As part of mainstream sexuality and gender expression, the constant need for men and women to portray certain human emotions and expressions and only feel sexually the opposite sex is a common occurrence. What we don't usually see or think about is how genders are defined and expressed in other cultures. I chose to take a closer look at lesbian subculture and the subculture within that community; Femme-Butch Culture. I will touch on the history of the group and how it has affected Femme-Butch culture, discuss what it means to be a woman and what that means for self-identified women, followed by a discussion of women's experiences Butch, will show how ideas of masculinity and femininity are expressed. within each, and then what it all means for lesbians. For those of us in the dominant heterosexual culture, a person's gender and sex are generally used as if they mean the same thing. This is not the case, however; gender is a category a person belongs to based on how they choose to represent themselves, while sex is biological. In other words, gender can be changed by a person from day to day, while their physical gender cannot be changed in the same way. American culture recognizes only two genders, one for each sex. Within the lesbian community, there is also a set of genders, which include dominant genders. The two genders we will focus on are the genders called femme and butch. Woman is defined as a lesbian who has a recognizable femininity that reflects or exaggerates heterosexual femininity. Lesbians who embrace heterosexual notions of masculinity are called Butch. The beginnings of Butch-Femme genres date back to the 1950s, when women were allowed to...... middle of paper ...... androgynous than they were. Butch or Femme, further showing that mainstream mass media can only do so far. The heterosexual mainstream has a long way to go to truly allow men and women to express themselves outside of old expectations and to wake up to the reality that society cannot and will never create the masculine and perfect feminine that she pushed. For. While there is still much to change and challenge within and outside of the lesbian and Femme-Butch communities, I believe that their subculture is producing more positive progress than the mainstream dominant heterosexual by allowing more options for individual expression. There aren't just two or even four different genders, there can be many more to choose from and Femme-Butch culture is a great example of how there are other forms of masculinity or femininity..