A soft butch or stem is a woman who exhibits some stereotypical butch

Butch and femme

Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...

 and lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 traits without fitting the masculine stereotype associated with butch lesbians. These traits may or may not include short hair, clothing that was designed for men, and masculine mannerisms and behaviors. Soft butches generally appear androgynous, rather than adhering to strictly feminine or masculine norms and gender identities

Gender identity

A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

. In the spectrum of gender expression among lesbians, a soft butch lies closer to a butch lesbian than to a lipstick lesbian

Lipstick lesbian

Lipstick lesbian is a slang term used to describe lesbian and bisexual women who exhibit extremely feminine gender attributes, such as wearing make-up , wearing dresses or skirts and having other characteristics associated with feminine women...

.

This type of behaviour is also considered socially acceptable of alternate gender roles within the lesbian community. Whereas it is sometimes considered a betrayal of the lesbian community to be "too feminine" or "too masculine" (a stone butch

Stone butch

A stone butch is a woman who is strongly masculine in character and dress, who tops her partners sexually , and who does not wish to be touched genitally. Not all stone butches identify in female terms, some are known to identify with male pronouns, and many stone butches do not identify themselves...

), the soft butch is an acceptable in-between state that generally receives greater acceptance.