“Butch Heroes” project by Ria Brodell,
Ria Brodell –a trans artist, educator, and author based in Boston, started Butch Project in 2010. This project is an ongoing project to document transgender people in history through a series of paintings. Brodell would like to know “what did real queer people in history do to survive” and “what happens when he/she had been born into a different era”.
As a part of Butch Project, “Katherina Hetzeldorfer c. 1477 Germany” (2012) depicts the drowning of Katherina Hetzeldorfer in the Rhine river, in 1477. They (pronouns for Hetzeldorfer) was sentenced for a crime that didn’t have a name. Before the trial, Hetzeldorfer had lived with a woman who is claimed as a sister. During the examination, Hetzeldorfer revealed that they are not siblings and had a sexual relationship.
In this painting, Hetzeldorfer was drowned with a large stone tied to their body. Hetzeldorfer dresses as a man with a white cotton shirt and red leather pants. The holy card format of this painting reminds the audience of the death of a martyr.
Ria Brodell began Butch Project after she painted ”Self-Portrait as Nun or Monk, circa 1250”. Brodell imagines their self live in a different century, in the middle age, they (pronouns for Ria Brodell) might be living as Nun or Monk. Brodell would like to know how transgender people lived in the past and then conducts some researche on people whose different gender presentation from their biological sex. Ria Brodell wants to create artworks that are both historically accurate and culturally sensitive.
The term “Butch” is chosen to describe two meanings: as an insult that had been slung and an appreciation for the strength of transgender people. They were brave and strong to challenge society’s stigma and strict gender roles.
Butch Project is an alternative image of transgender in media, among many bias news reports about them. It challenges the normative gender division and reduces violence against transgender people.
Ria Brodell’s Butch Heroes
