#gender and masculinity as performace

[kinsey3furry300]

While I love the central theme of "Copeing with looming death" in Fantastic Mr Fox, and I read Ash as more of a comentary on neurodivergence than on gender, i still adore thsi essay and it's look at gender in this film.

[k00297644]

Artist Research - Daisy Collingridge

After doing the Filoconstructions workshop, and bringing my textile work into a more sculptural atmosphere, I wanted to do some research into artists who focus more in a sculptural area of textiles instead of fashion. Therefore I chose to conduct research on Daisy Collingridge.

Daisy Collingridge is a British mixed media artist who combines textiles with photography, sculpture and performace. She describes her work as “an exploration and celebration of the human form... harnessing a tactile and haptic quality of softness and colour”. She studied BA diploma in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martins, London from 2010 to 2014.

I think her work is incredibly interesting in terms of expression and texture. I really like how the softness of the fabric on the surface resembles the soft surface layers of people's skin, but by layering the fabric and making it so structured it also represents the integrity of the human body. The way she portray masculine and feminine elements of the body are also quite peculiar. It's not the usual way gender is portrayed in modern day art, and I find the way it is disrupted very relevant to the theme of my project.

Collingridge is fascinated by what is happening at present internally within the body, and also how the average person has no true concept of what they look like on the inside. Daisy's work aims to provide a perspective of this. Her work consists of hand dyed jersey fabric, primarilty in shades of pink, ochre, yellow and orange. The primary techniques used in Daisy work are stitching and quilting, she uses so many layers of fabric its almost unrecognisable as quilting. These techniques are used to tranform the soft, flimsy physicality of fabric into a structured and rigid medium. The layers of fabric and stitching are meant to mimic the muscle tendons and fibres of the human body.

Reference Links:

[leathermouthfag]

had to unfollow an otherwise very cool blog cos they had a post saying that "real trans guys" can't wear booty shorts or have pink hair and uhhhhhhhh,,,,,, fuck that noise. wear whatever you want. y'know what the thing that distracts the most from my dysphoria is? painting my nails (they're black and pink right now! they're super cute, and punk rock!) doing my makeup, and dying my hair. i actually had pink hair when i started questioning my gender. in fact, dressing super masculinely makes me more dysphoric because it feels like a costume. my life isn't performace art, to quote laura jane grace. having that control over your appearance in any way is empowering as a trans person, and if someone tries to force you into a box, tell them to fuck off.

[gatheringbones]

["At the other end of the spectrum, we find people in whom the tendencies and inclinations of the True Self are thoroughly incompatible with the norms governing the performance of the gender they were assigned at birth— incompatible to the point where performing their assigned gender causes them serious distress. For some of these people, the ones we refer to as transgender, the socially-constructed binary gender that they weren't assigned at birth (the so-called "opposite" gender) turns out to be a far better fit than the gender they were initially assigned. For others, neither of the binary gender options offered by the dominant heteronormative culture are a suitable fit.

Of course, all of this is an oversimplification for the sake of brevity; it's entirely possible to be both transgender and non-binary, for instance, and not all cultures limit themselves to a strict masculine/feminine binary when it comes to societally-approved gender options. The key point I'm making here is that while no one is born biologically predestined to "naturally" perform a specific gender in accordance with the gender norms of their native society, each individual does have their own particular predispositions which may make the socially-demanded heteronormative performance of their assigned gender viable and relatively intuitive for them, or somewhat less of a good fit, or highly uncomfortable, or downright impossible. In this regard as in so many other regards, the dynamics of neuronormativity mirror and are entwined with the dynamics of heteronormativity. Like heteronormativity, neuronormativity is deeply ingrained in the prevailing culture and in all manner of social conventions, systems, and institutions. Like heteronormativity, neuronormativity is a pervasive social force, comprising a collection of innumerable culturally-constructed norms— norms related to nearly every aspect of embodiment, development, cognition, expression, communication, comportment, conduct, and interaction— which are socially modeled, inculcated, and enforced from birth onward in countless ways. And like heteronormativity, neuronormativity is to a large extent a matter of the ongoing habitual performance of internalized social norms.

Like heteronormative performance, neuronormative performance is a better fit for some folks than for others. At one end of the spectrum are those whose innate tendencies and inclinations are compatible enough with their local culture's standards of neuronormative performance that they readily internalize those standards and come to experience their own socially instilled performance of neuronormativity as "natural." This deep internalization and embodiment of the performance demands of neuronormativity, made possible when there is at least some basic degree of compatibility between those performance demands and the individual's innate capacities, is what we're really talking about when we refer to someone as neurotypical.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are those for whom the performance of neuronormativity is literally impossible— those who are absolutely unable to perform the actions necessary to maintain a neuronormative façade, and unable to suppress visibly non-neuronormative embodiments. In between the neurotypicals and those for whom neuronormative performance is an impossibility are those for whom neuronormativity is to some substantial degree incompatible with their natural tendencies and inclinations, such that neuronormative performace is a bad fit for them, is only partially possible and/or only sometimes possible for them, costs them significant effort, and is ultimately harmful for them to attempt to sustain.

Those who view neurodiversity through a neuroessentialist lens have an unfortunate tendency to compare and contrast neurotypicality with innate forms of neurodivergence like autism in a way that implicity assumes autism and neurotypicality to be equally innate and equally intrinsic to a person's being. In the less well-informed discourses on neurodiversity that unfold on social media, for instance, one too often sees people speaking of "the neurotypical brain," as if neurotypicality were a biological destiny that unfolded inevitably from being born with a specific kind of brain.

On a strictly neurobiological level, there's not actually such a thing as a "normal brain" or a "neurotypical brain," any more than there's such a thing as a "male brain," a "heterosexual brain," or an "American brain." Neurotypical people aren't people who all share one distinct type of human brain, they're people whose compliance with prevailing cultural standards of neuronormative performance gains them the privileges that come with being considered "normal" within the dominant culture. Neurotypicality is more a social phenomenon than a biological one."]

nick walker, from neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities, 2021

[louquis]

my p101 faves~ 1. Choi Minki - I didn’t care much about nu’est before p101, and boy, i regret it. The 4 on the show are such perfect idol-material, #boyfriendgoals, handsome, talented and most of all, have their individual charms. I’ll definitely start supporting them if they come back, which I hope they’ll do. Minki is my favorite, as I’m a huge fan of androgyny and I love his confidence in himself and his desire to overstep gender norms. He looks also really introspective and beautiful and reminds me of an elegant prince. 2. Ong Seongwoo. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks that he looks like an asian Dylan O’Brien? He’s super handsome and his expressions in Sorry Sorry give me all kinds of feels. Plus he’s great at dancing, a good singer and had been a trainee since middle school. Ong-ie really deserves to debut. 3. Kang Dongho. In episode 1 + 2 I didn’t get his hype but after his BIL performace I think that he’s absolutely amazing and deserves the world! He has that kind of reverse charm where he can transform from hot daddy to super-cute ball of fluff in 0.3 seconds and it’s so adorable! 4. Kim Jonghyun. Oh god, I know that this looks like nu’est promo but how could I not include him!?!!?!? I mean, that guy seriously writes page-long letters to apologize about lacking as a leader and then reads them out at fanmeets while crying when he’s actually the perfect human being? I swear, my heart aches for him. His smile is blinding, his leader abilities are great and he’s really hardworking so I wish him only the best. 5. Kim Samuel. He’s been training for about six years now, sacrificing a major part of his childhood and teenage years for almost-but-not-quite debuting in seventeen and then for debuting-and-disbanding-after-only-one-song in One Punch. I was stunned by his skills but despite his confident words about him wanting to become number one, Samuel always looks super nervous and pressured to me. I heard that he isn’t number one on many people’s list, so I hope that he won’t drop when the voting sistem changes. My baby deserves a bit of happiness for once! 6. Kim Sanggyun. Atom is my second favorite Topp Dogg member so I rooted for him on p101 since his name was first mentioned. From what I’ve seen so far, he presents himself a bit too sexy for my liking (that shirt lift in replay had me rolling my eyes) but still, I see his ambition and I really want him to succeed and gain fans for himself and his group. The pann post about him signing an autograph to his fan was so touching, I hope his ranking gets better. (P.S.:I wished he kept his hair long, it was a good look on him.) 7. Jung Dongsoo. He got about 3 seconds of screentime in episode 1 but he stood out to me because of his looks. Cut to episode 4 (or 3?) and I’m falling for his amazing singing skills. He lets the others shine if he knows that he can’t deliver/show his best and he seems very thoughtful. Hope that he keeps rising. 8. Kim Namhyung. I’m usually a big fan of rappers and so Kim Namhyung instantly caught my eye. He seems to have the skills and the swag but unfortunately, he didn’t get much screen time yet. Here’s hope that this changes! 9. Kang Daniel. It’s official: I love guys with broad shoulders (I either like them androgynous or as masculine as possible). Kang Daniel has a wonderful smile, wonderful shoulders and is an all-rounder in terms of talent. Plus, his and Ong-ie’s interactions are lovely. 10. Kim Taedong. The more I see him, the more handsome he seems to me. I admit that he didn’t catch my radar on boys24 but it changed when he got from F to A rank through his hard work. He also has a beautiful warm smile that melts hearts. 11. Seo Sunghyuk. I nearly teared up when he cried. Imagine rising from rank 90 something to rank 51! Poor boy, I’m sure he had lost all hope already. Especially with his team joking around so much when he wanted to practice. He reminds me of a friend of mine that cried once during the last class before an examen because the class was too loud and he couldn’t understand the teacher lol. He’s handsome and dedicated so I hope we’ll se more of him.