Big, bold, powerful, handsome – and beautiful - masculine women. Those words can be strung together regardless of what society might believe.
Vancouver-based photo artist SD Holman is putting the spotlight on butches though her BUTCH: Not Like the Other Girls project and she’s proving that masculine women are beautiful women, despite the stigma that word carries in society.
The artist, who was born in California and received a degree in photography from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, started the BUTCH photography project almost six years ago. She is also working towards a Master of photography degree from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Holman understands that if society leaves the representation of butches to mainstream media, then society is certainly not going to get a true portrayal of the beautiful women they are. So the visionary artist is taking matters into her own talented and capable hands through the collective site known as Kickstarter, where people can donate money towards a project they believe in or want to see succeed.
BUTCH: Not Like the Other Girls Kickstarter Campaign project manager Kenneth Yuen says the project is a chance to show people that masculinity is not exclusive to the realm of men and that differences should be celebrated. Holman has photographed over 100 models for the exhibition, which is garnering rave reviews across the continent.
"This project is special and coming from within the same community that it showcases. It’s a project by butches, for butches," Yuen says. "This is already a community that is marginalized and rarely seen in mainstream media. Whatever queer representation we do get is usually relegated to the realm of the gay male. There’s a serious lack of representation of queer women and even more so butch women - women who don’t fit in with this idea of the gender binary."
Holman portrays butches from a butch perspective, although even within the definition of "butch" there’s a wide spectrum of differences, Yuen adds. "We have a lot of different stories from people of different backgrounds, even within the butch community."
BUTCH explores female masculinity in contemporary communities as the artist delineates Butch not as oppositional to Femme and Trans identities, but as an inclusive site of resistance to limitations on the way women, gender and sexuality are still defined.
The exhibition debuted in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2013, both as public art displays in bus shelters and at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. The show was also a part of the Queer Arts Festival’s TransgressionNow and has even been to several American cities.
Now the Kickstarter campaign aims to provide the funding that will allow Holman to tour the exhibition even further – while breaking barriers - and produce an accompanying publication about the exhibition.
"It’s with this campaign that we hope to acquire the funds needed in bringing the BUTCH: Not like the other girls exhibition to life and help with travel costs," Yuen says, adding the funds will also go towards the production of the BUTCH Catalogue.
So far, the response to the show has been amazing, including a huge outpouring of support from across the queer community, although the artist hopes to reach beyond the queer community.
"While the support so far has been amazing, this project is really going to need support. Every pledge will help and is greatly appreciated," Yuen adds. "It’s a project that can really make a difference."
It probably helps the project get some traction that renowned author Kate Bornstein – of My New Gender Workbook and A Queer and Pleasant Danger – has given her approval.
"I’m a hard audience, especially when it comes to the art, politics, sexiness, and spirituality of gender, but SD Holman’s BUTCH: Not like the other girls blew me away," she writes.
"This is important work: images like these, in which folks beyond the gender binary are shown so powerfully fierce and sexy and beautiful and exactly who they are, are - as I’m sure you will agree - sadly rare. I’d love to see BUTCH: Not like the other girls travel – to New York, to San Francisco, and to all the little towns in between. Even in our great metropolises, there are too many young butches who have never been told they are handsome. I want those youngsters to see this work, and see butch through the eyes of a great butch who knows how to see and show. As a femme who loves butches, I’d love a copy of this work, not only for my bedside table, but to keep on hand to show a new generation of butches and femmes just how wonderful they are. In short, this is art that will save lives."
Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing model so if the group doesn’t make $10,000 by March 14th, 2014, the project doesn’t get anything at all. Many rewards are given for people who donate including limited edition artwork, posters, postcards and the catalogue itself will be made available.
