[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Cuban photographer Monik Molinet examines and deconstructs ‘hegemonic masculinity’ with portraits of males posing with flowers to help non-violence in opposition to girls. In “La revolución de las nuevas masculinidades llega a Cuba en una exposición” (A revolution of recent masculinities arrives in Cuba in an exhibition). EFE critiques the exhibition. [Also see Cuba Debate for a review and video on the project.]
In September 2022, Cuban photographer Moník Molinet (Pinar del Río, West, 33 years outdated) blew up Twitter in 24 hours. And all due to some flowers.
On that event, the islander, who lives in Guadalajara (Mexico), shared her most up-to-date venture “Masculinidades,” during which she portrays Cuban males who pose with a flower on their ear within the central Havana Paseo del Prado. In lower than a day, the publication exceeded 5 million views (equal to virtually half of the island’s inhabitants). Nonetheless, the complaints—or quite the misogynistic and homophobic prejudices—of those that noticed an “assault on males” in these photographs, led Twitter to droop their account.
The platform argued that content material had been proven that broke the principles on “graphic violence” on the social community. “I by no means anticipated the scope it had,” he tells EFE in an interview from Havana, the place he’ll present the results of this experiment in a photographic exhibition that opens this Thursday on the Cuban Artwork Manufacturing unit, one in all Havana’s cultural epicenters.
The work shall be accessible all through April. It is going to have 13 pictures, two screens that may present the event of “Masculinidades” in a loop—with the constructive and unfavorable reactions of passers-by- and an area shall be arrange for attendees to take a photograph with a flower over their ear.
The intention, as she explains, is to query stereotypes and make seen by means of this, the battle in opposition to sexist violence. “It bothered me that—virtually all the time—girls are typically constructed from the male gaze and, from there, sexualized and objectified. Questioning stereotypes, it was additionally inevitable to ask myself (…) what are males doing?” provides the photographer.
Molinet was satisfied that “exposing new roles and (new) identities in photographs” can enable “many individuals” to really feel represented.
The exhibition is not any stranger to a actuality that’s altering by leaps and bounds on this planet, with advances and setbacks, and that’s redefining gender roles. Nonetheless, like every change in tradition, this one has met with resistance.
For the Cuban artist, those that criticized the train have uncovered “the rigidity of the development of essentially the most hegemonic masculinity that every one males endure.” This, she stresses, is an issue that each men and women are uncovered to from “the second of delivery.”
The reactions through the efficiency have been different: from a powerful sure, to those that solely agreed as a result of the ladies who work with Molinet appeared too “fairly” to “to say no” and even some Cuban girls criticized the train.
“Girls can be chauvinistic,” laments the photographer. [. . .] Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For full article (in Spanish), see https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/cuba-arte_la-revolucipercentC3percentB3n-de-las-nuevas-masculinidades-llega-a-cuba-en-una-exposicipercentC3percentB3n/48415784
Additionally see: “Hombres con flores: Moník Molinet deconstruye masculinidades en Fábrica de Arte Cubano,”
Lisandra Fariñas Acosta, Cuba Debate, 4 abril 2023
http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2023/04/04/hombres-con-flores-monik-molinet-deconstruye-masculinidades-en-fabrica-de-arte-cubano