On the night of March 5, as rain washed over the streets of New York City, inside Playhouse Bar in the West Village, a DJ bumped music for a monthly event: Masc House. Produced and created by Playhouse bartender Alena Adler, Masc House is billed as a celebration of “queer masculinity.”
Debuting in December of 2024 and held the first Wednesday of every month, Masc House supplemented Playhouse’s established weekly Wednesday lesbian night. While the weekly night was for some time known as Femme House, it’s now referred to in more general terms, and Masc House offers a once-a-month twist, to bring special honor and attention to the mascs of lesbian culture. Adler told Tagg Magazine that honoring lesbian masculinity is uniquely important right now. She said with growing anti-LGBTQ+ political activity, masculine-presenting lesbians are getting hit harder than femme lesbians. “Mascs are gonna be the ones to get called fag, dyke, etc., get beat up,” said Adler. “So, this was a way for us to [celebrate] more masculine energy … [and] show gratitude for [some of] the front-facing people of our community.”
Masc House’s celebrity spokesperson, Lea DeLaria—the multi-hyphenate entertainer known for Orange is the New Black and The Lesbian Bar Project, among other works, noted another reason for a night dedicated to mascs. “We get spit on a lot, even within our own community,” said the star in a phone interview with Tagg. “To put a positive representation, give us a place to be us… is just a really great idea.”
Masc House features lighting and music curated by DJ Monstar, a dance floor, drag and/or burlesque performances, go-go dancers, tarot reading, and an arm-wrestling competition. The host and performers are different each time, and sometimes there are extra surprises, such as when DeLaria dropped by to join the fun, or when Wet For Her, a lesbian-owned sex toy company which served as an early-stage sponsor of Masc House, provided toys as a prize for the arm-wrestling challenge.
Though the crowd at the March edition wasn’t as large as its predecessors, the essence of Masc House was still vibrantly on display. The arm-wrestling competition drew plenty of contenders, with a fierce title battle. Tarot cards were read. Strangers chatted, drank, and danced together.
Amid that environment, a question emerged that underscores the very idea of Masc House: What does it mean to be masc? To queer women, masc is perhaps a term for masculine-presenting cis-gender or transgender women, or non-binary people. As DeLaria emphasizes, it’s the “butches” and the “dykes.”
That’s why one March attendee, Nat, was surprised to find several gay men in the crowd. “Why not call it ‘Queer’ [House]?” said Nat. “If you’re going to have everyone here, you can’t call it ‘Masc’ [House].”
But gay men do use the term “masc” in their own way, so they can indeed fit under the umbrella term. Moreover, Adler emphasizes that even if some gay men come–whether to support their friends or to support Playhouse or Masc House itself–the space still centers masc lesbians, and there’s room for inclusion without taking away from that, partly due to the broad scope of what masc can mean.
“There’s so many types of ‘mascs,’” said Adler. “Masc can be how you dress, act… it’s not just one way or another.”
To highlight that particular notion, Masc House switches hosts at each edition, with the intent of representing the spectrum of masc lesbians—i.e., from “as butch as it gets” DeLaria, to chapstick lesbians.
Echoing Adler’s point, DeLaria firmly referred to herself as a butch and NOT a “queer woman,” and said that as a “butch dyke,” she feels represented by the name Masc House, but she embraces flexibility of others to feel represented, too. “People should have their own idea and concept of who the fuck they are,” said DeLaria.
Nat’s friend Sarah also agrees that inclusivity doesn’t detract from the message the name “Masc House” offers. It’s still a “signal” to a “sub-community” of lesbians that they will be definitively safe, visible, and honored in the space.
Sarah also pointed out that Masc House can be not only for 24/7 masc-identifying people, but also for typically non-mascs to embrace their own inner masc for a night, by simply dressing the part.
Certainly, there’s room for improvement in advertising Masc House to the NYC lesbian community. Nat noted she didn’t know about the event in March until right before, and it hasn’t yet popped up on at least a couple of sapphic social media, but the event is still young and growing.
And, regardless of who is or isn’t at Masc House on any given night, or why any particular person attends, the event offers at least one constant—something March Masc House attendee Josh sought: a place “to experience queerness and freedom.”
That’s Adler’s ultimate goal for Masc House. “We want to bring people together in a fun way…at least as a way to cope with this climate; So many groups in our community are struggling,” said Adler. “It’s about uplifting each other, [and coming] together.”
