GENDER, PROJECTED 

The Models

 

Gender, Projected was built using the ideas, creative skills, and wardrobes of its collaborators. The clothing and makeup used in the project are secondhand. The models, who volunteer their time and have minimal modeling experience, are photographed against a plain white wall in an attempt to capture gender expression without context. Each model is asked to pose in nine different presentations based on what they want to explore. For some, this means dressing as stereotypically masculine to feminine as possible. For others, this means exploring areas of the gender spectrum in which they feel most comfortable. Models collaborate with the Gender, Projected team to come up with a variety of presentations that attempt to push boundaries to the extent that they feel comfortable. 

 

Our models identify as everything from cisgender to genderqueer to transgender. One of our models outlined two reasons why it is important to have people of all genders involved in the project. First, by allowing everyone to perform gender, we break down a binary placed on both cisgender and transgender people that says that only transgender people wear things outside of the gender expression linked to their sex assigned at birth and boxes cisgender people into gender normative expressions or to full on drag. Secondly, allowing people of all genders to participate shows that we are moving away from rigid gender norms that are placed on both cisgender and transgender people. Ideally, people of all genders should be allowed to genderplay. 

 

We made a concerted effort to represent the diversity of identities that intersect with gender. Inevitably, we have yet to reach this goal. While we have worked with models from five countries and ten states in the US, many of the models are white, the majority are in their 20s or 30s, and most have a college degree. There are many voices that are not represented here -- If one of these voices is yours, please consider contacting us at genderprojected@gmail.com. We invite critique to improve Gender, Projected and make it as human, complex, and critical as it can be.