Butch Lesbian - TV Tropes

The contrasting counterpart to the feminine Lipstick Lesbian, the Butch Lesbian (also called a Masc Lesbian) is typically clad in heavy work boots, jeans or overalls, a leather vest, plain t-shirts, and other conventionally unfeminine attire — perhaps switching to a men's suit if she wants to look particularly classy. She's living proof that Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay. She'll have a short haircut or buzz cut and stereotypically male job (trucker, construction, landscaper), and often be taller and bulkier than her femme counterpart, though a lanky or Pint-Sized Powerhouse build is not unheard of. Breast-binding is optional, as is using a Tomboyish Name or even masculine pronouns. She will probably be vocal about gay rights and feminism (sometimes to the point of being a Straw Feminist), and may also be quite sporty (e.g. soccer, field hockey, softball). She may be a Badass Biker and ride a Harley in a leather jacket. On many occasions, especially at work in her construction hat, she can be mistaken for a man, and even the audience might make that mistake until a Gender Reveal.

Traditionally, butch lesbians are paired up with high femmes or Lipstick Lesbians. The overuse of this trope sometimes comes under fire for allegedly enforcing a quasi-male/female gender dynamic in homosexual relationships. A saying within the gay community is that a butch lesbian is "steel covering velvet" while a lipstick lesbian is "velvet covering steel". That's not too much of an exaggeration, as the toughest-looking Butch Lesbian can be cuddly and friendly to those she likes.

While Butch Lesbians are often poorly represented or offensively stereotyped, one existing in fiction is not a bad thing, and there are many sensitive and realistic portrayals, including ones created as self-images by real butch women. Some characters may openly self-identify as butch.

In Japanese anime and manga, expect the butch lesbian to be portrayed in a more positive but possibly fanservicey fashion. The name for a butch lesbian in Yuri community is tachi, which comes from the term tachiyaku (the player of a male role in Kabuki). Because of her natural self-confidence, she'll usually be successful in her romantic endeavors.

May overlap with Ambiguously Gay. The butch lesbian can be seen as the Distaff Counterpart to the Camp Gay stereotype (in embracing the conventional characteristics of the opposite sex). See also Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple if she has a femme girlfriend. Villains of this type will often be depicted as Psycho Lesbians.

No Real Life Examples, Please!, as this is subjective and speculative. In addition to being likely to encourage gossip and rumors about celebrities and edit wars, TV Tropes has a rule of no Real Life examples for Sex Tropes.

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Live-Action TV

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Ymir from Attack on Titan, is one of the tallest characters and has a lean, muscular build. This results in some fans confusing her for an attractive male at first, especially since she wears a tunic and trousers when out of uniform. While she wears her shoulder-length hair in a ponytail with a decorative clip, she's noted for her abrasive and crude personality, as well as her masculine way of speaking. Reiner refers to her as a woman that doesn't look interested in men, something she readily agrees with. Her Love Interest, Krista/Historia, is petite and exceptionally feminine in comparison.
Lynn Lambretta of Bodacious Space Pirates, a rare example of a butch lesbian who is still portrayed as attractive. She does end up paired with Jenny Doolittle, a Lipstick Lesbian.
Dear Brother: Rei Asaka/Hana No Saint Juste is this trope played straight. Nanako is her femme counterpart.
In Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Asahi Satou, one half of the main couple, wears her hair noticeably shorter than Hinako, doesn't use makeup much, and prefers pants and business casual attire to skirts or otherwise dressing up. She has to ask Hinako for advice on how to dress for a date with her long-time friend Fuuka.
Though her sexuality isn't made explicit, Brauma Ik from The Five Star Stories is designed after this aesthetic. Interesting, considering how waifish Mamoru Nagano's women usually are...
Zorin Blitz from Hellsing. In the manga, one of the other characters even calls her a bull dyke as an insult... which is ironic as the Nazis targeted homosexuals as well as Jewish people.
Kase of Kase-san is a short-haired, boyish track star who was widely rumoured to be a lesbian even before she got into a relationship with her girlfriend, Yamada. Yamada herself regularly describes her as 'beautiful and sort of boyish'.
Akira Kenjou in KiraKira★Precure à la Mode, who's so butch that several characters mistake her for a boy—including Ichika, who promptly crushes on Akira until her father points out Akira is a girl. For bonus points, her Cure form, Chocolat, is the Pretty Cure of Strength and Love.
Maka-Maka (2003): Jun is a smoking, cocky, independent young woman to Nene's Lipstick Lesbian.
Hiraga Gennai in Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, to the point that many people think that she's a man on first meeting her.
A butch/femme lesbian couple is seen in a chapter of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo. One mentions to Count D that while their union isn't legally binding, "I'm her husband and she is my wife". The couple laments their inability to have children, but at the end of chapter, one of the women is seen pregnant, having eaten a cake made with eggs that cause pregnancies. It's not explained how the pregnant woman is going to explain her condition to her partner...
Haruka Tenou (Sailor Uranus) in Sailor Moon, as compared to her 'femme' girlfriend Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune. This is significantly played up in the '90s anime, where she is only rarely depicted in women's clothes, while in the manga, she is occasionally shown in dresses (and in the final series, is forced to wear a girl's uniform when she switches schools).
The tomboyish captain of the volleyball team, lesbian Takarazuka girl Jun Ootori has a crush on Hibari in Stop!! Hibari-kun! and is tsundere towards her.
Martha in Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry is a subversion, as is Ermengarde for the Lipstick Lesbian. They are deliberately set up to resemble these stock characters, and they're often seen together. There are two lesbians in the team, but it isn't them.

Comic Books

Alan Ford in his latest (past 500) volumes has a duo of incompetent villains and former singers named Tigre and Mammolo (Tiger and Pansy), a boyish-looking butch lesbian and her massive but very camp gay associate. She even flirts with the female lead Minuette, ^note before learning that she's married. Generally speaking, lesbian characters who appear are either this or bifauxnen.
Peter Bagge's Apocalypse Nerd features a women's only commune eking out a living in the Cascade Mountains after North Korea nuked Seattle. Their leader, Lynn, and most of the other women sport buzzcuts and hairy legs, perform hard manual labor, are always armed, and are drawn in a way that makes them look buff. When Perry convinces Midge to allow him to stay for a while, she tells him that she ended up there because she broke up with her boyfriend and got involved with a girl there, but have since broken up. She tells him she won't get involved with anyone else there because there's too much Unresolved Sexual Tension as it is.
Batwoman: Played With in regards to Kate Kane in various ways:
- When she was introduced in her civilian appearance in 52 it was as Reneé Montoya's ex-girlfriend, and she was wearing a stunning dress while having long red hair. Her superhero persona was pretty much Batman with a stylish mask, high heels and long flowing red hair of femininity. When she was reintroduced in her solo title, she was re-designed as having flat-heels in her superhero personae (the original heels were explained as the only boots her dad could find in red), her flowing red hair was now a wig to conceal her civilian identity as the short-haired Kate Kane, and she was given several tattoos that weren't present in 52.
- In her backstory, Kate initially dressed fairly typically for a middle-school-aged, athletic girl. Later, as a West Point cadet, she was far more masculine, wearing Boyish Short Hair and opting for pants with her dress uniforms instead of a skirt.
- In Detective Comics (2016), Kate has her hair buzzed, but her civilian clothes tend to be on the feminine side, and she even wears a wig at one point that mimics her hairstyle from the New 52.
- The DC Pride story "The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass" depicts Kate as not only wearing masculine clothes and hairstyles as a high-schooler, but makes clear that she was having feelings of gender variance at the time because of it, not understanding why she didn't feel traditionally feminine.
- Kate actually lampshades her appearance when she shows up at a high scale society dinner wearing a female cut tuxedo and as her step-mother points out:
  Catherine: Oh Kate, why couldn't you wear something more... Appropriate?... Not that I don't approve, It's your life, of course. I just didn't think it's appropriate for a formal event. It is like you are trying to draw attention to yourself.
  Kate: No, just making sure that I don't stay hidden.
  (she then went on to meet her future girlfriend Maggie Sawyer)
  Maggie: The good thing about a tuxedo (smash cut to Maggie wearing a full tuxedo while grinning like mad) You don't feel bad when other people show up wearing the same thing.
The Black Cat once faced off against a villainess team called "Leather and Lace" in Web of Spider-Man Super Special #1. Leather dressed in a dominatrix outfit and appeared to be on steroids, while Lace wore pink lingerie and flew around in a cloud of golden sparkles. They haven't had a second appearance.
Bitchy Butch, the lesbian counterpart to Roberta Gregory's Bitchy Bitch character. Though comically stereotypical in many regards, (and like her straight counterpart, her short fuse is just part of her personality) she's still ultimately a sympathetic character.
Blue Is the Warmest Color: Emma's girlfriend Sabine, who dresses in a very masculine manner, can easily be mistaken for being a man, sports a buzz cut, and is an outspoken LGBT activist. Meanwhile, Emma has Messy Hair, somewhat less masculine clothing and also several tattoos.
Dean, the leader of the vampire biker gang from Charm School.
Circles: Gus is a lesbian who is big and strong and hits the gym with Ken and his buds. She has a passion for boxing and can beat up any jerk they encounter. She also has a Lipstick Lesbian girlfriend named Lucy.
A theme of Alison Bechdel's autobiographical Fun Home is coming to terms with her identity as a butch lesbian as her closeted gay father keeps trying to push femininity on her, among other things yelling at her to wear pearls with an outfit. Her cousins nicknamed her butch as a kid, a nickname she loved even before she knew what it really meant. At another point, she was eating at a diner with her dad when a big, truck driving "bull dyke" comes in and little Alison was amazed that there were women who wore men's clothes and had short hair, and she describes how on some level she "recognized her with a surge of joy".
Gender Queer: A Memoir: Most of the women whom Maia dates are this, with short hair and very tomboyish attires. This matches Maia's own style, though Maia is a nonbinary biromantic asexual.
Susan Veraghen in Grendel is an Apunkalyptic Butch Lesbian Samurai.
The Invisibles has Jolly Roger, an attractive lesbian biker with short-cropped hair, an eyepatch, and a fondness for over-the-top firearms.
Hopey in Love and Rockets tends to the butch, although her dress sense and hair vary over the years (but after the Time Skip in New Stories 4, she's the butchest she's ever been, with cropped hair, polo shirts, and male-styled spectacles). Several more minor characters tend to the trope, including the aptly named Bull Marie and bisexual Lois. Maggie's aunt Vicki Glori is very sensitive about people assuming she's a Butch Lesbian because of her hairstyle, physique, and profession as a wrestler. Gilbert Hernandez's work tends more to Lipstick Lesbians or femme bisexuals, but Maricela is mildly butch.
Paper Girls:
- KJ is a Tank-Top Tomboy and field hockey player who realizes she's a lesbian.
- Mac is a short-haired, foul-mouthed tough tomboy who it turns out is into girls, despite acting quite homophobic initially.
Rat Queens:
- Faeyri, Betty's off-and-on girlfriend. Faeyri has short hair, piercings, muscles, and a penchant for tank tops and punching people who annoy her.
- Braga, the orc warrior who's introduced as a member of the Peaches and eventually joins the Rat Queens. She's the biggest, strongest, and deadliest fighter in the whole series, and also bi, having apparently been in a relationship with Tizzie before the series started and ending up in a relationship with Maddie by the end of the series.
Hazel, from the "A Game of You" story arc of The Sandman (1989). She's a woman with a butch appearance, though her personality is very gentle.
Roxanne Richter from Scott Pilgrim. She's somewhat a Downplayed example as she does dress casually and have short pigtails, but a fierce fighter and a skilled sword-user. She's maltempered though her job is as an artist and she remains somewhat amiable with Ramona.
Smut Peddler: 2014 Edition: In "Glasses & Jones", Abigail has a punk hairstyle and butch fashion, and she also hold attraction to women.
Smut Peddler Presents: Sordid Past:
- While Yare in "The Commission" is introduced dressed in a blue dress and bonnet, she immediately changes out of it into a more masculine attire once she and Stern are alone.
- Both characters in "Forged Steel" qualify. The Knight pretends to be a man, while the Smith seems to prefer more masculine clothing to her feminine "work attire". Not to mention, both have short hair.
Dr. Chelli Aphra, introduced in Star Wars: Darth Vader. She's short-haired, often dirty, mechanically minded, feisty, dressed in a rather masculine style and she loves the ladies. It's confirmed that she was involved with Sana Starros in the past. Later she and Magna Tolvan become an item as well.
Stumptown:
- Tracy Hoffman, Dex's ex-girlfriend, has very short hair and masculine clothing. She's also a soccer player too it turns out.
- CK is a lesbian with her hair in cornrows who's mostly shown wearing cargo pants, hoodies and tank tops while not having her soccer uniform on.
Maggie Sawyer was rather butch in her earlier Superman appearances, to get the message across without actually saying anything.
Viz has a character called Millie Tant, a strident feminist who has all the stereotypical butch features.
Wonder Woman (1987): Quinn Thomas' sexual preferences are never confirmed but she's a walking stereotype so it probably wasn't felt that it needed spelling out. There are also pretty heavy-handed hints she has a crush on Diana.

Comic Strips

Bloom County: One of Binkley's anxieties is Betsy Marple, the first girl he'll ever kiss because he will utterly humiliate both of them in the process. Betsy, who "end[s] up in a lesbian terrorist group", wears John Lennon-style glasses, a strange hairstyle something like a braided mullet, and an unflattering tank top, apparently without a bra.
Unintentionally done in Dilbert. Following reader complaints that Tina the Tech Writer was too stereotypically female, he created "AnTina", the anti-Tina, a female character who had a liking for sports, a muscular build, and short hair. Readers were not happy with her either, claiming Adams was making fun of lesbians.
Lois McGiver from Dykes to Watch Out For. Also Clarice, Ana, June, and a few others, including Alison Bechdel's Author Avatar Mo, to varying extents. Some of them including Lois, Mo, and Clarice specifically identify themselves or are described by other characters as butch.

Fan Works

Angel of the Bat: Sadie, Cassandra’s girlfriend, refers to her style (short hair, leather jackets, and later a few tattoos and piercings) as butchy, and wears button ups and slacks instead of dresses when she needs to be formal. Downplayed somewhat as she is also a painter with a taste for slice of life anime, and did wear a dress at least twice for two out of her and Cassandra’s three wedding ceremonies.
Antipodes: Incendia is a the leader of a rebellion, has been self-trained in combat, can definitely take a hit, and develops a strong crush on the more feminine Tiptoe.
Boiling Isles and Beyond: Lilith is a downplayed version. She was sporty in her youth and wore a tuxedo during her wedding, but other then that is pretty Straight Gay.
Junior Officers:
- Tweak and Anita, two mechanics with no qualms about getting dirty, and who are in a relationship with each other.
- Sarabi, who is gruff and aggressive.
One of the most prominent Original Characters featured in the Punch-Out!! fanfic Ma Fille is Flying Feather, a muscular boxer second only to Mr. Sandman, who has a wife and daughter.
- Sequel Series Shining and Sweet introduces Pirate Girl Princess Hook, a lesbian who is gruff and aggressive.
Natural Selection: Ryuko Kiryuin zig-zags this trope. Her overall personality as an aggressive, foul-mouthed tomboy falls within this archetype, but her dress code tends to fall more within the Lipstick Lesbian trope due to featuring a lot of silk and dresses.
O Sweet Goddess, Deliver Me: Link is introduced as a tomboy whose interest in marrying one of the village's eligible bachelors is less than zero, though she finds herself attracted to Princess Zelda.
Ruby and Nora let Vernal keep her canon attire while being in a relationship with Raven.
Song of a Northern Sorcerer has the very athletic, blunt and unrefined Lyanna wondering why she doesn't find appealing the prospect of getting married. She first believes her betrothed Robert's unrelenting whoring is the cause, only for Princess Elia Martell to become her Closet Key and enlighten her to the existence of "lady's ladies". Lyanna is mentioned to find Rhaegar Targaryen pretty, but he's just that beautiful and it pales compared to her attraction for Elia.
Stoneybrook Revisited: A Baby-Sitters Club Fan Series: The tomboyish Kristy is married to a woman.
Wicked Wiles: Dwarfs gender the world differently from humans but, in human terms, Grumpy would be a butch he/him lesbian. He's masculine, especially compared to his Lipstick Lesbian life-mate.
The Weaver Option: Taylor ends up in a loving relationship with Wei Cao. Taylor prefers to wear pants when possible and is heavily involved with the military.
We Can Be Heroes! (Steven Universe): Handy and Gunshow are as feisty and tomboyish as Rubies typically are, and are deeply in love with each other.
In The Price of Flight, Kiiki Pekisaalen is wiry, athletic, short-haired and tomboyish. It worried her commanding officer Olga Romanoff that she simply had not realised that two of her pilots were in a full physical relationship even when all the signs were there. The other half, Marina Raskova, is a homely Rodinian girl, well on her way to becoming a fairly stereotypical Husky Russkie in terms of build and look. In this case, two variations on the theme of Butch Lesbian elected to get it together. They end up happily married and running a reindeer ranch together in Swommi.

Films — Animated

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: When Miles attempts to escape the Spider Society base, a very masculine young woman can be seen in the foreground of the crowd he runs into; thick build, short hair, and a sleeveless top to show her muscular arms. She instantly dons an intimidating suit of spider-armor for the ensuing chase. Word of God states that this woman is a variant of Anya Corazón.

Films — Live-Action

The Aggressives: "Aggressives" was a term for lesbians who are highly masculine in the New York City black community, and all except one of the people profiled in the original film fit this (aside from one East Asian who associates with them as well). "Butch", in the community, is used for lesbians who are less masculine, while "femme aggressive" means those with some feminine aspects to their style. Kisha falls into the last category, since she's willing to put on more feminine clothing at times (and models). By the late 2010s/early 2020s however this term isn't used often anymore, with two of the people profiled then having now transitioned and come out as trans men or nonbinary.
Alena: Josefin in the film is portrayed as a downplayed example, wearing pretty masculine clothing and though her hair is still long it's in a less than feminine style.
Anna and the Apocalypse: Steph, who mentions she's got a girlfriend, has Boyish Short Hair and masculine attire.
Below Her Mouth: Dallas, who sports short hair, dresses in a very masculine manner too. She's often in a leather jacket, short-sleeved shirts or tank tops, rough work pants and boxers with sports bras for underwear. When dressed up, she puts on a nice men's suit. Dallas works at a stereotypically male job too, as a roofer. She makes it clear that she's only attracted to women. Dallas acts aggressive as well pursuing Jasmine, kissing her and even feeling up her dress while knowing Jasmine's engaged. She's also the top in all the sexual encounters she has with women. It turns out that she even goes out wearing a strap-on too, before using this on Jasmine.
Bit:
- Roya wears very masculine clothing, has short hair, and has a terse, blunt personality. She's a lesbian like the rest of her group.
- Duke, their leader, is a more soft butch lesbian. She's got a hairstyle similar to a mohawk, wears leather at all times, with a hard-edged personality and a punk style overall, plus of course her highly Tomboyish Name.
Blue Jean: Jean has short hair and fairly masculine clothing. Her girlfriend Viv is a bit more butch, with even shorter hair while she usually wears punk-style clothing. A couple of their friends and other lesbians who visit their local gay bar also have butch looks. Jean also works as a PE teacher, which is a less stereotypically feminine job.
Bodies Bodies Bodies:
- Downplayed. Calling Bee butch might be a stretch, as she simply dresses more tomboyish compared to her girlfriend, Sophie.
- Jordan dresses in rather masculine clothes, doesn't shave her armpits, and wears no makeup for the entire film (which even Bee, the other more tomboyish girl in the cast, dons at some point). She also slept with Sophie, or so she claims.
The Boondock Saints had an incident of this in the opening credits of the film: though Rosengurtle Baumgartner's sexuality is never brought up, her attire and mannerisms (and subsequent kicking of one of the brothers in the crotch for cracking jokes about her 'Rule of Thumb' rant) solidify her as a member of this trope. She also has a tattoo on her neck that reads 'Untouched by man'.
Gina Gershon plays Corky, a butch lesbian in Bound (1996), who Gershon modelled after James Dean. She has very short hair and masculine attire similar to a 50s greaser. Director Lana Wachowski included some details of lesbian culture into the film such as Corky's labrys tattoo, a symbol of lesbianism and female resilience. In one scene, she's even mistaken for a man by Joe Pantoliano's character.
But I'm a Cheerleader: Subverted quite brilliantly with Jan, the most butch girl, who realizes that she's straight. Graham is however a straight example, pun definitely intended, though a soft butch. Both have short hair and masculine attire (especially Jan).
Causeway: Lynsey is gay and works as a soldier, with a tomboyish style overall.
Chasing Amy: Alyssa's lover Kim and several other women in the lesbian bar have short hair with masculine clothing.
Claire Of The Moon: Noel has short hair and wears suits, contrasting with the longer-haired, more traditionally feminine Claire.
Clueless: Downplayed with Ms. Stoeger. Cher guesses her to be a lesbian after seeing her trying to impress another female teacher with her athletic skills, but it's never explicitly confirmed. She works as a gym teacher, dresses in very androgynous clothes, does have long hair but she always wears it in a sloppy unstyled ponytail, and doesn't wear makeup. When she attends a wedding, she wears a suit and tie rather than a dress.
Cynara: Poetry in Motion: Byron has long hair, but always dresses in a man's shirt, coat, trousers and boots, which was much more shocking in 1883, while pursuing another women without shame or hesitation.
Dope: Diggy is a lesbian and dresses in a very masculine fashion, to the point of her being mistaken for a boy often. Her style is almost exactly like a lot of boys around, with a baseball cap, very short hair, a t-shirt and baggy jeans.
Drive-Away Dolls: Some minor lesbian characters in the bars Jamie and Marian visit have masculine styles, e.g. short punk haircuts with cut off shirts.
Femme Fatale (2002): Laure sports this look at the beginning of the film, having a toned physical appearance and short haircut while seducing Veronica. Later she also has sex with Bardo, so she's likely not a lesbian. Still, her sexuality is left ambiguous.
Depicted and discussed throughout Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. Many butch lesbians with short hair and masculine clothing are shown, with those interviewed saying it was basically mandated for them in the 1940s-60s that they date feminine ones, never each other. Just one of the interviewees however is butch.
Foxfire (1996): Legs is indicated to be one, sporting short hair and having masculine clothing. Goldie in the book is a lesbian as well, but her sexual orientation isn't specified in the film (although implied as she retains this look).
Gia: Not too butch but Gia does sport a short haircut and dresses more androgynous (when she's not modeling), along with some tomboyish mannerisms in comparison to her lover Linda.
Honey Don't!: MG is a short-haired, tough and taciturn lesbian who's a cop with a masculine clothing style.
In If These Walls Could Talk 2, Amy is a lesbian with short hair who always wears very masculine clothing. She meets Lipstick Lesbian Linda, whom she hits it off with. However, three of Linda's Lipstick Lesbian friends are downright hostile to and jealous of Amy after they've begun dating, outright forcibly removing her leather jacket and trying to dress her in more feminine clothes when she comes to their house for dinner until the latter stops them. Amy met Linda while at a lesbian bar which it appears catered to masculine lesbians like her, with many more there too.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love: Randy is a tomboy who has boyish short hair, wearing flannel shirts and shorts most of the time. She dates two women during the film. Her aunt Rebecca is also one.
I Saw the TV Glow: Maddy is a lesbian with a blunt, terse personality, not showing much emotion. She wears masculine clothing like rough pants, tank tops and combat boots, usually having her hair short too.
Jack & Diane: A mild example. Jack, a lesbian, has short hair and wears boyish clothes at all times (except while swimming). Otherwise though she has none of the stereotypical traits.
Killer Body Count: Wyatt has a Tomboyish Name, dressing in rough, slightly masculine clothing with a nose ring, a Goth look and box braids, while she's into girls, showing only disinterest regarding boys.
Heavily coded in the 1933 film Ladies They Talk About. Linda gives a tour of the jail to Nan and says to watch out for the one woman because she "likes to wrestle." She is always seen smoking a cigar and wearing masculine clothing.
Life Partners: Sasha is a downplayed example. Though not so butch as some, she is the most tomboyish of the lesbians who appear in the film, including both girlfriends whom she's with. She has fairly short hair and boyish attire, wearing jeans with loose, sleeveless shirts.
Lost and Delirious: Paulie (though she claims not to be a lesbian, just into Tori specifically), would be a downplayed example, something of a ladette by her appearance and behavior. She sports the shortest hair among the girls and fairly masculine outfits.
Love Lies Bleeding:
- Lou is a well-known lesbian who goes by a masculine nickname and has a short mullet and androgynous appearance, dressing in neutral colored tank tops and men's clothing. She also drives a pickup truck. She later hooks up with Jackie, who is bisexual.
- Whether Jackie is butch or femme is more controversial. She's in a sapphic relationship with Lou, and is a female body builder who's incredibly physically strong and abuses testosterone. This is apparently what Lou is into, given her copy of Macho Sluts. But she also has a lot of feminine traits compared to Lou. She has longer, better kept hair and dresses in a more feminine color palette with a lot of pinks and purples. She's also bisexual and more emotional than the levelheaded Lou. When we finally see the bodybuilding competition, it's more like a beauty pageant than an athletic event, with contestants with elaborate hair and makeup posing in bikinis - a more conventionally feminine activity than it initially appeared.
Maggie & Annie: Maggie has short hair, wears boyish attire, works as a mechanic and loves softball. Her lesbian friends all have the same style. We see a couple others too in the bar they take Annie to one night, with one hitting on her.
Margarita: Jane is a mild example, with short hair and more masculine clothing. However, she's otherwise not an example (i.e. in personality or interests).
A Marine Story: Alex is a Marine veteran who's a skilled Action Girl, having a masculine clothing style (shirts, cargo pants, tank tops after leaving the Corps), with her hair always in a bun or else Tomboyish Ponytail, and mostly going by her nickname instead of Alexandra. She's quite muscular too, and attractive for it. Aside from exercise, she seems to like fixing her car (though it's hard to generalize given not much is shown). She's a lesbian whose orientation is central to the story, as she faces homophobia, having left the Marine Corps due to the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy of the time.
Mean Girls (2024): In this version Janis is an out lesbian, and dresses in a masculine style with Boyish Short Hair.
The Mule: Earl runs into a group of very masculine lesbians once who all have short hair and wear leather jackets with motorcycles. It turns out they're Dikes on Bikes. He is a bit bemused about them, mistaking one as a man at first, but friendly and gives a pointer on fixing one's bike.
My Animal: Downplayed by Heather, a young lesbian who likes to wear flannel shirts, cargo pants, has shorter hair and often works out. Later she cuts her hair to a buzz cut level near the end of the film. However, she's not really butch in other ways.
Played for Laughs in My Fellow Americans. The Camp Gay Secret Service agent offers to help the former presidents hitch a ride with some friends of his. Gilligan Cut to the ex-president (not the biggest of men) on the back of some motorbikes driven by a chapter of the "Dykes on Bikes" motorcycle club behind two burly women.
Kramer: (shakily) I ought to change my stance on gays in the military. The Army could use a few of them gals.
The New Mutants: When you take her short hair and masculine clothing into account, Rahne definitely gives off this kind of vibe. This is downplayed though since she's otherwise not really butch. She begins dating Dani, another girl Rahne meets.
Not Okay: Harper is a mild example, with very short hair, wearing dress shirts and ties over pants, and having a Tomboyish Name. She's established as queer early on.
The Novice: Dani wears tanktops with pants most of the time, has Boyish Short Hair and sees Alex, another woman. She's the most masculine of any woman in the film.
Out at the Wedding:
- Risa is a soft butch woman who is hired by the (straight) protagonist to pretend to be her girlfriend. She has shaggy, fairly short hair and masculine clothing.
- At one point Alex attempts to act like a butch lesbian. She comes off as a terrible stereotype, which the others point out.
Power Rangers (2017): Trini gives off this vibe as she acts tough, rebuffs boys flirting with her, puts her hair in tight braids and wears tomboyish clothes, while it's indicated she's attracted to other girls.
Princess Cyd: Katie seems like an example, with her hair in a mohawk and having pretty masculine clothing. However, she's actually short and slim, while not having a stereotypically masculine job (she's a barista). At one point she's mistaken for male, while Miranda even wonders if she's transgender (though it's uncertain). Katie's attracted to Cyd, a bisexual girl, and they begin dating.
In The Producers (1967), one of the members of Roger DeBris' stage crew is this, serving as the sole female of his crew.
Queens of the Dead: Dre has very short hair and always wears a sleeveless shirt with jeans, while she's a lesbian who's married to a woman. She's described as a "soft butch" by Pops due to her aversion to risk.
Rafiki: Kena is a downplayed example, with very short hair and a more masculine clothing style, who's into playing soccer against guys she knows, while not seen having female friends, only them. She also only reluctantly puts on a dress once, and then quickly takes it off. The film is about her relationship with another woman, while she doesn't show interest in men that way at all.
Blacksta: Kena? She plays [soccer] like one of the guys!
Ready Player One (2018): Aech, aka Helen is a very butch Black woman in "real life." Her online persona is not just male, but a big, burly ogre of a warrior. Wade is a bit surprised about it, as between Aech's online persona and their conversations about hot girls, Wade always assumed Aech was male.
Riot Girls: Scratch is a lesbian punk who wears a leather jacket (with epaulets), she sports a mohawk and gets described as giving "zero fucks", with an aggressive, tough attitude. However, in truth she does have a soft side, especially toward her girlfriend Nat.
Room in Rome: Alba has short hair, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt with it. It's downplayed however as nothing else about her is that butch. She's a lesbian with a female partner in Spain, having a one night stand with Natasha, a Russian woman, as well.
The Running Man (2025): Laughlin has Boyish Short Hair and is dressed fairly masculine. She's established to be a lesbian very quickly by going off to have sex with a woman, while never displaying any attraction to men.
She Hate Me: One batch of Armstrong's customers consists of these, with more masculine styles and in a few cases too a far more aggressive attitude in bed.
Sheroes: Ryder is an athlete who's very skilled at martial arts and skateboarding with very short hair, who often wears flannel shirts and leather jackets. She has a relationship with Daisy, her more girly female friend.
Signature Move (2017): Zaynab is a short-haired lesbian, wearing men's suits while at her job as a lawyer, or masculine shirts and jeans when off work. She also works out frequently and as a result has a trim, muscular build. Her mother Parveen chides her for this, saying it makes her look too much like a man (she's unaware of Zaynab's sexuality at first). A supporting character, Killian, is also a lesbian with even more masculine attire and her hair in a mohawk.
Slotherhouse: Zenny is implied to be one, eager to lure freshmen, specifically girls, with her pool party and finds the trust shower hazing ritual hot.
Smokin' Aces: Sharice is a feisty, aggressive lesbian who's got short hair, a slightly masculine clothing style and gushes to her girlfriend Georgia over her love for her constantly. Both of them also are hitwomen, working as a team.
Tár: Lydia Tár is a lesbian who wears tailored suits, has a domineering and confrontational personality, and prefers to be called "maestro" rather than the feminine "maestra." She also introduces herself as her daughter's father at one point, and takes on the stereotypical "fatherly" role compared to her wife.
They/Them (2022): Although she's actually bisexual, Veronica fits the butch stereotype quite well, with short hair, masculine clothing, and aggressive attitude (as that was toward the conversion therapy camp staff, one can't blame her), ending up with Lipstick Lesbian Kim. Her bisexuality is also an Informed Attribute, as Kim is the only one Veronica shows attraction to.
Unpregnant: Bailey is something of a tomboy in her attitude and dress style, but isn't really full on butch, though it turns out she's a lesbian. She meets a butch lesbian however at the carnival, flirting with and briefly kissing her.
V for Vendetta: Valerie's girlfriend Ruth is a downplayed example. She's first seen dressed as a man, sporting short hair, while Valerie always has it long. Ruth is only briefly seen however, never even speaking, and so we don't learn more about her.
When Evil Calls: Kirsty, downplayed. She's far more tomboyish and even a ladette in comparison with her very feminine lover Molly, sporting a short haircut and pretty masculine clothing. She is quite aggressive and murders a boy for kissing Molly too.
Yes or No: Kim is pegged for one by most people from the get go due to her masculine appearance, but denies it initially. She turns out to be one though. Kim has very short hair, wears shirts (whose sleeves she rolls up) and jeans. Kim gradually realizes she's a lesbian by falling for Pie, another girl. There are also other butch lesbians with similar looks in the films.

Literature

Annie on My Mind: While none of the lesbians are butch, it's discussed: when Liza discovers that two people she knows are lesbian, she's surprised because, among other things, neither one is butch. Later, when Liza and her teachers have to attend a hearing over their sexuality, she notes that all of them, including herself, have chosen to wear skirts or dresses, as if they were all subconsciously trying to prove a point by averting this stereotype.
Black Dogs: Sinai always has short hair, wears entirely leather masculine clothing and carries a sword strapped onto her back which she's quite good with, while having a female lover.
Boy Apparition: Butch and transmasculine identity is the book's singular focus.
The Chronicles of Dorsa:
- Joslyn is a tough, taciturn woman who's quite stoic at first. She has short hair (at least relative to female norms in the story-shoulder length). As a soldier and bodyguard, she's usually in a military uniform with her sword. Given her profession, Joslyn has a muscular build and is very skilled with a sword. Eventually, she and Princess Tasia (whom she's charged to protect) fall for each other. She's explicitly slightly taller than Tasia too.
- In the third book, Megs and Akella are introduced. While they don't get described as much, both of them are also women warriors (Megs a soldier, Akella a pirate) who fall for each other (while they both also had other female lovers). They both appear to wear masculine clothing too.
Ciaphas Cain: Corporal Mari Magot is a Fiery Redhead of a soldier and a Blood Knight, and is implied to be in a relationship with Grifen, a fellow soldier.
Circle of Magic:
- Daja, the most tomboyish of the three main female characters, is eventually revealed to be gay. She's a magical metal-smith, very fit, and an outright Action Girl. She does have long hair, although it's usually braided up in her people's traditional style.
- Of the main protagonists' foster mothers, Lark fits into the Lipstick Lesbian role, while the testier, short-haired gardener Rosethorn fits closer to this trope (although she's actually bi).
A Confederacy of Dunces features a group of rowdy, fightin' lesbians who associate with a group of Camp Gay men.
Eugenie Danglars in The Count of Monte Cristo is strong-willed and resistant to marriage, and begins dressing as a man when she runs away with her femme piano teacher (whom she is at one point discovered in bed with).
Diane from Dark Places is a big woman with short hair and a no-nonsense attitude, and she lives with Valerie, a woman who is "as delicate and motherly as Diane was big and hulking."
De skandalösa by Simona Ahrnstedt has Nora Gripklo as a 17th-century example of this trope, especially if you compare her to her beautiful and docile Lipstick Lesbian lover Venus Dag och Natt. Nora used to be a tomboy, who loved to hang out with her brother Gabriel and learned how to steer a ship. And as a grown woman, she is more brassy and "mannish" than a lady was supposed to be in that era.
Yanang Bai in Destructive Harmonics. She's a wiry, weight-lifting 5'2" motorcycle-riding Boisterous Bruiser and the only member of an all-female heavy metal band to have short hair. She also, in-universe, placed Number Two in an online "Hottest Butches" list — she was pleased to be nominated but resented coming in second to Rachel Maddow (a self-described "big lesbian who looks like a man").
In an Older Than Feudalism example, in one of the Dialogues Of The Courtesans by Lucian of Samosata, one of the courtesans, Lena, is explicitly seduced by a woman who reveals herself as a bald, masculine lesbian named Megilla who refers to herself as a boy and has already "married" a matron. The details aren't told, as Lena found them too disgusting to remember. Some have interpreted Megilla as a trans man however, given the male self-reference and reacting badly to being called a woman, plus preferring "Megillos" (i.e. the male version of "Megilla", though granted that could go either way).
Dragonvarld: Bellona is a short-haired, aggressive warrior woman who wears very masculine clothing (armor frequently early on) and even passes as a man for years. She's taciturn and shows little emotion, let alone affection, to anyone but her girlfriend Melisande.
Karina from Elancia Chronicles is an abnormally tall anthropomorphic dog-woman, who is built like a tank, highly skilled in combat, and secretly has feelings for other women.
The title character of Friday by Robert A. Heinlein runs into these on occasion, and while not encouraging their advances does respond to them due to her Really Gets Around nature — they turn out to be good kissers.
Idgie in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe with Ruth as her femme counterpart. (Although, while the book is quite explicit that they love each other, any sexual aspect of their relationship is left to subtext.)
The mother of gangsta rapper 50 Cent, according to his autobiography From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens. She bought him his first bike and taught him to deal crack.
Dekka in the Gone series demonstrates some masculine traits and isn't very feminine overall, is tough and good in a fight, and is in love with her female friend Brianna.
Her Spell That Cursed Me: Rebekka is a lesbian with short hair who wears nice suits and is an unabashed libertine. She's also quite tall, more than most women.
Her Wolf in the Wild: Micah is a lesbian Badass Biker. She wears her hair in an undercut, with a leather jacket, shirts and pants as her usual outfit.
Idlewild (2023): Nell is described as a butch lesbian by Fay and other characters. She's been out as a lesbian since 14, the only openly gay person at Idlewild, wears mostly T shirts and jeans, and eventually gets a short men's haircut. As an adult, she works as a nurse, not the most masculine of professions.
John Doe from jPod was raised on a commune of radical-leftist-hippy-butch-lesbians.
The Isle in the Silver Sea: Vina is a lesbian with short hair who's a knight while usually in either armor or a shirt with trousers. When dressed up, she wears a doublet. She's also fit and muscular.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club: Lily is immediately drawn to a picture of the drag king Tommy Andrews, and later also sees many other lesbians dressed in masculine garb while visiting the Telegraph Club. It's made clear she finds them appealing and she'd noticed such women before. They're described as wearing men's clothing and having short hair. Jean, Kath's friend, has this style too. Lily soon meets many more and Kath herself adopts the butch style too in time. Rhonda pegged Kath for a "baby butch" a mile away earlier.
Legends of Ithyria: Talon is a short-haired and muscular warrior woman (she's a former acrobat as well) who has passed as a man for years, wearing masculine military garb. She finds herself gradually becoming attracted to other women, confusing Talon at first. Before long though she acts on her feelings, getting multiple girlfriends. She's bifauxnen and widely admired by women in her male guise.
In The Locked Tomb, Gideon the Ninth has short hair, is tall and buff as heck, with a squishy center underneath the snark and sex jokes. Almost everything that comes out of Gideon's mouth is an innuendo or a weird, confusing joke, and everyone assumes she's a total idiot. She's also very likely one of the finest sword fighters the Ninth House has ever had, which is why Gideon is made the cavalier of Harrowhark. The narration notes that she does exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, crunches, and squats in her room every morning, along with a jog around Canaan House once she's there in the first book of the series, which eventually gets added to with sparring exercises against other cavaliers to keep her skills fresh. Gideon also only shows interest in women throughout the entire series — Gideon ends up Eating the Eye Candy when Coronabeth is flouncing around her in skimpy nightgowns or a wet swimsuit, though it also flavors Gideon's more sincere attraction to Ill Girl Dulcinea, with her narration often fixated on Dulcinea's eyes and hair.
Make Room for Love:
- Isabel is a lesbian with a masculine clothing style. She's introduced in a leather jacket and work pants, though she has long hair. She's also quite tall, muscular, stoic and taciturn initially. Isabel often wears tank tops and sleeps in boxers as well. She is also introduced protecting Mira by imposing herself between her and Mira's stalker ex-boyfriend. A past photo shows that she wore a nice suit for her sister's wedding (while her sisters were in dresses). On the weekend, she usually wears flannel shirts and jeans. She works as an electrician as well on job sites, more of a masculine profession. Isabel is usually the top too during sex with Mira after they get together.
- Frankie, who's one of Mira's friends, is one too. She's got short hair and dresses masculine generally, though she gets described much less.
Maria Watches Over Us:
- Subverted with the very close cousins Rei and Yoshino. Rei looks like the typical Butch, so an outsider like Yumi believes that it's Rei who's wearing the trousers in the relationship. Soon she finds out that she couldn't be more wrong.
- Sei's design, especially in the manga adaptation, is similar to a stereotypical butch. It's even more so after she graduates high school. She cuts her hair very short and starts wearing pants more often (due to a lack of school uniform in university).
Several in the works of Mary Renault: Colonna Kimball in Purposes Of Love, Thalestris in The King Must Die, Axiothea in The Mask Of Apollo. Axiothea is based on a real character, one of Plato's two female pupils, who "is said to have worn men's clothes".
Kirika from Masks of Aygrima is very aggressive and mean and acts as The Big Girl of the girls from the wagon. She is revealed to have started a relationship with Prella another girl from the wagon in the third book.
A Master of Djinn: Fatma likes to wear bowler hats, very nice suits and has a cane. She also wears her hair short and she works as a detective, being among the few women doing this. Due to this, she also gets mistaken for a handsome young man repeatedly, indicating her style makes her look bifauxnen. She's secretly lovers with Nubian woman Siti.
The One Who Eats Monsters: Described as a tomboy by other characters, Ryn is aghast at the idea of wearing high heels, and considers pants a technological leap over the skirt.
Sarah Dowling from Patience and Sarah comes from a family with only daughters. Her father decided to raise his biggest daughter similarly to a son, so since age nine Sarah has been her father's surrogate son. She wears men's clothes and does manual labor, which is scandalous in the 1810s setting of the work. Sarah is quite tomboyish and Hates Wearing Dresses. Patience falls in Love at First Sight with Sarah. Sarah in turn easily falls for Patience (and only ever loves Patience).
Jayde Spencer from Penance is a Lesbian Jock with Boyish Short Hair who for several years was the only out lesbian in her school. She is ostracised and bullied for her masculine behaviour (and for being from a poor background).
A Place of Refuge: Faigin is the most athletic among the protagonists, regularly exercising and practicing martial arts, which she enjoys deeply, while also an experienced commando. She has very short hair and is a tough former rebel. While at first her sexual orientation is unknown, eventually it turns out she's attracted to women, getting into a relationship with two of them.
Presidential: Downplayed by Jill, one of Connie's Secret Service agents. She's a lesbian who's described as having a large build and she wears a flannel shirt while not wearing her uniform. As a supporting character though she doesn't get described much further or focused on.
Talia (Sleeping Beauty) from The Princess Series might be considered this, if athleticism and aggression in a lesbian character (which she is) are enough to qualify. Besides a fighter, she is a cynical, blunt-speaking Broken Bird. Her traits are more apparent by contrast with her more "femme" love interests, especially Faziya the healer.
Redfern Jon Barrett's 'ambitopian' novel Proud Pink Sky is set in the world's first gay state – and features Diesel, a district just for butch lesbians.
Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Lesedi Ingwe is a tall, muscular Kick Chick with a long-running grudge against resident Depraved Bisexual Khiirgi Albschuch for seducing several past girlfriends of hers and then making them cry.
The Rollerskater saga has an interesting example in Chelsea Rose. Chelsea is a trans woman and presents somewhat feminine, but eschews dresses and makeup in favour of jeans, T-shirts and leather jackets. It is stated in one chapter that Chelsea's choice to present less feminine is a result of her realising that there is more than one way to be a woman.
Various characters in the Sarah Waters canon would be considered butch, though (due to the time period) they're not wearing the dungarees regalia. Not only are they mostly sympathetic, it's acknowledged they can even be attractive. Nan in Tipping the Velvet looks masculine to the extent she can pass as a rent boy. She later joins a community of lesbians who have a word for a butch woman: "uncle". Waters' butches are generally teamed up with feminine girls; a butch in The Night Watch even reflects 'You couldn't go with a girl from the same side'.
Seveneves has Tekla, a butch Russian cosmonaut and samboist who sports a crew cut and thinks that courage is the most important trait to give to her offspring, which eventually results in her genetic line becoming specialized as super-soldiers.
Winter Ihernglass in The Shadow Campaigns, who also combines Sweet Polly Oliver (she initially has to crossdress to join the Army) and Wholesome Crossdresser (even when the Army starts accepting female troops and she could legitimately drop the masculine disguise, she chooses to continue wearing short hair and male-variant uniforms).
The Sirantha Jax Series: Dina is described as a butch blonde woman who can "bring home a girl who's never looked twice at her own sex". None of Dina's exploits are shown "on-camera" but she mentions them via innuendo on a regular basis. She also works as a ship mechanic.
Star Wars Path Of Deceit: Yana Ro is a muscular Tomboy and in love with the female Nautolan Kor Plouth.
Many characters in Stone Butch Blues, including the protagonist Jess. Jess takes hormones to pass as a man because she can't find any cultural space to be a butch woman.
Swan's Braid & Other Tales of Terizan:
- Swan is a short-haired lesbian who's a rather masculine warrior as well.
- Terizan, the lesbian protagonist, is a tomboy who isn't described as much but probably also falls into this, with short hair herself.
Tales of the Pack:
- Mitch is initially presented as a lesbian girl who dresses so masculine that Lexie mistakes her initially for a boy, while she's also fine being called he. Subverted however in Hungry Ghost when it turns out he's a trans man though.
- Lexie is later drawn to Archer, a female carpenter and woodcutter who wears masculine clothes who's a lesbian as well.
- In the sequel Hungry Ghost Randy is introduced, a lesbian with very short hair who likes to wear leather jackets, boots, flannel shirts and rides around on a motorcycle.
Tell Me How You Really Feel: Rachel is a short-haired, tomboyish lesbian whose outfits always consist of t-shirts and jeans, with a blunt, abrasive personality (at first).
To Be with You: Leah is a lesbian who's a skilled mechanic, usually wearing tanktops, flannel, heavy work boots and jeans. For underwear, she'll put on a sports bra and briefs. She had used makeup as a teenager, but in a grunge or goth style. When grown up, she stops this, getting many tattoos instead and putting on muscle. She often puts on a tough, slightly acerbic personality, but it's to fend off bullying, and at heart she's very kind.
VTuber Legend: Beneath the Mask, Yuki is a vulgar alcoholic Lad-ette who openly lusts after her fellow Live-On members. However, since we never know how she looks like IRL, it's a downplayed example.
Verge: Stories: The protagonist of the Short Story "Mechanics" is a masculine lesbian named Eddie. She's a car mechanic and claims her father inadvertently taught her to be "the man of the house."
Stephen Gordon in The Well of Loneliness, which was published in 1928, is one of the first well-known examples from Western literature. (Radclyffe Hall, the author of the novel, would also qualify as a Real Life example.) Stephen has a Gender-Blender Name because her parents expected a son. From a young age, she was very tomboyish and at age seven she had her first crush on her parent's housemaid. As an adult, Stephen crossdresses and wears her hair short.
The Winnie Years: Erika in Thirteen Plus One wears a wife-beater, army fatigues, and combat boots, and is described by Winnie as butch. She has a femme girlfriend.
In Zenobia July, Zen's aunt Lucy has short hair, and Lucy's wife Phil has a dyed Mohawk and multiple piercings. Both wear men's clothes, which causes problems when they try to help newly out trans girl Zen pick out girl clothes at the start of the school year.

Music

Fairy Tales by Eric Lane Barnes has the song "The Ballad of Tammy Brown", which tells the story of a girl who was close friends with a girl named Tammy, who had no other friends in school because she spat, swore, cut off most of her hair, and everyone called her queer. When her friends heard rumors she was friends with Tammy, they ordered her to prove this untrue or become an outcast like Tammy. She follows their orders, and tells Tammy she hates her, and never saw Tammy again. She never forgave herself for what she did that day, and only wants to see her again one more time so she could apologize to her.

Professional Wrestling

Jessie Kresa—who later got fame in TNA as ODB—tried out for the first season of WWE Tough Enough and later revealed that MTV asked her to pretend to be a lesbian (due to her tomboyish appearance).
Downplayed with Sonya Deville—WWE's first openly lesbian performer. She's not overtly feminine and plays up her MMA background (in contrast to Ronda Rousey being given Amazonian Beauty treatment).
Also downplayed with Mercedes Martinez, who while openly gay (though WWE has not acknowledged it), also doesn’t act over butch.
WWE tried to portray Chyna as this at first, due to her masculine appearance.

Tabletop Games

Exalted
- Iron Siaka, a signature character of the Sidereal Exalted. She's depicted with somewhat masculine features (including a boyish haircut), and a passion for both bloodshed and beautiful women. Ironically enough, she represents the Chosen of Serenity; it's just that she often finds serenity in beating the crap out of someone.
- Significant Butch Lesbian characters are not hard to find in Exalted given how liberal it tends to be with social matters. There's also the Tya — sea-faring women who adopt a hypermasculine lifestyle and looks to bypass a sexist restriction set by ocean spirits (the Storm Mothers won't allow women more beautiful than themselves on boats, and the Storm Mothers are ugly). Basically, a fleet of hardy sailors and angry pirates who happen to be women. While not necessarily lesbians, their distinguishing features sit well with butch lesbian aesthetics.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse: This is the stereotype of the entire Black Furies clan of werewolves.

Theatre

Chicago: Mama Morton is often portrayed as very butch, which puts a completely different spin on her character and the song "When You're Good to Mama" than in the movie version.
Middle and Regular Alison from Fun Home's musical adaption. Middle Allison has a pixie haircut with male clothing while her 43-year-old self has a shorter haircut and wears baggy male jeans and a male polo top. In both the book and musical, Allison was forced into feminine clothing by her overly obsessive father Bruce, but after seeing a butch delivery woman at a diner (depicted through song with "Ring Of Keys"), she began to feel more comfortable with herself.
Alison: Since like 5, I guess!
I preferred to wear boy's shirts and pants
I felt absurd in a dress!
I really tried to deny my feeling for girls
- Alison's college roommate/girlfriend, Joan, also fits this trope.
Alice's girlfriend Deb from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals seems to fit this trope, speaking in a slightly deeper voice, protecting Alice from the Smoke Club, and wearing beanies and flannel.
While understated because of the time period the show is set in, Sheila from Love in Hate Nation wears a stylish leather jacket, claims to hate wearing dresses, and is very vocal about civil rights.
In The Producers musical, Roger DeBris's lighting designer is Shirly Markowitz, a stereotypically Butch Lesbian. Incidentally, everyone else in Roger's little entourage is extremely Camp Gay.
Emma from The Prom is much more traditionally masculine than her girlfriend, called "butchy" by another character in the show and visibly uncomfortable when wearing her prom dress.

Video Games

Female V, the Player Character in Cyberpunk 2077 can be made to look like this, with short hair (or even a shaved head), no makeup, and appropriate clothing. Her potential partner, Judy, isn't really femme or butch exactly, but she will almost always be more feminine than a butch V, due to her makeup and gentler, more introspective nature than the Ladette V.
In Deltarune, brash Bully Turned Buddy Susie is tall and broad-shouldered, lets her hair grow wild, has a distaste towards feminine clothing, and refers to herself with masculine pronouns in the game's Japanese translation. Despite spending the first four Chapters seeming Oblivious to Love, Chapter 5 confirms she's attracted to women via her Relationship Upgrade with Noelle.
In Disco Elysium, there's late-comer character Ruby. She's a trucker by trade with an impressive talent for tinkering with radio technology, and manly enough to be considered one of the Hardie Boys. The Hardie Boys, despite mostly seeming like classic, thick-headed Good ol Boys, are aware of and completely accept of her sexuality.
Linda in the original Double Dragon. The remake, by contrast, made her a stripperific dominatrix.
Dragon Age:
- You can play one in Dragon Age: Origins, providing a counterpoint to Leliana's feminine side with simple practicality.
- Similarly, the player can build Hawke from Dragon Age II like this, and her default appearance can be considered to be rather butch in comparison to Isabela and Merrill. While Aveline isn't a lesbian, the implication is that she may have been interested in a female Hawke anyway, so to an extent she also fits the trope.
- A Female Inquisitor can be built like this, too, especially if they are a Dwarf of Qunari.
Fallout:
- Brick of Reilly's Rangers in Fallout 3, who is a Captain Ersatz of Vasquez from Aliens.
- Corporal Betsy in Fallout: New Vegas is an NCR sharpshooter who wears her hair in a buzzcut and will flirt with a female Courier if they have at least 7 Charisma.
- Christine Royce from the Dead Money DLC of New Vegas is a tough, bald, former Brotherhood of Steel knight. She's also Veronica Santangelo's ex and can have some romantic interactions with a female Courier who has the Cherchez la Femme perk.
Lonnie from Gone Home. Although the player never sees her, she is a member of the junior ROTC and is described as dressing butch even when not in military uniform.
Gareth from Granblue Fantasy. She dresses and acts as a man in her guise as a knight while being in love with the more feminine Isabella.
Horizon Zero Dawn has the side character Petra, who flirts with the Player Character Aloy and mentions encounters with other wandering Nora tribegirls in her time. She's a Wrench Wench who would've probably fixed up muscle cars and drive a motorcycle if she lived in modern times.
Baozhai in Indivisible is a swaggering, hard-drinking Noble Demon Pirate who enjoys liquor fit to strip paint off a house. She also turns bright red and struggles to form a full sentence upon first laying eyes on Thorani, cleaning up her act around the elegant deva and asking Ajna to "put in a good word" for her.
The Last of Us: Ellie. While merely hinted at in the first game, in which she is only fourteen and doesn't really interact with any other girls, she does find a gay male porn magazine and shows only bored amusement over it instead of anything else ("Hold your horses, I want to see what all the fuss is about."), and Word of God later clarified the situation. The Left Behind DLC throws all ambiguity off the window and is a story about Ellie and her best friend Riley realizing that they like each other. By the time of the sequel, it's no longer a secret.
Mass Effect:
- Female Shepard tends to take this role if played as gay or bi, especially by contrast to Liara or Traynor.
- As of patch 1.08, Mass Effect: Andromeda allows all hairstyles on both sexes, allowing Ryder to be one. If romanced by a female Ryder, Peebee and Vetra also fit.
Strangelove in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the Bifauxnen variety. She does go on to mother Otacon with Huey, but her heart still belongs to The Boss.
Ishara from the interactive romance novel Moonrise. She's described as "butch beauty," has short hair, and wears suits to parties.
The poster girl of Overwatch, Tracer, has short Anime Hair who served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force and Overwatch, and is in a relationship with her flatmate, Emily.
Pronoun Palace: The Fisher is a trans woman who works in a traditionally masculine profession, and maintains a masculine gender presentation even post-transition, wearing the same outfit (overalls, rubber boots and gloves, and a fishing cap) as she did pre-transition, with the only difference being that she's shaved off her beard. Some dialogue also indicates that she's had sex with Nobody, the female office worker who serves as the game's Final Boss.
The female boss/president in Saints Row IV is already One of the Boys, and the game parodies the Romance Sidequest by letting you "romance" any (or all) of your crew members with a single button press regardless of gender or even species (one of your crew is an alien whose mind has been uploaded into a floating spherical robot).^note Just put on a short hairstyle and only go after the girls.
The Star Trek Online mission "House Pegh" has Trevana, a female Klingon warrior with the typical brutish attitude. Her engineer mate B'Eler is much less of a typical Klingon, being a far better Wrench Wench than fighter, which makes Trevana come off as this.
Undyne from Undertale is the Hot-Blooded head of the Royal Guard who doesn't do anything without making it extreme, engages in Toilet Humor, and yep, she likes the ladies. She even hooks up with Alphys in the Golden Ending.
World of Horror: Unlockable character Moriko is a lesbian according to the game's creators, and is an outdoorsy, rough-dressing, somewhat burly young woman (particularly compared to the other female playable characters). Interestingly, her orientation actually has a game effect; the Young Witch enemy normally only deals Stamina damage, but also deals Reason damage to anyone who's attracted to her, which includes the male characters and Moriko.
Yes, Your Grace: Both halves of the young lesbian couple that can potentially form by the end of the game are Tomboys.

Visual Novels

Genki from Kokoro Baka Monogatari is a muscular Jerk Jock/Lovable Jock (depending on the story route) who's skilled in volleyball and martial arts and can potentially fall in love with either Tuu or Kuuru.
There are several in the various games under the Lovestruck label.
- Prohibition-era gangster Freddie in Speakeasy Tonight.
- Small town sheriff and werewolf alpha Mackenzie "Mac" Hunt in Havenfall Is for Lovers.
- Architect and super-powered anti-hero Lorelei Linden in Villainous Nights.
- Hacker thief Zoe Banks in Queen of Thieves.
The player character of Ladykiller in a Bind, The Beast, is one of these. As a result of her androgynous presentation, she happens to look identical to her twin brother, which certainly helps him in his schemes...
Syd, protagonist of Scrambled: Syd City, even refers to herself as a butch lesbian (well, a "dumbass butch lesbian") in the narration.

Web Animation

Karol of Disventure Camp is the most masculine woman in her 40's, have short hair, fiery temper and is confirmed to be one according to Word of Gay.

Webcomics

Jordan of Agents of the Realm is the most masculine of the five girls, dressing in man's clothes, keeping her hair short, and not wearing any make-up. She dates another girl, Mackenzie, and her dialogue implies it's not experimenting.
Amazoness depicts Sappho as a butch lesbian, based on a description of her as "small and dark".
By Mistake On Purpose: Florence's girlfriend Robin occasionally appears. She is muscular with a short hairstyle, seems to have previously been in the Armed Forces, and currently works as a gardener.
Clover & Cutlass: Maggie has short hair and wears traditionally masculine clothing.
Crimson Dark: It turns out Kari is a lesbian, with a girlfriend named Ren who's also a pilot. Kari habitually has a short haircut and wears masculine-style military clothing.
Darkest Night: Mags is a short-haired lesbian with a masculine clothing style. She's also taller than either Ava or Nessa, with a stockier build. When she goes in a hot tub along with Nessa, the latter has Otto (her uncle) give Mags his "butchest" swim trunks to wear. Mags wears them with a sports bra.
Sidney from Distillum is bleedin' savin the world, while, by her own admittance, "not into dudes" (also, "Erin, don't go" from the flashback/vision/whatever it was might be a clue, as long as it was her memory).
DOGHAUS: The gay Maggie dresses in gender neutral or masculine clothing, and her design evokes having Boyish Short Hair. She's also characterized as much blunter and rougher than the other female characters.
In El Goonish Shive, Nanase had a makeover with short hair and large boots occurred shortly before she came out as a lesbian.
- Sam thought that he was a butch lesbian before realizing that he was actually a transman.
Ennui GO!: Darcy is a downplayed example, mostly because of her usual outfit and preference for dressing up as magical girls. That said, Darcy being tall and bulky, aggressive and stoic in nature, being prone to violence and her other, more masculine interests (such as weightlifting) lean her toward this trope.
The Evolutions of Homosexuality and Suicide: Discussed, along with Camp Gay. The blond scientist wonders why many gay people seem to be gender non-conforming. The bearded scientist supposes that it makes it easier for them to find lovers by signaling their gayness to other gay people (this is assuming it's not cultural etc., which he admits could be the case too).
Girls with Slingshots:
- The trope is discussed when Hazel comments that Jamie can't be a lesbian because she isn't butch. (Hazel is repeatedly noted not to know much about lesbians.)
- It's then subsequently lampshaded when Jamie begins questioning her sexuality and goes to a gay bar to experiment. The bar is full of butch lesbians, and Jamie finds she has nothing in common with any of them. Disheartened, she talks to Hazel's Lipstick Lesbian boss Thea, who tells her that this is a specialty bar for butch lesbians.
Main character Ro Cambria from Heartstrings plays this to a tee. Her aesthetic, personality, and even job (punk singer) are all very in line with the butch archetype and she's even romantically interested in fellow main character and Lipstick Lesbian Isidora.
The Constructicons' "daughter" in the Insecticomics. It's hard to get more butch than turning into construction equipment.
Ménage à 3:
- The trope is discussed when circumstances^note convince the not-very-bright DiDi that she is une lesbienne; she has to be stopped from hacking her hair into une coupe Longueuil^note and getting rid of her pretty dresses because she is convinced that she is "too big to be the femme."
- Pro wrestlers Roxie and Lynn both play the trope (ahem) straight but in a moderate way. Both are quite compact and muscular, have short hair, and seem to avoid "girly" traits like dresses or obvious makeup—and both are, indeed, wrestlers. However, both are more wiry than bulky, and Lynn especially can be downright dapper, dressing up (when out of costume) in suits and the like. Maura calls her "handsome".
Myrthala Wong in Miss Abbott and the Doctor, who dresses in masculine clothing and eventually falls in love with Rebeca.
Bartender Whiskey from Mythed-Up wears exclusively masculine clothing and is in a relationship with Lipstick Lesbian Faith.
Princess Princess (2012): Amira is an action girl always dressed in a uniform with a sword and her hair in a mohawk, while she goes around rescuing people, taking up the traditional male hero role. She falls for Sadie, with the epilogue showing them getting married.
Questionable Content:
- Dora seems to think Tai (rather small and cute for the stereotype) qualifies. Veronica apparently agrees.
- After Faye begins working in robot repair, the lesbian characters notice she has become "buff". Sure enough, she later ends up in a relationship with the even more buff "Bubbles" despite having had no interest in female partners previously.
In Relativity, Irina Novak always wears short hairstyles, masculine clothes, and likes women.
Monette's girlfriend Lisa from Something*Positive, who was initially drawn more feminine but whose character re-design around 2007 gave her a more traditionally butch appearance.
Sun Jing from Their Story is a tomboy with some ladette qualities and wears a tie with her school uniform, instead of the normal bow. In official art she is full bifauxnen mode, with shorter hair and masculine attire; however, she has yet to cut her hair in the comics. Her love interest, Qui Tong, is quite feminine.
In Too Much Information (2005), Rocky is a 6'4" bald black lesbian who rides and works on motorcycles, and her best friend and housemate is Carly, a Japanese gay transvestite Wholesome Crossdresser. After Rocky gets pregnant with Carly's child, she's rather annoyed that the resulting hormones are causing her to grow breasts, making for probably the first example of D-Cup Distress in a character who doesn't even rate an A-cup.
Yoona from Welcome to Room #305 has shades of this. She looks rather feminine but her personality has masculine qualities. It was more obvious when she was a rowdy, short-haired kid.
Mapharam in The Dark Lord's Confession is a tall, muscular, handsome knight who has zero interest in men and prefers to show off to her fangirls instead. Her masculine appearance confuses plenty of readers in Real Life too.

Web Original

1 For All: Eva's a stocky, short-haired female warrior who's always in armor while very aggressive toward most other people. She's seen eyeing up multiple female NPCs, and has never shown interest in men. Antrius does accuse her of trying to make "EvanDrizzt" a thing but her fixation on Drizzt is more of the fangirling variety rather than anything sexual.
Cracked Photoplasty Famous Images, As Seen From a Different Angle has the linked-Venus lesbianism symbol on Rosie the Riveter's bicep.
Critical Role: Campaign 2 has Beauregard and Yasha. They are both extremely tough, with them filling the only two purely martial roles within the Mighty Nein (Beau is a monk, Yasha is a barbarian). They both show interest in women from the start — Beau sleeps with multiple women throughout the campaign, and Yasha reveals that she had a wife named Zuala who was tragically killed. Beau and Yasha eventually get together, even going on a very elaborate date in Caleb's tower, and are shown to be living together in domestic bliss in the post-campaign oneshots.
Artemis in Thalia's Musings, though she insists she's asexual and Athena is just a friend. Athena is more femme, but her status as a battle goddess and her penchant for armor as casual wear don't quite make her a Lipstick Lesbian.
Touhou: a Glimmer of an Outside World has Mokou, who seems to suffer from Testosterone Poisoning apart from her hair.
Hippolyta of the Whateley Universe. Over six feet tall and muscular, can bench press eight tons, keeps her gold (not flaxen, gold) hair really short, smokes cigars, beats up other superpowered mutants at Whateley Academy if they tick her off. How butch is she? Her comparatively femme girlfriend is an Eldritch Abomination who terrifies half the school.
Jane from The Veronica Exclusive has long hair and wears some makeup, but is much more aggressive, tough, and masculine than her girlfriend, Veronica.
Out With Dad: New Vanessa, or Nessa, in contrast to Rose and Claire. She has Boyish Short Hair, usually wears tank tops and similarly overall masculine clothing, with her personality also being somewhat more brash. Plus her collection of piercings.
In Witches Among Humans, being a witch from the Boiling Isles, Luz is more crass than her canon counterpart and is in a relationship with Amity.

Western Animation

Amphibia: General Yunan is a Blood Knight with short hair who is quite close with Lady Olivia. In the series finale, they get together.
Arcane: Vi is a short-haired, tattooed and muscular street brawler who prefers masculine clothing and is blatantly attracted to another major female protagonist, Caitlyn. Her Evil Counterpart, Sevika, is even more butch-coded and is said to frequent brothels, but her actual orientation is never actually confirmed on screen.
Connie in Brickleberry who has a large build (parodied in that it gives her Super-Strength because she's gay) is attracted to Ethel, voiced by a man, and routinely mentions she needs to shave.
One of Jeff's moms in Clarence (2014) is always depicted wearing masculine clothes and having her hair cut short. The other leans towards being a Lipstick Lesbian.
Parodied in Clerks: The Animated Series, in which all of Randall's ex-girlfriends are butch lesbians voiced by men.
- This was once again brought up later in the episode. A group of geishas are "assigned" to Randall and said geishas claim they are there to "please him". He, completely oblivious, ends up sending them to execute minor chores, including getting him Asian porn magazines. However, in the end, when he comes to rescue them, they have all changed to butch male-voiced lesbians and urge him to "continue their fight".
- It should be noted that he doesn't date butch lesbians. They just switch sides after breaking up with him. Randall takes it as a compliment, however.
- It is implied that Randall is the representation of "male worthlessness", which is the reason why they "went lesbo."
  - Of course, Randall knows this isn't true. After him, no other man would do.
Clone High: The P.E. teacher was the clone of Eleanor Roosevelt. No explanation is given why the evil scientists cloned her 30 years before the other clones, but she's big and butch and her voice is provided by a man, who adds on an extra layer of creepy as she enjoys watching Joan of Arc's walk.
Eleanor Roosevelt: If you like talking so much, you can talk your cute little butt down to the principal's office. Slowly. Oh yeah...
A banned episode of Cow and Chicken had the Buffalo Gals, a group of very manly-looking girl bikers who broke into homes to chew on people's carpet.
Craig of the Creek: Kelsey Pokoly loves adventures, wield her own sword and speaks in her mind of own inner monologue. In episode "Fire & Ice", she realizes she have feelings for her friend Stacks and tells her how she feels.
Family Guy:
- Parodied with a Mr. T Distaff Counterpart named Deirdre Jackson. She's the strongest female boxer in the country. Her fists are so dangerous, she's not allowed to be a lesbian.
- When Meg tries to come out as a lesbian, she is serenaded by a barbershop quartet of Butch Lesbians all of whom are voiced by men, and one in particular has such as deep bass voice it would have made Barry White sound soprano.
- There is also the episode where Peter gets into a fight with another parent at a school sports fixture; being rebuked and reviled for hitting the other kid's mom, he refuses to believe it. The parent he has laid out turns out to be the butch half of a gay couple.
- "Go Stewie Go" had a not-so-subtle rip-off of Sesame Street with the characters "Bernie and Gurt", who were essentially a lesbian couple dressed as Bert and Ernie as a reference to the many, many gay jokes surrounding the two.
In The Goode Family lesbian couple Mo and Trish are both like this.
Hailey's On It!: Becker Denoga is very tomboyish and likes to destroy stuff. In the episode "Catching the Felines", she developed a crush on the titular character Hailey Banks, but in the episode "Along for the Slide", she gets into a relationship with her former rival Kennedy.
In My Adventures with Superman, Livewire and Heat Wave are a pair of these in the new continuity.
In the 2021 Rugrats reboot, Phil & Lil's mother Betty was changed from a masculine tomboy to a straight example of this.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- Two episodes showcase Huntara, a buff, muscular outlaw who's introduced flirting with the waitresses (and who sets Adora's eyes to sparkling).
- Subverted with Scorpia, who mostly looks the part because she's enormous, muscular, short-haired and mostly wears a military uniform, and is pretty unambiguously a lesbian, but has a very friendly Cuddle Bug personality and on the rare occasions she chooses a different outfit for herself she tends to go for a more femme look. Calling her "butch" is something of a Berserk Button to chunks of the fandom.
- Catra is very obviously in love with Adora (though she doesn't even admit it to herself) and is seriously butch. At the Princess Prom, she shows up in a tuxedo rather than a dress and does so again in Adora's dream. Following her Heel–Face Turn in Season 5, she also gets a new outfit and a short haircut.
Although not her usual outfit, Patty from The Simpsons took on the attire and attitude in the episode "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife". Then again, there were a few jokes and hints made before she came out and even Homer himself was hardly surprised at this.
Steven Universe:
- Ruby is a butch lesbian: she's an alien who has No Biological Sex but she uses female pronouns, is very tomboyish, and is in a romantic relationship with Sapphire, another non-binary femme-presenting alien.
- Mystery Girl from "Last One Out of Beach City" fits the bill appearance-wise, complete with flannel, and she seems interested enough in Pearl to give her her number.
- Bismuth is a gem who has masculine mannerisms and appearance. She is romantically interested in Pearl.
- The Topazes are large, masculine-looking (but not vocally) Gem guards who care very deeply for each other.
Q-Force:
- Deb of the Q-Force
- Dirk's assistant Louisa Desk is equal to Deb.
The Venture Bros.: The episode "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman" features a beefy lady named Ginny who is revealed in one line to be interested in sleeping with the eponymous Dr. Quymn as well as openly being hateful of men, though she says it's because she hasn't met a real man yet. She also pursues Brock Sampson — whether it's to "distract" him from the sexy Dr. Quymn or some strangely gender-bent Even the Guys Want Him is not revealed.
Voltron: Legendary Defender eventually reveals Zethrid as one of these. She's the tallest and bulkiest of Lotor's generals, with a deep voice and aggressive personality. Season 7 also implies that Zethrid is in a relationship with the smaller and more feminine Ezor.
Women Wearing Shoulder Pads: Marioneta's lover Espada is a matadora who dresses in masculine clothing and eschews makeup. She's also significantly taller than most of the other women in the series.

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