If women's place in society has a regular place at our dinner conversations, concepts of masculinity are likewise being reconsidered. If women are constrained to following stereotypes, or else risking a kind of banishment from their femininity, men themselves are also limited by the masculine counterparts of these codes. While gender deconstruction came to the fore in the 60s and 70s, largely thanks to the work of Judith Butler, Olivia Gazalé also takes on the subject in her 2017 book Le mythe de la virilité ("The myth of virility"). Hegemonic visions of masculinity are also in the spotlight from February to May in an exhibit entitled Masculinities: Liberation Through Photography.
Featuring a selection of 300 works made by over 50 international artists, the British institution highlights the complexity of masculine identity — more mosaic than monochrome — examining how it's been coded, interpreted, and socially constructed from cinema to photography dating from the 1960s onward. Along with the film Heaven by Australian artist Tracey Moffatt, we also find the work of Robert Mapplethrope and Collier Schorr, both photographers who played with masculine stereotypes and homoeroticism.
Taking on themes like patriarchy, queer identity, and the perception of masculine characters by women, the exhibit also features work by France's Annette Messager, who photographed men's inner thighs, and American artist Catherine Opie. Their works are placed next to those of Peter Hujar and David Wojnarowicz, two artists that Loewe chose to showcase in 2018.
Much like contemporary art, fashion also contributes to the reinvention of masculinity in its constant quest to deconstruct its founding myths. Shaking up the industry for years now, these reflections on the fraught concept of "manliness" have allowed us to question the separation of men's and women's fashion and favor a gender-free aesthetic. Brands like Palomo Spain are bringing this neutrality to the mainstream — with cuts and materials often considered feminine, houses like Random Identities are taking a page out of Gaultier's book and handing skirts to men; and to top it off, there's always Alan Crocetti's, unisex jewelry. All in all, they're so many reminders that there are endless ways to be oneself — above and beyond the norm.