Tomboys and Crossdressers de Sadie Lee, vers une esthétique butch
This thesis explores the butch aesthetic of the painter Sadie Lee’s series of portraits, Tomboys and Crossdressers. Using masculine codes as a yardstick, definitions of butch lesbian identity frequently lack nuance, failing to attend to fine, yet crucial, distinctions that manifest within that identity. In order to provide a corrective to this heavy-handed approach, I tease out the subtleties of butch lesbian identity by bringing Sadie Lee’s works into dialogue with photographs by Del LaGrace Volcano and Catherine Opie. My cumulative consideration of these works, which each manifest butch aesthetics in distinct ways, pays particular attention to gesture as it contributes to the performance of masculinity, and also as it functions as a vehicle for communicating emotion. I then contextualise my analyses of gesture through an examination of trauma. My focus on trauma is rooted in the desire to counter a positive turn in queer studies that tends to erase longstanding denigrations of queer existence. My consideration of different media, namely painting and photography, permits me to highlight differing narratives of this trauma. My readings of the works of Volcano, for example, enhance understanding of the role of photography in the historical construction of images of sexual and gendered deviancy. The centrality of corporeality in Volcano’s artistic work offers a valuable means to appreciate the versatility of butch identity as an expression of gender and also demonstrates that butch aesthetics has numerous points in common with transgender aesthetics. In their turn, Catherine Opie’s self-portraits destabilise my prior conclusions. Opie redefines butch identity – and, concomitantly, the butch aesthetic – moving beyond trauma and offering, instead, an image of pleasure. Through these differing case studies, I demonstrate that the butch aesthetic is always dynamics, continually resisting the essentialisation of gender and sexual identity.
Sadie Lee Catherine Opie Del LaGrace Volcano art queer Butch aesthetic Queer art