“There are actually images of female masculinity, trans-men and trans-women now that didn’t exist when I was in my teens and early 20s. “There’s so much that I’ve seen that has been hopeful,” she said. Wallace thinks that photography is evolving – that some gender-focused imagery is less tinged with ignorance today.
Cliteracy, Wallace’s most recent work, uses imagery of the clitoris and text about female sexuality to illuminate a paradox: we’re obsessed with sexualizing female bodies, and yet the world is “illiterate when it comes to female sexuality.”īut it’s not as bad as it once was. In Modern Dandy, Wallace switches up the way women and men are directed to look at the camera (or not) in photographs – whether to appear submissive (traditionally feminine) or dominant (traditionally masculine). Girls Will Be Bois, for example, is a documentary of female masculinity, featuring women who have traditionally “un-feminine” occupations – bus driver, boxer, basketball player – and a sartorial masculinity (baggy pants, and bare-chested). Which is what photographer Sophia Wallace attempts with her work. But the fact is that “it doesn’t stand on its own, and is always relative to something.” Bornstein argues that the trick to stripping these norms of their harmful power is to mock and expose them for both their flimsiness and stringency. As long as we hold onto the notion that gender is a constant, “we’ll keep doing things to keep the lie in place,” she said. “If there’s a leading edge that is the future of gender, it’s going to be one that understands that gender is relative to context,” said author and gender theorist Kate Bornstein at a recent New America event, noting that geography, religion, and family attitudes are all contextual factors that can alter one’s perception of gender as a determinant of identity. “I’m just trying to break down these gender stereotypes,” he said in a viral video.īut will continuing to challenge gender norms and document their harmful impacts lead to their extinction? To answer that question, we need to first consider another: What’s so bad about traditional gender norms and the way we currently categorize men and women? And even President Obama is getting in on the norm-questioning trend: While sorting holiday gifts for kids at a Toys for Tots in December, the president decided to place sporting equipment in the box for girls. Some women’s colleges are now reportedly rethinking their admissions policies to account for gender non-conforming students. Enforcing norms can even have health risks, according to another study. In one new study, a majority of millennials surveyed argued that gender shouldn’t define us the way it has historically, and individuals shouldn’t feel pressure to conform to traditional gender roles or behaviors. But according to some recent research, its influence may be fading.
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