Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

“Gender Performativity” is the tentative title for the photography study I will be embarking upon Winter Quarter. I will be taking mug-shot style portraits of 10+ people with black and white film. I will be scanning in the negatives, and digitally manipulating and printing them. There will be a front facing image, and a side view both printed together, full frame, so that they are viewed as one image. The sitters will be a range of genders, or those who have chosen to give up having a gender. In order to provide more information about the subject there will be a form that they are given when they are interviewed prior to their sitting. This form will be a “cut-up” of medical forms, job applications, intake forms etc. Rather than requiring the subject to just “fill out” this form they are welcome to use it in whatever way they feel will express themselves. They can rip it up, draw on it, cross things out, answer only certain questions- anything that will give that form their personal voice, rather than reducing them to statistics to be filed away. The photographs and forms when shown together are meant to be a discussion of the performativity of gender within our society and the way in which photographs lend themselves to such a process.

The idea that a mug shot (front and side view) form all that we need to see to “know” a person is faulty; I’m interested to see who’s gender is visible in such an image, and who’s is invisible. By “invisible” I mean fitting with what society expects, that our sex and gender “match up“. We are bombarded with photographs everyday that reiterate the normativity of male and female gender, carefully segregated and defined,. We see these photographs so often that we do not see the discourses that they are perpetuating because it is normalized within our society. I’m hoping that these photographs will break out of that cycle, and give the sitters a chance to voice their genders that do not fit in with the gender binaries of our societies discourses.

The audience I foresee for this series is anyone interested in gender. Gender is something that affects us all, whether or not we are aware of it. Specifically I would like to have those who fit into the gender binaries that exclude so many be an audience for this work. I would like them to intellectually interact with these images, to think about how much gender entails and how often it is overlooked by the masses. Those who do not fit within such stereotypical roles will hopefully see these images as giving a face to the many possibilities of gender, they will be able to relate to these images. Although I do not see those who feel threatened, or are intolerant of the spectrum of gender seeking out such a series, if they were to come across it, it is my hope that they will be made to engage with it in a way that makes them think about their and other’s gender, to expand their understanding of the possibilities of gender.

The ideas and theories that are influential to this project are many. Specifically the idea of gender perfomativity discussed by Judith Butler. She proposes that gender is not something concrete and inherent in a body, but must be marked upon that body continually through actions, gestures, clothing etc. in order to be defined. If gender is marked upon a body by this constant performance how will that be translated onto film? Or rather, can it be transferred onto film? In addition to Butler’s theory the notion that such a limited view of a person seen in a mug-shot (head and shoulder, front and side view) is enough to place them into specific categories is a topic for exploration. The study of the history of mug shots and the prison system itself is instrumental in understanding how this view came to be seen as comprehensive and telling of a person. Michel Foucault talks in his book, “The History of Sexuality,” about the classification of sexual “deviations” as “perversions.” This project will also discuss that genders not fitting into the binaries perpetuated in society are seen as deviations from the “norm,” and are still regarded as perversions.

Gender is part of the personal sphere along with sex and sexuality, which are closely related to the topic of gender. As personal as these things are regarded as, they are a part of a very public discourse going on everywhere around us. The reason for exploring these themes photographically, along with research about these topics, is to see how a photograph captures the gender, sex and sexuality  visually in such a small sampling of the person. The reason for the inclusion of a form is that I do not believe that gender that is perceived visually is inclusive of all that is someone’s gender, sex or sexuality.