spotlight archive

"butch" by katie niles (1994) in nothing but the girl: the blatant lesbian image, edited by susie bright and jill posener

in honour of pride month, i want to spotlight some of my favourite lesbian photography! i haven't gotten a chance to read nothing but the girl because it seems impossible to get my hands on a copy (be it physical or digital) for a reasonable price. this tends to be the case for a lot of feminist and lesbian literature. i got this image from tumblr and there are a few others there, too, should you be inclined to check them out.

i like this photograph as well as many other ones from nothing but the girl because it's very rare to find art that includes butch women, especially older butch women. my favourite types of photos and paintings are those that depict women living out their daily lives, not doing anything extravagant or posing for the viewer. i feel a deep sense of comfort when i remember that although butch women are considered ugly and worthless in general society, there are people in the lesbian community who revere butch women, who desire them, and who want to memorialize them in photo albums and portfolios.

below are some more photographs by katie niles. i couldn't find much information about her except for this instagram post. apparently she was part of a group called the ovular collective. i couldn't find any information about the ovular collective, so if you've heard about it before, please let me know!

of course my first spotlight has to be jujutsu kaisen related... i'm functionally neet right now, and i'm so brainrotted for this series!

specialz has got to be one of my favourite anime openings of all time. it's so deeply haunting, with everyone single-mindedly making their way towards shibuya, prepared to give up their lives in what's about to become an all-out war. as you make it through the shibuya arc, you'll be able to recognize that every frame in the opening is a callback to certain scenes and concepts from the story. this opening is so good that i never skip it while watching jjk, and it hurts more and more to watch as each episode provides more context for the opening.

that black line separating gojo and geto is a direct reference to the opening for the hidden inventory arc, which is immediately before the shibuya arc. in that opening, gojo and geto were split by a white line, depicting them as two halves of a whole. it's a devastating reminder of where gojo and geto started, what happened to geto (which is summarized very well (but not analyzed) in this video), and where they both are now. gojo standing alone in the crowd shortly after that is reminiscent of gojo and geto's breakup scene.

symbolism and foreshadowing aside, this opening is just plain beautiful. the animation and the music are pleasing to watch and listen to.