Jenifer Levin
Levin began writing during the 1970′s, when she was in her twenties. She produced some short stories and attempted to get them published. However, the strong feeling against butch/femme relationships meant she was unsuccessful. People told her that her stories had no relevance to modern lesbianism.
Fortunately, attitudes changed and, to quote the author, the stories now ‘sell like hot cakes’. Levin’s short pieces are beautifully focused – dealing with different situations but always centred on a butch/femme relationship. It is clear the stories are emotionally highly autobiographical. The same femme, distinguishable by the acne scars on her face, crops up in several different stories.
The central butches in Levin’s work are emotionally tortured, with hard exteriors fashioned from experience to protect soft interiors. Despite gaining strength primarily through their relationships with women, Levin’s butches find it very difficult to submit physically, always giving but rarely taking sexual pleasure. It is portrayed as the true mark of emotional intimacy when a butch allows her femme to make love to her.
Levin’s femmes are often strong, independent women who have lived through great hardship. They are often ex-prostitutes, divorcees or mothers who find peace with their butches. Occasionally however, they are ethereal people with no past and no future, who appear in a story and fit perfectly to the nomadic butch, providing comfort and solace.
Children are mentioned occasionally, but always in the context of the family: butch, femme and infant. A gruff affection is exhibited towards the child by the butch, with the femme taking chief child-rearing responsibilities. This mirrors the loving but slightly distant relationship between the butch and her own parents, shown in one story.
Levin’s writing is rich and erotic and tender and delicate. She evokes the world her characters live in so well that the reader is utterly convinced this is the way things should be. Most of all however, her writing is a celebration of women, and their relationships with each other.
Jenifer Levin’s short stories are collected in Love & Death And Other Disasters, published by the American press Firebrand Books. The best place to find the book is on the US branch of Amazon: www.amazon.com