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Raised on a diet of broken biscuits.
Dec. 9th, 2008 02:06 pmA picture of me was recently featured on Genderfork, a blog that focuses on androgyny in photography and includes remarks about gender submitted by viewers. I took the picture in question while perched on a branch in a tree in the centre of a hedge maze in a garden in Brussels. Far too many of my self-portraits feature that absurd facial expression. My camera is obviously rarely chastened by it.
The site is entirely worthwhile simply as a convenient collection of pictures of people who are often quite attractive (please see here and here), but some of the images are more nuanced. Golf Suits would not be seen as playing with gender were it not for the positions of the models. Back and Forth and Clothesline both work because the subjects toy with and take command of the idea of the male gaze. The images that interest me most are consistently the ones in which attitude and posture are wielded as dangerously as an excellent suit and a flamboyant haircut.
I'm not impressed by most of the text, however. Perhaps I'm being unrealistic or unfair, but while I encourage and enjoy honest discussion of the ways in which living in a binary gendered society is painful for most humans, I am opposed to whining. I want more subversion, more laughing it off, more fighting back, and more people who are too smart and too gorgeous to bother worrying about the kids who don't get it. Throw your heels at the rude bastards. Respond to their braying by telling them that every cock you own is bigger than theirs while you adjust your pack and swagger off. Do both in the same evening. And then call me, because I'd like to buy you a drink. Or simply have nothing to do with the commentary of idiots, because you're honest and you're brave, and their rules do not concern you.
This isn't the fault of the creator of the blog, Sarah Dopp, who has a delightful name and compiles a fascinating collection of images I'll continue to follow. It's the tearful conversation that happens every time two or more trans or genderqueer folk stumble into a room together, and I'm bored with it.
By the by. Have you heard that Blur is getting back together?
The site is entirely worthwhile simply as a convenient collection of pictures of people who are often quite attractive (please see here and here), but some of the images are more nuanced. Golf Suits would not be seen as playing with gender were it not for the positions of the models. Back and Forth and Clothesline both work because the subjects toy with and take command of the idea of the male gaze. The images that interest me most are consistently the ones in which attitude and posture are wielded as dangerously as an excellent suit and a flamboyant haircut.
I'm not impressed by most of the text, however. Perhaps I'm being unrealistic or unfair, but while I encourage and enjoy honest discussion of the ways in which living in a binary gendered society is painful for most humans, I am opposed to whining. I want more subversion, more laughing it off, more fighting back, and more people who are too smart and too gorgeous to bother worrying about the kids who don't get it. Throw your heels at the rude bastards. Respond to their braying by telling them that every cock you own is bigger than theirs while you adjust your pack and swagger off. Do both in the same evening. And then call me, because I'd like to buy you a drink. Or simply have nothing to do with the commentary of idiots, because you're honest and you're brave, and their rules do not concern you.
This isn't the fault of the creator of the blog, Sarah Dopp, who has a delightful name and compiles a fascinating collection of images I'll continue to follow. It's the tearful conversation that happens every time two or more trans or genderqueer folk stumble into a room together, and I'm bored with it.
By the by. Have you heard that Blur is getting back together?