“I’m Not A Stud, I’m Masc!”
Masculine black lesbians who reject their own group
In recent years, I’ve noticed many educated masculine black lesbians say they’re not studs, simply because they don’t fit the negative stereotype of what a stud is: a ghetto, toxic masculine black woman who is completely out of touch with her feminine side, and who upholds rigid gender roles because she doesn’t know any better.
Meanwhile, they fit the actual definition of what a stud is, which is a masculine black lesbian.
But instead of embracing that and expanding the vision of what a stud can be, they choose to label themselves Masc.
In social situations, lesbians who have rejected the stud label will assertively clarify and correct the barbaric assumption that they’re one of those.
I’m not a stud!! I’m masc.
Studs are not a monolith.
When a masculine black lesbian distances herself from the “stud” label because her understanding of the word is rooted in stereotypes—especially if she replaces her identity with the queerified, racially nondescript “masc”—her reasoning is often rooted in self hatred.
It’s usually just a way to distinguish herself from the “low class” women in her own group.
Some lesbians will also rip off the “stud” label because they want to give themselves permission to do things that are taboo for masculine black lesbians to do, like dating other studs, or receiving penetration.
In such cases, the Masc label is deemed more fitting because it evokes the gobbledeygook nature of queerness, which they naïvely associate with freedom.
And yet still, some black lesbians will shy away from the word stud because they don’t neatly fit into black stereotypes.
Perhaps they enjoy hiking on weekends, or play the violin.
No, they’re not studs. They’re masc!
We can already see a colonization of the term stud by the modeling agency, Stud+, representing “Masc women, Nonbinary, and Trans individuals” with some white and Asian models on their roster, to boot.
The agency used to be called the Stud Model Project, exclusively representing studs. But the founder clearly felt a need to include and expand.
Obviously there is a sense of shame and limitation associated with the word Stud, as if a particular ethnic group of lesbians cannot be expansive on their own.
Although these limitations are culturally-imposed, many of us internalize and carry them with us as we attempt to gain freedom through queer identities.
This reminds me of how women dis-identify from the word woman because they don’t want to be associated with female stereotypes.
The irony is that, most women who call themselves trans or non-binary are not even gender nonconforming.
But regardless of how these women behave or present, they still fit the same standard definition of a woman.
Like studs who don’t call themselves studs, they just want the special regard that comes with being viewed as different from other girls when they are in fact, not so different after all.