This week’s hero is: Claude Cahun (1894-1954)

Also known as: Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob

Our heroine’s social scene: The surrealist hangouts of 1920s-1930s France, and Nazi-occupied Jersey in the Channel Islands

Famous for: Her very personal and political gender-based photography and writing. Scwhob chose the pseudonym Claude Cahun because it was sexually ambiguous. Cahun, along with her life partner Suzanne Malherbe (who took the name Marcel Moore), held events at her home, attended by many of the top French artists of the time. She wrote books on gender, such as Heroines – monologues based on female fairytale characters - and her photography reflected the surrealism of the time. It was particularly remarkable as its focus was often sexuality and the spectrum of the female gender.

Infamous for: While in France she helped to set up the left-wing political group, Contre-Attaque, in response to the rise of facism and Hitler. She moved to Jersey in 1937 with her partner, but Jersey fell into Nazi hands during World War II. Cahun and Moore worked to resist the Germans, using their political and artistic knowledge to design and distribute propaganda leaflets. They even dressed up in military clothes and attended German events on the island, so that they could put fliers into soldiers’ pockets and cars.

Reason she’s a heroine: Cahun challenged the strict gender and sexuality stereotypes of her time through her art and writing. She, along with Moore, fearlessly resisted the Nazi occupation, which saw her arrested and sentenced to death. The death sentences were not carried out, however, she died in the 1950s due to ill health as a result of her imprisonment and bad treatment.

If she was alive today, she’d be: It’s hard to find anyone to represent Cahun in modern times, but JD Samson is someone who also challenges and explores gender stereotypes through art, such as her 2003 calendar of photography self portraits.

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