Masc (Women)

"Masc" is short for masculine, used within lesbian and queer women's communities to describe women, non-binary people, or people assigned female at birth who express masculinity through clothing, hair, mannerisms, and overall presentation. It overlaps with but is not identical to "butch." Many people experience masc as a more contemporary, flexible term that carries less of the specific cultural and historical weight butch holds. Someone masc may or may not also identify as butch, stud, tomboy, or transmasculine, and the label leaves room for a wide range of relationships to gender. Masc says something about how a person presents, not necessarily about their sexual orientation or their gender identity.