Butch Sightings: A Social Interaction

Butch Sightings is a social interaction art project that was inspired by interest and appreciation for butches & studs (females and/or women who appear masculine, queer, old school, dyke, bulldagger, aggressive [AG] and other terms to be added as I come across them).

Friday, October 7, 2011

#61 Keirra at Dyke Central premier

Posted by EightSixSevenFiveThreeOhNine at 12:20 AM

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Labels: Brown Boi Project, Dyke Central, Mynah Films, Oakland, Oaktown

2 comments:

AnonymousOctober 8, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Aw...that's my cute girlfriend!!
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EightSixSevenFiveThreeOhNineOctober 8, 2011 at 2:04 PM
Love that Anonymous!
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About Me

EightSixSevenFiveThreeOhNine: I am a fat queer non-observant Jewish white femme from the West Coast of the U.S. closer to 50 than 40. I grew up mixed class with college-educated parents and grandparents in what some might say was a colorful and others might call bizarre, world.

I'm married to a butch and we have two children. We are a very queer, very regular, very leftist household.

I'm an artist, writer, corporate worker and fashion-loving, lipstick-wearing "bull in a china shop." I believe in learning for the sake of learning and education for everyone, regardless of test scores and pedigrees. I did not finish high school. I have a Master's degree in art.

I would rather say who I am than not and I would rather ask about who other people are then assume I know (although I do have hunches).

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Project Background

What is this?
Butch Sightings is a social interaction art project that was inspired by my interest and appreciation for butches & studs (females and/or women who appear masculine, queer, old school, dyke, bulldagger, aggressive [AG] and other terms to be added as I come across them).

Butch is a word that connotes certain traits - a way of dressing, a stance, an attitude, perhaps even an age. It's in-your-face, nonconformist, dangerous and often unassuming. Butch is, in my view, not a role someone decides to play, but a term that describes the essence of a person (or an essence, as I believe we all have many). Butches survive. Butches persevere. Butches walk the line. Butches got it rough. Butches make me feel fine.

How does the project work?
Using my iPhone and natural chutzpah, I approach people I think may be butch and ask them if they are, and if I can take their photo and post it.

A simple act of subversive risk and connection - in which my perception as the viewer is pervasive and motivating, and yet is possibly inaccurate. I put myself into the photos by acknowledging my ever-present and biased point-of-view. To pretend to be objective would do a disservice to my work and to the people I meet during the project.

I'm interested in not only the documented image, but also the uncomfortable, sometimes satisfying, sometimes awkward, almost always risky interaction in which I don't pretend not to see, don't act "polite" by not saying anything and don't know what will happen. There's exquisite possibility in the approach across an unknown chasm and I find butches exquisitely beautiful.

I'll use the pronoun "she" to refer to the butches I photograph unless they tell me they prefer something else.

Friday, October 7, 2011

#61 Keirra at Dyke Central premier

2 comments:

The Original Butch (okay, well, the one I'm married to)