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edenbodower-blog · 8 years ago

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Context & References

One of the first references for this project, which made me realise how important is was for me to explore this subject matter, is the film ‘Moonlight’ directed by Barry Jenkins.

‘Moonlight’ follows the main character Chiron through childhood, teenage years, and adulthood, as he explores his identity as a black, gay man in Miami, Florida. Although this film is very important in terms of its LGBT angle, especially in a black, hyper-masculine environment, that is not the reason why I was so moved by it. The film displays men being vulnerable and emotional, which is incredibly rare to be displayed on a mainstream medium such as film, and especially in a film set in a black community in America. The surprise I felt watching this film highlighted for me how important it was for me to investigate masculinity further, and try to understand why we don’t see men being emotional on screen (or in any other medium), being vulnerable, being real.

Kahlil Joseph’s ‘M.a.a.d’ similarly explores black masculinity in America, but this time in Compton, California. Also, like ‘Moonlight’, it tells an important narrative through visually rich candid shots, displaying with honesty the African-American experience.

Ava DuVernay’s documentary ‘13th’ also really reinforced this for me, because ‘Moonlight’ had shown me one side of masculinity, but importantly black masculinity in particular, in America, whereas ‘13th’ gave me the facts. ‘Black men account for an estimated 6.5% of the U.S. population, however, they make up 40.2% of the U.S. prison population,’ we are told. We learn in great detail the truth behind racism and mass incarceration in America, which is truly shocking.

Grayson Perry’s documentary series ‘All Man’, is also valuable in my research. ‘Grayson Perry visits ultra-male worlds to explore how contemporary masculinity shapes the lives and expectations of men in Britain today, while reflecting on his own identity and prejudices’. I think it’s important for me to be able to link back my findings to British culture and the society I am in, as the experiences of Masculinity may be very different to the experiences of American Men.

Me and Maisie began to look into this in our film ‘Masculinity’. We spoke to eight boys from our art foundation about their experiences with masculinity and the expectations it has. ‘Do you struggle to show emotion and be vulnerable?’ ‘What do people mean when they say “that’s gay”?’ and “What is a thing you wish you could do but feel you can’t because it is seen as ‘feminine’?” were amongst the questions we asked. The range of answers were incredibly interesting, and was a really good starting point for this project as it made me realise how valuable that kind of research is. Despite this, we were only talking to male art school students that are seen to be much more liberal than the wider society, meaning it wasn’t representative. However, we wish to make this into a documentary series, and explore different groups of men - fathers/grandfathers, children (6-12 years old), People of Colour etc. I really enjoy using the medium of film and moving image, as it shows time and movement, whilst also making it feel like a more genuine conversation. I wish to use this further in my work.

I have also included David Hockney and Wilhelm von Gloeden as two of my references. Both explore male intimacy and vulnerability in their work, through nudity and homoerotic themes. Their work is a very refreshing representation of masculinity, despite their work being created when homosexuality was still illegal and far more controversial than it is now.

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edenbodower-blog · 8 years ago

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What is ‘Masculinity’?

As someone who identifies as a woman I have never really given this question much thought. It is easy for me, as for most women, to be focussed on understanding the concept of ‘femininity’ instead, as it is something that we identify with, conform to and also reject every single day. But ultimately, that is all ‘femininity’, and thus ‘masculinity’, are – concepts. They are simply social constructs, ideas and ideals created by society, so ingrained that we have learned to perform them, and so to be them.

The thing about gender roles is that although they exist due to an element of truth based on sex and biological fact, they are just a set of societal norms that dictate behaviours deemed to be appropriate and acceptable on to us. This applies to both men and women – which is already flawed due to the gender binary disregarding all other genders and thus failing essentially from the start.

However, there is a difference between the two binary notions of gender – expectations of femininity is oppressive to women, whereas masculinity is the tool that is used to do so. Men are not oppressed like women are, but there are arguably harsher rules that that they are expected to follow. Despite this, I wish to clarify that I am not dismissing the sexism and oppression that women face, but instead wish to come at this from a different angle and try to understand why.

After exploring this topic for another project and discussing this to great lengths with my team member, I realised that the expectation on men to be ‘masculine’ (defined by Oxford Dictionary as ‘Qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men’ with the example sentence being ‘handsome, muscled, and driven, he's a prime example of masculinity’.) is a significant reason for all the oppression that exists, and the creation marginalised groups. If there wasn’t an expectation on men to constantly be powerful, in control and essentially, almost ruthless, then there wouldn’t be a need to have women below them within society, or such a stigma around homosexuality and other LGBTQ+ identities. It even gives some form of explanation for racism, as men (and in this instance, white, Western men) were expected to show their superiority, which was done through enslaving and slaughtering black people and People of Colour.

I am fascinated by this angle of interpreting and explaining oppression and wish to explore not only the concept of ‘masculinity’ further, but also ‘femininity’. By investigating how flawed these notions are, through the reality LGBTQ+ identities, as well as talking to and thinking about actual humans and how they relate to and perform these genders, I hope to come to a further conclusion about firstly ‘masculinity’ and also the many minority groups that are affected by these rules and expectations set on us by society.

Looking into social groups based on gender, racial and religious backgrounds is very much linked to the idea of Identity Politics, defined by Oxford Dictionary as ‘A tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.’ Identity Politics is important as it creates a space for minority groups to highlight their individual needs, interests and perspectives. However, it has also been criticised for being exclusive and so dividing people, which is argued to not be progressive as the needs of every social group aren’t being heard. I want to explore these judgements about Identity Politics and come to my own conclusion of if it is a useful way to support minority and oppressed groups.

All of these ideas come from my own understanding of gender and society, but I wish to further my understanding of these topics, and so come to some kind of conclusion, and even find a method to overcome some of these issues.

Some questions I wish to investigate: – If gender is just a social construct, then how can people that are transgender know what gender they identify as? – It is important to recognise different oppression, and so different needs, but how is the best way to do this? – Is Identity Politics progressive method if it is dividing social groups, instead of including everyone? – What is the cause of oppression? – How can we try to solve problems caused by the expectations of ‘Masculinity’?

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