Zoey Knipstein
The “He Boy”
This photo series focuses on the expounded and unyielding complexity of westernized masculinity. Through portraits and documentation, I set forth to disrupt the tenets of traditional romanticized manhood, and I intend to uncover the fragility behind normative masculinity, and how this fragility contributes to its inherent destructive nature. Traditional masculinity is built on a need to exhibit power. The “real manly-man” is merely a put-on. This is sustained by an accepted cultural disposition, and is ingrained in a fragile and dehumanizing “masculine ideology”. This dominating nature of masculinity is all consuming and multifaceted within western culture. In order to sustain the idea of “the ideal man”, this construct separates masculinity from the man itself and instead becomes an intended counteraction of femininity. Masculinity isn't inherently defined by the man, but is rather contaminated with a cultural pressure to defy vulnerability. This power is shrouded when addressing the putative aspects that are deemed masculine by displaying them in a way that is untouched. By assessing the cultural dynamic of men, I feel like I understand the agenda, the “ideal man” doesn’t outright address his manhood, so I will do it for him.