Since the 18th century the predominate belief of western culture has been that biological sex immediately determines gender expression, and that only two natural biological sexes exist. This dominant ideology has restricted gender identity and marginalized those who express gender deviance; creating a social environment that provokes hostility, persecution, and discrimination. Individuals who fall within a gender spectrum outside of the binary system of man or woman are placed under an umbrella term of ‘transgender,’ and marginalized as other.
Despite extensive studies which have shown that this dichotomy is culturally constructed, we still allow our social institutions to restrict our individual gender expressions. Leslie Feinberg, a long time advocate of gender freedom, argues in his book Transgender Warriors: from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, that each person should have the right to define, determine, or adapt their gender in any way they choose, including the right to physical ambiguity and contradiction. Feinberg is one of many voices creating an alternative discourse in an attempt to create a counter-narrative that will finally break down the social construction of the dominant masculine and subordinate feminine gender roles which stratify the sexes.
We know the stereotypical roles we are prescribed to. We are assaulted with these expectations daily. Media has always been the catalyst of this dichotomy. They use advertisements to create the ideal we are meant to pursue, as insecurities translate into profits. But they are only holding up standards already enforced by our institutions. Our legal system at the hands of our ‘trusted’ political leaders creates the foundations of our inequality and restricted identities. We have allowed ourselves to be compressed into one of two boxes on a form.
1.0 Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait (1929)
Yet, for almost as long as this belief in our innate gender dichotomy has been the dominant ideology, those who fell outside of these distinctions have tried to enlighten society on the restrictive quality of this mindset. One such individual is Claude Cahun, a deviant writer and photographer often associated with the surrealist movement, who launched an assault on the gender binary system.
Other art of her time observed the traditions of exhibiting the feminine female body as a passive and beautiful object. In stark contrast, Cahun’s photographs reveal a female body that in essence is neither beautiful nor feminine. She constructed identities for her self-portraits which contested conventional gender expectations by presenting a body which escapes definition; using visual images as her weapon against cultural standards.
In Carolyne Topdjian’s article Shape-Shifting Beauty: The Body, Gender, and Subjectivity in the Photographs of Claude Cahun, she argues that Cahun “materializes a negative space in discourse” by creating a gender expression distinct from our polarized notions of gender. Yet at the same time the dominant discourse remains present, as the visual language we associate with femininity exists as the element missing in her representations.
Cahun was never a respected artist in her day, but since her rediscovery in the late 20th century her images have become amalgamated in the larger discourse of gender politics. Her photographs of a woman whose identity is not contingent on the cultural notions of femininity have created a visual language that expresses the discrepancies and tensions of a gender dichotomy.
1.1 Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait (1920)
Cahun became a part of a discourse which exists outside of her because she took a photograph. The strides we have made as a society to resolve the issues of prescriptive gender roles are a result of the discussions perpetuated by small acts like hers. Deconstructing the meta-narratives which surround us does not always take a radical act. Social progression can be created by simply allowing your voice to join the chorus of those who came before, and those who will carry the torch long after.
KATIE WALKER
Photo Credit:
1.0: Photo by lightsgoingon
1.1: Photo by Cea
Dr. Doctrine 