masquerade

The lost man

For the self and the masquerade project I’m dealing mainly with topic masculinity in the 21st century. It seems like there is not enough photographic work in this field, almost as if it has been neglected in the past.
The emancipation of the women and the whole feminist movement drew a lot of attention on femininity and this might be some of the factors for ‘the lost man’. Man and his masculinity have been constantly redefined through the values of equality. Furthermore man has also been condition by many new circumstances of modern life. The man has transformed from being the performer of feminist research into the subject of science in masculinity. Already at this point the crucial question rises: what actually makes a man a man, nowadays?

Instead of working with different stereotype appearances I depicted particular sections that cross over on many different types. Searching for a coherent root or universal ideals, it seemed logical to research on single and predominant characteristics of man. As an alternative to the standard representation of man, I like to open this topic in my work and question the principles of masculinity with myself as subject and object.

‘A whole foot’

The penis is supposedly the most obvious part of defining male gender, but surely it doesn’t make a man yet. The man’s ‘best piece’ was celebrated in many cultures as a symbol of fertility and growth. Like in ancient Indian, Greek or Egyptian mythology the phallus was a meaningful symbol. In the western culture though it is still a taboo on any decent public media.
Worries of man that their penis is not big enough doesn’t only lead back to the idea of fully satisfying a woman, but also to satisfy themselves in comparison with other men. Either way it concludes: Size does matter! If things can be too small, then they can be too big, too.
Healthy penis attitude of man could signalize vigour identification of masculinity.
A man, who is proud to be a man, is a man’s man.

‘Let me entertain you’

Robbie Williams became a much more successful pop star when he left Take That. With songs like “Better man” and “Let me entertain you” he conquered in his solo career the hearts of many women, but behind this successful showman and pioneer of masculinity lies also a broken and drug conflicted second self. It is a familiar phenomenon of rock and pop stars to loose touch with them selves and drown under the pressure of the demanding performance and masquerade on stage.
After Judith Butler’s gender studies we all just perform our gender and it can be argued the whole world is a stage in where we play our roles. This theory could suggest though that we are not who we really are. I can see that we are who we want to be; we are the masquerade we play just as much as the puppeteer or actor behind it, because one cannot exist without the other.
An actor is hypothetically versatile in his character and could please almost anyone; probably this someone is everybody’s man.

‘Put yourself in someone else’s shoes’

In the past fashion determined the gender or the other way around. Women wore skirts and man wore trousers. Modern life changed these standards and the line between male and female fashion has once more blurred. That women wear trousers nowadays is absolutely normal, but David Beckham’s nail varnish took it another step further. Beckham’s classification with the term metrosexual was announced 2002 by British journalist Mark Simpson in his the article “Meet the metrosexual”.
The definition of metrosexual sums up to a heterosexual man who looks gay. Man can now use fashion statements that have been understood as feminine, without being considered queer. How would it look if Mr. Beckham steps into some high heels I tried balancing on.
It could conclude that a man in touch with his feminine side is a lady’s man.

Bibliography

BBC report on Robbie Williams
http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/robbie/biography.shtml

Wikipidia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Butler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrosexual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus

David Gauntett, summery of Butler’s’Gender Trouble’.
http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-butl.htm

Dr. Mary Klages, summery of Butler’s’Gender Trouble’.
http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/butler.html

Mark Simpson, ‘Meet the metrosexual’
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2002/07/22/metrosexual/index.html