The sapphics are asking: is there really a masc shortage?

Since this year started, sapphic TikTokers have been asking one crucial question: is there a masc shortage? And if not, where have all the mascs gone?

Similar to the “top shortage” discourse of last year, the masc shortage question seems to fit into the general feeling of malaise that folks are having around dating these days. While straight women are realizing that dating men is maybe not worth the effort, sapphics are busy having their own conversations about mascs, studs, and the many shortages that may exist only in peoples’ minds.

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But one brave TikToker attempted an answer this week. Lilly Brown (@lilly27sings on TikTok) headed to Lesbian Ground Zero (a women’s soccer game) to get the word on the street. Is there a masc shortage, or is there a single masc shortage?

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What Lilly found might shock you. Mascs are, in fact, everywhere: but many of them are already in relationships. Accompanying her friend in order to find that most elusive creature in the dating pool—a masc top with dom energy—Lilly took the pulse of the event, asking all the butches and mascs whether or not they were single and ready to mingle. And surprisingly, not many of them were.

The idea of a masc shortage is already quite fraught, has many other sapphics have previously pointed out. In one video from May, a TikToker digs into the unspoken questions that might be informing this discourse. “Is there a masc shortage,” she asks, “or when you see butches or studs, are they ‘too much like men’, and there is only a certain amount of palatable masculinity that you allow in your circle?”

Even earlier this year, sapphic content creator Nicole Bloomgarden addressed the imagined shortage in her own TikTok. “There is no [masc] shortage,” she stated. “The demand has just increased.”

“Everybody wants a masc girlfriend,” Bloomgarden explains. “If you are dating a masc lesbian, hold on for dear life.”

The problem goes even deeper, according to Bloomgarden. “There is straight women going after mascs because they hate men so much,” she states. And yeah, I mean…makes sense! As society finally begins to awaken to the reality that cis straight men are horrible people to date, mascs are growing in demand.”

So no, there’s no shortage. It’s just that the tide is finally turning.

“A shortage?” She asks. “We’ve been here, and we’re still here. Do you guys think we just randomly decided to put on miniskirts one day? We are still here.”

So there you have it. Single mascs are in high demand and low supply, and as women continue to release themselves from the bonds of comp het, that demand will only keep on increasing. Is it any wonder? Hot masc summer is already upon us, people!

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