In Nestle's text on femme identity, "The Femme Question", she challenges this commonly held belief by stating that butch-femme relationships are "filled with a deeply lesbian language of stance, dress, gesture, love, courage and autonomy."<ref name=":0"></ref> Arlene Istar Lev argues that through their subversive appropriation of heteronormative gender roles, these identities were considered "complex erotic and social statements" rooted in "gendered erotic identities".<ref></ref> Nestle states that they publicly declared same-sex love between women at a time when there was no liberation movement to support or protect them, and adds that "in the 1950s particularly, butch-femme couples were the front-line warriors against sexual bigotry. Because they were so visible, they suffered the brunt of street violence. The irony of social change has made a radical, sexual, political statement of the 1950s appear today a reactionary, non feminist experience." Lesbian feminism saw a rejection of the butch-femme dynamic and therefore femme identity. During the emergence of lesbian feminism, femme lesbians were accused by prominent lesbian feminist figures of aping patriarchal beauty standards for wearing traditional feminine clothing. Black lesbian feminist poet and activist Audre Lorde wrote in "Tar Beach" that "butch and femme role playing was the very opposite of what we felt being gay was all about – the love of women".<ref></ref> During this period, femme lesbians were often shamed for their appearance, whilst androgyny was seen as the favored way to dismantle the gender binary by radical lesbian feminists. Much of the criticism towards femmes during this period was rooted in classism from middle-class feminist academics towards working-class lesbian women.<ref></ref>  During the 1990s and the emergence of the lipstick lesbian identity into the mainstream, "femme" became a catch-all term to describe a feminine lesbian. Citing research from the 1990s, Levitt and Bridges stated that the terms "butch" and "femme" "began infiltrating bisexual communities, and women began writing about their experiences as bisexual femmes", but also that "very little empirical research has been conducted looking at the expression and experience of gender expression and gender identity within bisexual women." With expansion of the femme identity, sexual attraction differences between butches and femmes began to be analyzed. Scholars Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender wrote, "Femme diversity is also manifested in the sexual arena.