Gender please, without the gender police: rethinking pain in archetypal narratives of butch, transgender, and FTM masculinity.

Why is it that many of the often-cited narratives about butch, FTM, and/or transgender masculinity happen to be fictions that highlight suffering as a de facto rite of passage for the butch, FTM, or transgendered protagonist? This essay attempts to answer that question, first by outlining the "coherentist assumptions" of lesbian feminism and the forms of gender-policing that cast butch, FTM, and transgendered subjectivities as "false consciousness." It then analyzes the practice of anchoring butch, FTM, and/or transgender identity claims in pain-filled narratives such as "The Well of Loneliness," "Stone Butch Blues," and "Boys Don't Cry." While these narratives do important cultural work-exposing the violence heaped upon butches, FTMs, and transgendered guys-it may be time to imagine alternative narratives that are less invested in suffering as a barometer of masculine authenticity.