In conversation with .. 5!

Even when you talk about the lack of photography
when we think of the masculine female, it conjures up
imagery by Helmut Newton which again is from the
male gaze.
When I was doing my research at the CSM library, there
were only four books focused on lesbian women or made
by lesbian women. You really have to start digging deeper
and go through archives or online because obviously there
was a time where it was dangerous to be out in society. A
lot of the lesbian context was hidden or got destroyed or
letters where they took away the names so you wouldn’t
know who it
was written
from. In some
communities,
they didn’t
even want to be
out, like in the
documentary
Shakedown (by
Leilah Weinraub)
about this lesbian
strip club in
America where
they talk about
not wanting to
be in editorials
or articles
because it’s
for them. They
don’t care about
visibility because
they have their
visibility with
their people
on the inside.
There’s a side
where our
history has been
erased and then
there is a part
wanting to keep
it for us.
Gender labels
feel like it
should be
an outdated
concept, but at
the same time,
you just spoke
removing names
from letters and parts of history, have you yourself been
censored?
I’ve been censored when trying to upload, especially
imagery of female bodies overall. It went as far as
Instagram taking away my whole account and said it was
permanently deleted and I wasn’t going to get it back, but
after a fight and an article, we managed to get it back. I
use Instagram as such a big tool, not just for marketing,
but also how I find collaborators and other companies
to work with. I could also say that I censor myself in a
way, since being a kid, because I haven’t had the courage
or possibility to be out in the way that I wanted to. I was
afraid of not being enough and not enough for the queer
community. Censorship is everywhere. I feel that the
terms should be used in a fluid way, where one can swap
around and not be endangered if you want to change from
a butch to a femme more or the other way. It should be
more accepting to experiment with your identity. It’s a war
inside and a learning curve.
Just as women, in the female community, in the past
few months with Black Lives Matter, I’ve been thinking
about how
much black
women have
been excluded
from our female
community.
Especially when
it comes to white
feminism, we
have excluded a
huge part of our
community and
the same when
it comes to most
of the lesbian
photography that
I found, it’s mostly
white. Racism is
there as well as
it’s been erased
from the lesbian
history too. One
of the things that
people don’t know
is that a lot has
came from the
black community
as well. Just today
I was talking to
my friend about
the word “dyke”,
it’s a word that
many of us have
been using. It
comes from the
black community
where people
have been called
the “bulldyke”.
Now a lot of black
lesbians are trying
to take back their pride as well because we as white people
been taken away from where it comes from without having
even understood the history of where it stems from. We
have to learn, educate ourselves and be more aware.
What is butch for you?
For me, it’s about empowerment, a strong identity where
you feel very comfortable in where you are and how you
walk through life. You wear with pride. It connects the
inside and the outside in a way, body and soul. Butch is so
varied and so many beautiful people under the umbrella.
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