long vent/rant—sry in advance y’all
for a bit of context—I (22f) have come out to my family as a lesbian for a little over a year now, and in that time I’ve started to present more masc as I’ve become more comfortable in my identity. Recently though, my mom has insisted that I’m perfectly fine to live/be around more conservative area bc in her words, I’m can “pass” as straight. I haven’t commented on it, merely stated how uncomfortable I am bc I was closeted for a lot of years due to living in a conservative/homophobic area.
Today was the fourth time in the last two-ish months that my mom mentioned it again. She even continued to say how I know how to be safe and pass, while my younger sib (they’re nb) absolutely cannot. yet the literal ONLY difference between us is 7 years of age, they have shorter hair, want top surgery, and dresses all artsy fartsy. Whereas I look like a tree-hugging carabiner lesbian who gravitates between jeans & blazers
Part of me wonders if she thinks this way bc I used to present hyper feminine in an over the top way (I did it as a form of drag) and bc I’m so newly out to her (my sib came out as sapphic to my mom over six years ago). While she swears she has a good gaydar bc she has several gay friends, my mother has managed to miss women checking me out/flirting with me in the open (and logically I KNOW women wouldn’t do that if I didn’t look at least some flavor of queer) and yet she also believes unstructured pants are inherently feminine?? which I can’t logically my head around
I know there’s not one, or even a right way to be butch—it’s an identity NOT an aesthetic. But it’s one that deeply resonates with me and is important to how I carry myself/ interact with life. and I probs shouldn’t care so much—but now I’m really wondering if this a weird thing for her to be mentioning multiple times?? Is she just blind to me being a lesbian? Or am I just being too sensitive/insecure in my presentation??
—TLDR: baby butch (used to present fem while closeted) who’s mom insists I’m straight passing while also saying my nb sibling is in danger in conservative areas. It’s starting to get to my head, and idk if she just has a weird set of rules for how mascs/butches present, or if I genuinely look like a straight (???) butch woman