ANDROGYNY

“My dream would be to flee out off the cage of prejudices and while I leaving liberate the trapped stereotype from gender role and gender standards.” – Caíque Pantoja Brasil

What does it take to make this dream come true and even more important what is your role?

This is exactly the reason why we, Dominique Chandreperkash and Caíque Pantoja Brasil, created this photo-series in order to create awareness around daily problems in our society concerning gender role and gender standards.

While creating this art work we focussed on gender roles and gender standards realizing that we all contribute in preserving or breaking down the gender roles and gender standards as we know it in our society.

What is keeping the generally accepted idea about gender roles and gender standards to evaluate to a new standard?

‘I was born a man and I feel like a man, but sometimes I love to dress what is considered to be feminine due to generally accepted gender role and gender standard. I feel connected and free to express myself the way I feel without taking into account what the typical gender role and gender standard is.

Every day I feel different. Although I feel free and invited to express myself the way I am, I am not always accepted because I don’t fit into the gender norm and gender standard sustained by our society. Due to the generally accepted gender norm and gender standard I am considered not to dress like an everyday man. Sometimes I wear heels, flared jeans, make-up, handbags and other typical things not considered to be worn by a man. Even in Amsterdam, one of the greatest city known for being a city where you can be who you are I often get confronted that the gender norm and gender standard are still being old-fashioned.’

There is a lot of pressure and confusion in our society around gender norms and gender standards, often resulting in people showing different norms and standards in both the LGBTQ+ community as in heterosexual community.

When a woman works in an environment with mainly men, a woman often feels the pressure to show more male behavior. Dressing sexy or feminine will provoke the wrong reaction, because she is afraid the environment at that moment won’t consider her serious and even worse that she will arouse sexual harassment at the workplace.

Dominique Chandreperkash captured the contrast of environment, clothes and the personal gender norms and gender standards.

‘In this art work I captured the fact that it takes courage for Caíque Pantoja Brasil to express himself the way he feels best, not taking in consideration the generally accepted gender norms and gender standards.’

‘Living outside the cage of prejudices and being liberated from the trapped stereotype of gender role and gender standards has it’s consequence on my daily life.

Which toilet do I go to when I am in public spaces? … Why do people outside the city look at me as if I am an alien? … Why do I get harassed in the public transport? … Why do I get refused by a door-host at different clubs? .… This is the price I choose to pay until we all live in a society where we all live outside the cage of prejudices and are all liberated from the trapped stereotype of gender role and gender standards …for now enjoy this photo-series and get I glimpsed on how my world looks like.’

——————————————————

Credits:

 

Caíque Pantoja Brasil : (Art director/model)

Dominique Chandreperkash: (Photographer/Art director)

Merlin Moritz: stylist

 

Met dank aan:

Jill Sanders/Eusie/So Pr/Familie Veltink/Familie Helstone/Dies Chandreperkash/