Welcome!

This is Top Hot Butches: The 100 hottest butch, masculine, androgynous, genderqueer, transmasculine, studs, AGs, dykes, and queers and transguys, a project by Sinclair Sexsmith, the kinky queer butch top behind Sugarbutch Chronicles.

UPDATES

Thursday, 25 June, 3:45pm EST: On Removing Trans Men from the Top Hot Butches List: my explanation for why I changed the list, what the critiques have been, and what happens now.

Wednesday, 24 June, 9:30am EST: This morning I removed 13 transmen from the list. There has been much, much critical feedback and discussion about the inclusion of transmen, and I appreciate all who have taken the time to email me and to comment and to participate in the conversation. I am reading through as many of the discussions as I can. I’m working on a full statement, which I will issue later today, and will try to figure out what to do about the holes in the 100 (now 87). Kael T. Block was among those removed from the list, for other reasons as well.

THE NAME: WHY “BUTCHES?” | HOW THIS PROJECT STARTED
HOW THE LIST WAS CHOSEN | LINKS | ABOUT/CONTACT | COMMENTS

What’s that? You don’t care about all that stuff?
Well, here’s the TOP TWENTY:

See the entire list with thumbnails here.

Top Hot Butches List 2009:
1-5 | 6-10 | 11-25 | 26-50 | 51-100
Honorable Mention

THE NAME: WHY “BUTCHES?”

I realize calling this a “butch” list is problematic and inviting controversy. The full name of this list is Top Hot Butches: The 100 hottest butch, masculine, androgynous, genderqueer, transmasculine, studs, AGs, dykes, queers, and transguys and I respect that not all – and probably very few – of these people identify as butch, and some do not identify as lesbians or queer or women, and I respect everyone’s own agency to self-identify. More about the name.

HISTORY: HOW THIS PROJECT STARTED

This project came in response to the 2009 After Ellen Hot 100, an annual list generated by vote by the After Ellen community users and compiled. I was frustrated with the lack of butch, masculine, andro, AG, stud, and trans visibility in mainstream lesbian culture (yet again). As radical as After Ellen’s list is – when compared to the Maxim Hot 100, for example – it still needs work. More about how this project got started.

PROCESS: HOW THE LIST WAS CHOSEN

How did I pick the top 100? Names were gathered from various sources (twitter, Sugarbutch Chronicles, word of mouth, internet searches, personal requests, and conversations) and then a panel of judges was assembled to help determine the order. Once the judges’ top 20 vote lists were in, various other factors were considered: representing a range of age, geography, ethnicity, and profession was important, as well as how the panel ranked the individual, the number of times the person was mentioned in the open thread, whether or not they were actively involved in culture in 2009, how well-known they – or their work – is, and their relationship to queer communities. More about the process.