— Kai Green, Navigating Masculinity As A Black Transman: “I Will Never Straighten Out My Wrist” (April 5, 2013)
Nodding to fashion’s ongoing preoccupation with pushing gender boundaries comes ‘Studs’, a series of ten unique photo studies. Exploring the idea of a third gender, Simon Foxton and Bea Sweet recruit a range of subjects who refuse to comply with traditional notions of the sexes. The portraits - each a study of unconventional beauty - are captured by Nick Knight in stills and fashion film.
Not a fan of “nodding to fashion’s ongoing preoccupation with pushing gender boundaries” - Is preoccupation really the best word? Not to mention at least this project isn’t white, like 99% of “fashion’s preoccuption with pushing gender boundaries.” Can we acknowledge that yes, a handful of designers/fashion photographers like to blur gender in some of their campaigns and photoshoots, but it often just serves to recreate a new kind of androgynous norm - generally one that is white, slender, and still within a narrow perspective of class/beauty standards. This is one of the rare shoots I’ve seen that pushes back against that. I have very rarely seen representations like these ones, that feel powerful and respectful, not appropriative or tokenizing.
Sorry, I’m fucking grumpy - I love these photos, but cannot get behind that statement.
(via vile-insect)
Androgyny at its finest right here.
This caption infuriates me. Androgyny is so much more than just a thin, white person with no breasts and short hair. Androgyny, from my perspective, is the blending of masculine and feminine elements in any and all forms. Androgyny isn’t looking male, it’s looking like a human who expresses both masculinity and creates new gender options. It doesn’t just apply white male standards of attractiveness to female bodies but works to broaden the shades of gray.
These folks have the kind of androgyny I’m talking about:
streetstyle via blackfashion
man in a skirt via sean at fruitpunch
how would y’all define androgyny in a way that’s more inclusive?
hey world, listen. i’m reblogging this for reasons beyond the fact that i’m in it. HERE’S THE THING. skinny/white/short-haired folks with no boobs who look boyish ARE NOT THE IDEAL OF ANDROGYNY and that needs to change. essentially all we’re doing by this is continuing the idea WHITE AND SKINNY AND MASCULINE is the ideal definition of attractiveness. you know who else is white and skinny and masculine? LOTS OF EMPOWERED MEN WHO ARE ALREADY RUNNIN’ SHIT. so. they have enough power, let’s not let androgyny be living up to that standard too, rather, let’s focus on new standards of beauty.
— Alison Bancroft, in “How Fashion is Queer” at The Qouch (March 14, 2013)
I’ve seen some of these pictures a lot of times already, but I never really knew what it was for. All I knew was that Andrej Pejic was one of the models. It’s for Candy magazine which is “the first fashion magazine ever completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, transexuality, cross dressing and androgyny, in all its manifestations.”
(Via)I don’t usually post things that are fashion related, but I really like cross dressing (as well as androgyny), and I think the color palette is pretty.
I’m still not sure about Candy magazine. Firstly, I don’t like the association with Terry Richardson (it’s all like, Terry, Terry, omg Terry! - give me a break). Secondly, there is some dubious content which borders on fetishization of trans identities. But - I’ve only seen one issue in its entirety.
Yes, I’m also not sure about it. I like the visuals. I like that it gives visibility to MAAB people. However, I am really really not sure that I trust any magazine, save one produced by and/or with great contributions from actual trans* people, could be trusted to portray trans identities and issues in a way that is not “aaaaargh” or “look at us!!!! we are doing a favour for you because we are interested in your tragic bodies” blugh.
also yuck Terry Richardson
Because of the limited run of Candy I s’pose it’s hard to really get a range of views on what people think of it. So, what do you think of it, Tumblr?
—
I found this article equal parts baffling, super important and way too intense. It took me three tries to make it to the end, and I can’t get past the fact that they used the death of a young woman as the declencheur for this conversation.
I also wonder how distorted my own visions of these topics are since I’ve only been using Tumblr since the age of 22. Not to mention how sick I am of people lauding/touting Molly Soda as representative of this so-called “Teen-Girl Tumblr Aesthetic.” “Tumblr-famous tEEN GuRL?” She’s 23. Bitch was on livejournal just like the rest of us, never used Tumblr as a diary or a tumblelog in the traditional sense, but as a hyper-parodic art school experiment exploring notions of girlhood. The more people talk about her, the more people talk about her and convince themselves she is some sort of elected representative of every teen girl on tumblr ever? When in fact, she’s mostly mocking it? Snore.
Also, very curious about the absolute absence of discussions around race in this piece… the central figure is Asian, but that is not addressed at all. This is compounded by the fact that all of the images and examples used are very much centered around whiteness and white privilege. There have been countless important discussions challenging the way white young women in these online spaces react in knee-jerk ways to being challenged to at least address these questions. Not to mention, more importantly, how many POC resist those dominant scripts by creating and sharing their own images, giving voice to “girls like them” in a way that hadn’t been nearly as accessible/widespread a few short years ago.
I’ve got lots of feelings, most of them not good. Like, knot in the pit of my stomach not good.
Annemarie Schwarzenbach photographed by Marianne Breslauer.
Click the link for some sweet writing by my twin/best friend and a million resources for genderqueer allyship.
pride in quebec city this weekend. madonna performing here for the first time ever. fighting the desire to stay inside and cocoon or go out and flirt. hating the feeling/questions of am i read as queer am i ever fucking read as queer does it matter if i am read as queer anyway. getting dressed was a real real battle today and you can still see how uncertain i feel in the tension in my body in that photo. never satisfied with how i feel betrayed by my body.
things i'm into/post about: art, fashion, "politics," feminism, consent, social justice, queerness, identity politics, and generally speaking, badass empowering shit. my real blog is alagarconniere.wordpress.com.
often nsfw images.
disclaimer: the views expressed on this site are the author's and the author's alone. they do not reflect the views of her employer or any professional organization with which she is now or has been affiliated.
Transmen in 1920s Germany
Don’t follow me / Whatever you may hear or see
‘The wise cat sent us on our way’ by Martha Chan, for Artists for Animals
Just love this idea for bits of old rugs, cut off the worn parts & create a...
Hellen Jo
