How to be butch: Clark Henley’s sharp, satirical and playful manual is back in print

‘Paranoia may raise its ugly head when one has taken too many drugs that do not go together,’ warned Clark Henley’s 1982 instructional, The Butch Manual: The Current Drag and How to Do It. ‘Ideally, the weekend should be spent partying continuously, and the drugs consumed must balance one another out. If Butch takes too many downs, he will pass out. An up will rebalance his metabolism. On the other hand, too many ups will produce hysteria, which hopefully can be doused with alcohol. Too many drugs from either the up or down families will produce excessive paranoia. Study the following graph and observe how drugs can counterbalance each other to keep Butch in the paranoia-free zone,’ Henley advised, providing the promised graph.

Henley’s tongue-in-cheek manual was immediately popular upon its release. Aping the style of a chatty, helpful women’s magazine, and complete with fictional agony aunt ‘Gertrude Stein’, The Butch Manual advised gay men on how to seem more masculine, with San Francisco-born Henley (1950-88) modelling his satirical tips throughout.

Now, with the support of the author’s family, the manual is making a comeback. It is a natural move for publishing imprint Dark Entries Editions, as Brendan McHugh notes how heavily the book resonated upon its original release. ‘At the time it was published, there was a slew of "how to" gay books – [how] to land a man and a stable relationship. Also, the Gay Clone look was still very prevalent. Clark's book tightropes between legitimate "butch" advice and observation, as well as mocking the self-seriousness of gay men's sexual/dating cultures at the time. Gay semiotics overload. Because of that, it has a timeless quality to it. The first line of the book asks, "Are you getting laid frequently enough?" What queer person, outside of Asexual/Graysexuals, doesn't ask that of themselves at least once a week? Also, "how to" and advice books are notoriously full of it, so this book is an excellent send-up of the "find love fast"-style advice books of the time. Complete with pictures and illustrations.’

Smart, smartly written and humorous, the manual features Clark’s playful, razor-sharp style throughout. ‘It sticks to its one true aim by sticking to the message of: I'm going to tell you how to be butch,’ adds McHugh. ‘The text should be studied by comedians. Clark clearly spells out, multiple times in the book, that masculinity is drag – "No one was born butch. People were born babies" – making the book a fun way to explore questions of masculinity, and butchness, as a cultivated performance.’

Revisiting the book now marks a crucial moment politically and culturally, amidst a backdrop of HIV/AIDS research and care being defunded, making a poignant tribute to Clark, who died of complications from AIDS in 1988. ‘The current political climate we live in wants to erase queer people’s histories, making it harder for young people to find [them], be themselves, and learn from people like Clark. Bringing texts like Butch back into print feels even more important because of this threat.’

The Butch Manual is republished on 29 July 2025, by Dark Entries Editions, $19.95, from darkentriesrecords.com