I guarantee you 99% of lesbians & other sapphics will not read this the way I do, it's supposed to be fun and flirty and you aren't supposed to view it like Karuniya views Murati as a comedy replacement trad husband.

Considering that the author is a trans woman (first thing she said to me) that would be a really stupid charge. It's a cascade of subjective factors that make it read weird.

As an autist I only have the most vague relation to gender roles and even as a teen reading Stone Butch Blues, the butch/femme thing was lightly mistifying to me. I'm not overly surprised that making the "butch" a trans woman resulted in this, the weird neurotypical gender-norm woo-woo shit is just bonus trouble.

This has very quickly become my least favourite subject, I truly wish this chapter had just been cut. I think it's underwritten, Murati barely reacts throughout the entire thing, it doesn't give us much on Karuniya and my SPECIAL MIND has resulted in a whole mess.

It's worthy to note, I don't really get this shit, but that is fine and I've never once felt the need to yell loudly about how I do not comprehend butch/femme dynamics, I uncritically support people doing what makes them happy in their relationships. The main reason I'm doing so here is because (in this fictional context) it feels to me like it all comes from Karuniya's side and Murati barely reacts, so the balance of *weird gender role shit* feels deeply off. Murati just kind of exists while Karuniya is foisting all of this on her.