The Male Gaze

"Mask for Masc" uses Junkanoo to challenge the cis white heterosexual male gaze, which often objectifies women and woman-identifying bodies. This gaze is closely tied to the harassment and discrimination faced by those who exhibit traits of softness and femininity. In "Mask for Masc," two female figures, who are close friends, confront the audience with expressions of distaste, using masks as a form of armor against the traditional male gaze. Their shielded bodies symbolize resistance to objectification.

One figure wears a patchy-patch costume, historically a representation of slave masters cracking whips while dressed as devils. In this piece, the figure on the left wears a costume incorporating the colors of the Jamaican flag, adding irony to its traditional use and making a statement about the intersection of queerness and cultural identity. These figures represent friends who provided safety and protection against discrimination, highlighting their significant role in my journey and my relationship with female-identifying people. This piece is part of my Remembering Yellow Series, which explores questions about my childhood growing up in Jamaica, the misplacements I felt, and the hope I found.

The term "Mask for Masc" is also a play on the toxic gay terminology "Masc for Masc," commonly used in dating and hookup culture. As someone who doesn't fit into the hypermasculine stereotype, I use this piece to question the obsessive nature of masculinity and its inherent fragility.

On lines and “imperfections”

In this work, as well as in others created in a similar style, I intentionally break the image into sections to highlight the fragility of memory as experienced by individuals. While a camera may objectively capture a complete scene, our human nature often causes us to remember only fragments of our experiences, forgetting other parts. This selective memory is reflected in the fragmented images. The lines and missing sections symbolize not only the way memories are pieced together but also the gaze implied by the viewer. This fragmented gaze metaphorically relates to the objectification of the human body and the focus on certain desired aspects, echoing societal tendencies to view individuals, particularly women, through a lens that highlights specific features while disregarding the whole person. By doing so, the work critiques how society often reduces individuals to mere components rather than acknowledging their complete humanity.