I had a very clear idea of the picture I wanted in my mind. I wanted to simply describe how narrow masculinity is for boys in high school in our society today, but I felt like this idea was manifested more so into the process of taking the picture. I wanted to create an image that blurred the lines of traditional masculinity and mingle it with traditional femininity but writing the word “man” in red lipstick in the mirror. Wearing makeup is usually strictly feminine and red lipstick especially so.
I used this specific bathroom because of the pink tiles (that my father specifically put for me) and the floral design on them represented youthful femininity because it’s a blush pink. I used my younger brother to do an act that usually girls his age do which is to put on lipstick and to simply see how it looks. The reaction on his face was not something I asked for. It is a genuine act of discomfort and he consistently had to establish that he was uncomfortable with this act. The door being open represents how anyone can walk in anytime and judge him and ridicule him but at the same time it is in a bathroom and it is in an intimate space where it’s only him and where he should be able to have some privacy. He is also wearing a violet shirt that is not usually associated with a specific gender. But taking this photo ended in an argument on how he wasn’t “gay” and this showed me how truly narrow representations of masculinity are so much so that putting on lipstick means the same thing as liking to have sex with men.
4 comments:
I see the open door and the darkness of the hallway as representing a void. The lack of knowledge of what women go through in their everyday lives to “put on their face.” The darkness could also represent the unknown of what lays beyond the traditional male gender script for this teeneager. The title ” Do You Think I’m Gay” and the argument between the subject and his sister after the photo was taken shows the fragility of this young mans masculinity. To suggest that just by wearing lipstick makes a guy gay, or even that being gay is a negative speaks strongly that our nations youth is insecure in their own role. The suggested hallway could represent a journey to a new beginning for this young man to be more understanding towards women and what their gender script entails.
The door open to me represents darkness because in front the door it's dark. I agree with my classmate Kate that the door opens suggest a new journey. Maybe the young boy wants to be gay or is already gay and he doesn't know how to express his self. The purple could be for a girl or boy. The lipstick is a bold statement to suggest that he is gay.
I love how everything in this photo reads as a commentary on gender, but society has linked sexual orientation and gender together so that they become synonymous, leading to the title "Do You Think I'm Gay". To me, this photo as a whole comes together to create an image of not just the narrowness of masculinity, but the ways that "feminine" qualities are seen as negative in a male dominated society. This is especially embodied in the boy's face, disgruntled and perhaps almost disgusted as he looks at the lipstick. The spelling out of 'Man' on the mirror almost seems to me as if it is the boy trying to convince himself that he's still a man. The fact that while you only see a bit of the boy's face in “real” life, you see the boy’s whole reflection in the mirror could allude that in our society, your reflection may be even more important than what's inside of real you. This phenomenon especially affects younger boys, because they are shamed incredibly strongly for wanting to associate with anything effeminate that they come so far as to loath it. At that point, people begin to worry about whether they are presenting effeminately. I also think that it is noteworthy that the individual is the darkest focus, light-wise, than everything else. He is still in the shadow, and that tells me that he is confused, or hiding. This was a good project, and I enjoyed how it made me think.
-Claire
The boy in this photo at first appears to be trying on the lipstick, as if the pure curiosity of something out of his gender norm has intrigued him so much and he simply wants to experience what it is like. Then you see the look on his face, and the expression seems to produce the realisation that he should not be doing this because it is “wrong”, it is “not manly”, it isn’t “right” for a boy, for a man, to be wearing lipstick. The weight of the gender norms that society enforces ranks higher importance than his own private curiosity. Our thoughts swirl with, “is he gay?” “Questioning?” His thoughts go to, “will people think I’m gay if they ever found out?” and the need to prove he isn’t. For being seen as feminine, or effeminate, is to be seen as “less than” or weaker in comparison to the ideal of a man which he has been taught to aspire. The light above shines like a spotlight, much like the one a woman may feel is always focused on her appearance, exposing his act of deviance from the gender norm, but also divulging his insecurity in doing so. The word “MAN” is written on the mirror, almost as if trying to prove, in a distorted way given it is written in lipstick, that the person being reflected back in the mirror is truly a man. Trying to prove this to the world who cannot see him, but perhaps mostly to himself. The darkness behind him provides stark contrast to his emotive expression, such like the distinct contrast between what is accepted and unaccepted in masculinity. Most would have closed the door, but perhaps he wanted someone to find him. To have them tell him to “man up” and know his gender scripts, or to be told that it’s okay and he is accepted no matter what. His expression changes again, to one of disgust. What may have begun as a young boy’s curiosity, which grows into a fraught conflict within invisible shackles of what is “right” and what is “wrong” behaviour for a man.
Post a Comment