#ria brodell

[ether-blooms]

Museum fun with @ponyos-gay-hambone 💖🏛️

[yourdailyqueer]

Ria Brodell

Gender: Transgender non binary (they/them)

Sexuality: N/A

DOB: N/A 

Ethnicity: White

Occupation: Teacher, artist, writer

[universitybookstore]

Glorious celebration from MIT Press and painter Ria Brodell, Butch Heroes.

[women-loving-art]

Ria Brodell Butch Heroes

Catharina Linck / Okuhara Seiko & Watanabe Seiran Petra "Pedro" Ruiz / Mary Hamilton

[gwenstjameschurch]

Sitting in the Water Grizzly was born into the Ktunaxa Nation (Kutenai or Kootenai).  After leaving a marriage to a Canadian servant in which she was essentially a “slave wife,” she returned to her tribe, declaring that her husband had used supernatural powers to change her sex and she was henceforth a man.  She changed her name to Kaúxuma Núpika or Gone to the Spirits, adopted men’s attire and weapons, and took a wife. Traveling extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest, Kaúxuma Núpika served as a courier and guide to the fur trappers and traders.  To the tribes of the region he was a prophet (predicting large numbers of white men bringing diseases), a peace mediator and a warrior.  On one journey, after an unsuccessful trip to raid horses with other Ktunaxa warriors, Kaúxuma Núpika crouched down while crossing a stream so that his brother could not discern his sex (for it had not physically been transformed).  After this event he changed his name to Sitting in the Water Grizzly or Qánqon Kámek Klaúla. Qánqon Kámek Klaúla was killed while trying to broker peace between the Salish and the Blackfeet.  His death is described as magical, his wounds healing each time he was struck until finally his enemy had to cut out his heart.  He is remembered as a hero, a healer and a supernatural being.

Source: Ria Brodell 

[creeping-sharia-blog]

by ria brodell, from butch heroes

“Clara, better known as “Big Ben” because of her size, masculine mannerisms, preference for male attire, and her “attention to other women,” is described in the account of a murder that took place at a rent party in New York’s Columbus Hill neighborhood. The New York Age published the story of the murder on November 17, 1926.  According to the article, Big Ben was not at the party, but was the cause of a fight between two women, Reba Stobtoff and Louise Wright. Stobtoff was apparently jealous of Wright’s attentions towards Big Ben and attacked her, warning her to stay away from the “man woman.” The fight ended with Stobtoff cutting Wright’s throat, resulting in her death.”

[thatwritererinoriordan]

[femaleuncles]

These are a handful of paintings from the series “Butch Heroes,” by artist Ria Brodell. The concept was based on her meticulous research, digging up historically forgotten figures from all over the world from between the 1400s and the 1800s, of people who were assigned female, had documented relationships with women, and whose gender presentation leaned towards the masculine -- passing as men or dressing and working in typically “male” ways for the time. She grew up Catholic, and so drawing from that, the depictions are reminiscent of saint cards (and pretty heavy on the martyrdom, warning for that). She doesn’t use pronouns for any of them because there is no way to know how they would have self conceptualized then, let alone now -- the only thing we have is the descriptions of how they lived their lives, and how they died. A lot of them -- in particular, the “non martyrs” -- were “deathbed discoveries,” a phrase used often in old newspapers and writings about people who passed until after dying. There is something so powerful to see depictions of people like us as revered saints... particularly as these stories have been hidden from history.  More paintings, along with detailed descriptions of these peoples’ lives: (x) More in depth information about the series and her process: (x) To buy the book (I have it, its gorgeous): (x)