The embodiment of righteous female rage, ladies and gentlemen.
Buttress is an alternative rapper from New Jersey whose songs revolve around female rage in the face of a misogynistic system, all of it expressed in a Classical Mythology wrapping.
Her real name is Bethany Schmitt.
Discography
- Behind Every Great Man (2014)
- ENDOFUNCTOR (2023)
Tropes associated with the Buttress's music:
- Et Tu, Brute?: Inverted in "Brutus" because of the Perspective Flip. The traitor, the titular Brutus, feels as much pain as the betrayed, her brother of another womb Julius Caesar. She loves him but feels so robbed of agency and the right to even reach greatness that she ends up usurping him.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In "Brutus", the Buttress admits she's murdering her best friend partly because of envy of his ruling position, male privilege, and the way people cling to his every word.
- Historical Gender Flip: In "Brutus", she reinterprets Marcus Junius Brutus as a woman, with all of it'd imply in the very misogynistic Roman society. As a result, her motivations for murdering Julius Caesar expand from just feeling lesser due to humble origins to a matter of dignity and gender inequality.
- I Just Want to Be You: "Brutus" is sung from the point of view of a female Brutus as she grapples with feeling both admiration and gratitude for Caesar and all he's done for her alongside vicious envy and rage that he has the position she covets. She even specifically says, "I don't want what you have, I wanna be you."
- Murder Ballad: "Brutus" is about the protagonist's descent into the jealousy-driven murder of her best friend; quoting her "this dead will be art". As much as it pains her, she feels justified and harbors no remorse because there's no peaceful alternative for trying to correct a systemic issue—misogyny and a patriarchal society—that has denied her everything.
- Pose of Silence: Subverted in "Brutus". The titular protagonist approaches Julius Caesar from behind and leans to his ear to whisper a rage-filled, envy-driven speech ("Or am I just wishing I could be like you? that the people would see me too as a poet and not just the muse"). However, judging by Caesar's nonreaction, it's clear that neither he nor the townspeople can actually hear her.
- Shout-Out: The plot of "Brutus" is inspired by Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with the main conflict arising from Brutus' betrayal of her friend and benefactor Julius Caesar.
