near his home the other day, he [the tailor] seemed still struck by the world that opened to him after that initial email.  "The whole thing is really strange, and sometimes I can't — " he said, his voice evaporating into the wonder of it all.  He was not even sure how to identify Ms. Tutera [the Handsome Butch], gender-wise. Was she transgender or just mannish?  Sometimes it was hard to know such things.

In other words, Regular Person discovers Weird Queer Market.


While the story pays lip service to the fact that queer-owned companies with this mission already existed, this bit of info comes several paragraphs into the article, after the article's framework is well in place. 

I'm happy to see any butch coverage in the media (see here and here for previous posts on the subject), but the Times article was one more reminder that butch visibility--and queer equality generally--still has a long way to go.

6 Comments
FCBarcelona1899
12/4/2013 03:39:41 am

Who doesn't love men's fashion? :D

Reply
nat
12/4/2013 02:03:43 pm

I see where you are coming from, but the companies you mention are not local to NYC. If I wanted to be measured for a suit, or have a suit hemmed or otherwise altered, I would be happy to know there was someone like the guy covered in the NYT article local to me. Very few of us can pick a suit off the rack (much less via mail order) and have it look right, whether the tailoring is masculine or feminine. Having an expert tailor present willing to serve the community is important. I also did not find the NY Times to be attributing the inspiration here to the male tailor-- they make it clear that the female client in need of a good masculinely-tailored suit sought him out, and while I believe they credited his professional skills as a tailor and willingness to participate in thinking outside the box, I didn't think they were making him out to be quite the "normal guy savior" you seem to have seen.

Perhaps I am seeing this differently, as a kind of local coverage albeit in a newspaper with a national audience, because I am a New Yorker as well.

Reply
Rachel link
12/4/2013 11:49:30 pm

Thank you for taking the time to write this response. I see you read mine over at thehandsomebutch.tumblr.com, which was the abridged version of my feelings about gender identity, masculinity and privacy/vulnerability. I knew going into my interview with the New York Times that the story would not be told perfectly, and that it would not be told the way I would tell it myself (which I already did once in February on the Huffington Post's Gay Voices -> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-tutera/an-extravagant-practical-_b_2638530.html). But I also knew that millions of people would see the article, and hoped that it would do some good. I agree with what you said about visibility and equality -- we're still all doing the work as a culture -- and the Time article is part of that work.

In terms of the business aspect of your response, I know that Bindle & Keep can't boast that it's queer-owned, but I've happily managed that portion of the business for the past year and a half, and it has been some of the most meaningful work I've ever done. Queer-owned businesses like Androgyny, Saint Harridan and Tomboy Tailors that are also explicitly and exclusively brands for queer people are to be applauded and I'm psyched they've been established. I've been in touch with most of the folks behind these companies and admire them. Bindle & Keep provides a similar service that is similarly really needed here in New York City for east coasters, et al. I've been meaning to say this somewhere, so I'm going to mention that I think this is actually a pretty different line of work, as we have no storefront, and we go to people's homes or offices, where they're our only "customer," so we focus completely on them and measure them for custom, handmade garments that we design together. I generally spend at least an hour and a half with every client and we get pretty real about how we feel about our bodies, the cultural landscape, the retail landscape, off-the-rack clothes, made-to-measure clothes, and last, what we do, which is custom clothes.

Most importantly, I have read all your posts and am a fan. Thank you for all your work.

Reply
springbyker link
12/5/2013 06:06:33 am

I can see that "NYT" mainstream-media way of telling the story from the heterosexual man's point of view, and it IS annoying. But I also love the last quotes from him:

“I studied architecture and urban design, but something was always missing,” he said. “And what was missing is that no one cared if I did a good job or not. Unless you’re the star in the show, it’s a thankless job. These people are just so thankful.” [...] “It’s just a suit,” he said. “Who cares? I’ve done nothing. But what better way to wake up in the morning and get a nice email from someone saying, ‘You changed my life!’ ”

As someone with a day job that rots my brain and unpaid work (such as blog writing) that is my passion, I love that he's into creating something that changes people's lives, that helps us feel better in our own skins. If I ever decided to drop that kind of cash on a custom-tailored suit, I'll consider this company. I've checked out some of the queer-owned companies online for clothing other than suits, and some of their stuff is just not my style.

Reply
Jamie Ray
12/5/2013 08:32:00 am

I live in New York, as so I am biased towards the TImes. That said, the NYT did run an article earlier this year on Tomboy Tailors and Saint Harridan here http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/fashion/a-masculine-silhouette-tailored-for-her.html?_r=0

New Yorkers are chauvinists and anything in New York by definition must be better than anything anywhere else, including San Francisco (but certainly better than Boston). Also, with custom clothing, unless the company does a trunk/road show or you go to their city for work or vacation, you can't order from them. So having a NYC based company that does custom work is pretty cool, if you want a suit.
My personal list of what I want is more geared to properly cut buttoned shirts and T-shirts for short butches.

Reply
Julian Kennedy link
3/11/2021 09:13:01 pm

Good reading yourr post

Reply



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