Whether in a motorcycle jacket or a sports coat, with an ›Eton crop‹ or an undercut, the butch is always adept in enthusing and polarizing. Her forms of appearance can arouse desire and admiration, but also elicit rejection and discrimination. And butches certainly offer a wonderful projection screen for a wide range of emotions. Illustrated by radio and television clips, Pia Thilmann presents various facets of butches and other ›female masculinities‹. For there have always been people who foil binary gender categories and make use of what is supposedly ›male‹ with aplomb. At the same time, butches are regarded as a dying species and are still not as well known as drag queens. The video lecture seeks to explore what this strange ›being‹ is all about…