History Literature / StoneButchBlues

* FamilyOfChoice: one of the earliest queer works to explore the very important queer notion of chosen family. After running away from home at sixteen Jess cuts ties from her biological family and finds her family among the LGBT community at the bars and factories.
* ForcedOutOfTheCloset: Jess' old unionist friend accidentally outs her as a women in the factory by using the wrong pronouns. She quits her job there before they can fire her (or report her actions to the police).

* NoPeriodsPeriod: also averted, as the discussion of menstrual blood comes up frequently. When Jess decides to stop taking hormones, her period returns, and she destroys her underwear rather than risk having to answer questions in the building's laundry room.

* RapeAndSwitch: Jess is separately gangraped, as a teenager and later as an adult, by different groups of men who are trying to "fix" her sexuality.

* RedScare: The story takes place between the mid 60's and late 70's, with the Vietnam War making headlines in the background. In that political atmosphere, is it a wonder even union activists are terrified of being called communists?
** Even Jess, who is an ardent believer in organized labor is practically horrified to hear her friend might be communist.

%%* SerialRapist: the cops, as well as the man Jesse refers to as rapist Danny.

* DragQueen: Several of the characters in novel identify as drag queens, though it mught be safe to assume at least some of them would identify as MTF in today's terms. Importantly, the drag queens and the butch women share a unique solidarity in the novel that is rarely explored in other media.

* CastFullOfGay: No shit.

* EveryoneIsGay: A rarity, not everyone is ''gay'', as there are many [[TransEqualsGay transgender]] characters and others who fall outside of the binaries of male/female and gay/straight, but the number of heterosexual cisgender characters can be counted on fingers. Quite the JustifiedTrope, considering the novel is about the LGBTQ community, although quite unique at the time it was written.

* TotallyEighteen: When Jess runs away from home, she is sixteen. She winds up at a lesbian bar, claiming to be 21 so that they will serve her a drink.
* {{Transgender}}: Jess undergoes hormone therapy and top surgery (a double mastectomy) to transition into being a "man," but ultimately decides that the procedure wouldn't bring her peace.

* RealitySubtext: How much of the novel is autobiographical is unclear, but if even a third of it is from Feinberg's life, it is a miracle ze lived as long as ze did.

* HetIsEw: straight men don't come off so great from the novel, and all descriptions or references to heterosexual sex range from unexciting to downright vile.

%%* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: stated verbatim by the offenders - this particular brand of violence is meant to humiliate the butch lesbians and break their spirits.

%%* AttemptedRape: When it's not successful, although it sometimes is.

%%* BuryYourGays: Notably, this hardly applies to all of the queer characters in the book. However, at the time, it was TruthInTelevision, and there were very high rates of both suicide and homicide of queer people, which is reflected in the novel. Incidentally, the page image, from Watchmen, is the same timeframe.
%%* CastFullOfGay: No shit.

* FamilyOfChoice: one of the earliest queer works to explore the very important queer notion of chosen family. After running away from home at sixteen Jess cuts ties from her biological family and finds her family among the LGBT community at the bas and factories.

* ClosetKey: A rare gender related example - when Jess first meets Roko, an FTM who is transitioning, she is immediately transfixed. She later explicitly imitates Roko and seeks advice both from him and from his girlfriend.

* AmbigouslyGay: After she starts passing as a man Jess has a complicated tryst with a woman who seems to think of Jess as a man, but as they eventually part ways it is unclear if she wasn't actually aware that Jess wasn't a cis man.

** When ConservativeGay (ish) Grant wants to insult anyone (especially Theresa) she calls them DirtyCommunists.

%%* BuryYourGays: Notably, this hardly applies to all of the queer characters in the book. However, at the time, it was TruthInTelevision, and there were very high rates of both suicide and homicide of queer people, which is reflected in the novel. Incidentally, the page image, from Watchmen, is the same timeframe.

%%* BuryYourGays: Because, at the time, it was TruthInTelevision oh so very much - both in instances of suicide and of murder. Incidentally, the page image, from Watchmen, is the same timeframe.

%%* {{Gayborhood}}: Once again, no shit.

** the various groups of men who rape Jess to "fix" her are the extreme end of this.

%%* MagicalQueer: Al. She's the Obi-Wan to Jess' less whiney Luke Skywalker.

%%* BuryYourGays: Because, at the time, it was TruthInTelevision oh so very much. Incidentally, the page image, from Watchmen, is the same timeframe.

* GenderTraitor: Theresa leaves Jess ''specifically'' because Jess is undergoing FTM transition, but it is unclear whether she considers her a gender traitor or is merely no longer attracted to her.

%%* RapeAsBackstory
%%* RapeAsDrama

%%* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil
%%* RapeLeadsToInsanity

%%* SerialRapist
%%* SexForServices

* AttemptedRape: When it's not successful, although it sometimes is.

* BuryYourGays: Because, at the time, it was TruthInTelevision oh so very much. Incidentally, the page image, from Watchmen, is the same timeframe.
* CastFullOfGay: No shit.

* {{Gayborhood}}: Once again, no shit.

* MagicalQueer: Al. She's the Obi-Wan to Jess' less whiney Luke Skywalker.
* NobodyOver50IsGay: averted by the patrons of Abba's and other lesbian bars; many of the women are in their late thirties-early forties when Jess first meets them, and some are over 60 by novel's end.

* PassFail: too frequently to list.
* PostRapeTaunt
* PrisonRape: By the cops. Sadly, TruthInTelevision.

* RapeAsBackstory
* RapeAsDrama
* RapeDiscretionShot: Along with Rape Indiscretion Shot.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil
* RapeLeadsToInsanity

* SerialRapist
* SexForServices

* {{Transsexual}}: Jess undergoes hormone therapy and top surgery (a double mastectomy) to transition into being a "man," but ultimately decides that the procedure wouldn't bring her peace.

* RealWomenDontWearDresses: many of the butches believe this, and Jess does too, although her refusal to wear a dress to a funeral causes her ostracization from both worlds.

* SerialRapist: Of course.

* BuryYourGays: Because, at the time, it was TruthInTelevision oh so very much. Ironically, the page image, from Watchmen, is the same timeframe.

* AllMenAreRapists: Averted, by gay men and a few good straight guys. However, just barely averted.

* RealitySubtext: how much of the novel is autobiographical is unclear, but if even a third of it is from Feinberg's life, it is a miracle s/he is alive.

* {{Transsexual}}: Jess undergoes hormone therapy to transition into being a "man," but ultimately decides that the procedure wouldn't bring her peace.

* Gayborhood: No shit two, electric boogaloo.

* HeroesPreferMotorcycles

''Stone Butch Blues'' is a 1993 semi-autobiographical novel by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg. It follows the story of Jess, a "he-she" (later "butch," as the story progresses and she hates herself less) from a working class Jewish family. After she is raped on campus by members of the football team trying to "cure" her and the crime is dismissed by the school authorities, she runs away from home and begins a new life, growing up under the supervision of older lesbians, who provide her with a sense of community. Later, she becomes a union activist. Jess considers and undergoes hormone therapy and attempts to transition to being a man, but ultimately decides to remain a "stone butch," and forsakes transitioning.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance - A large portion is set in pre-Stonewall America. Needless to say, it's fucking terrifying. [[FromBadToWorse And not even exaggerated.]]

* EveryoneIsGay: A rarity, not everyone is ''gay'', as there are many [[TransEqualsGay transgender]] characters and others who fall outside of the binaries of male/female and gay/straight, but the number of heterosexual cisgender characters can be counted on fingers.

* EveryoneIsGay: A rarity, not everyone is ''gay'', as there are many [[TransEqualsGay transgendered]] characters and others who fall outside of the binaries of male/female and gay/straight, but the number of heterosexual cisgendered characters can be counted on fingers.

!!Tropes appearing in this book:

* NobodyOver50IsGay: averted heavily by the patrons of Abba's and other lesbian bars; many of the women are in their late thirties-early forties when Jess first meets them, and some are over 60 by novel's end.

* SomethingsDifferentAboutYouNow: Averted; at her most hormonally-induced masculine, Jess is still recognizable to people from her old life.