Friday, January 29, 2010

Since when did a bloody face become fashionable?





DSquared menswear Fall 2010


What is going on with the aesthetic of violence and masculinity? Terrorized and violent representations of men in pop culture arguably become a symbolic portrayal of a war obsessed culture that fixates itself on violent domination as a sites of empowerment. I think this empowerment is possible for women (Ie: Hilary swank as the Karate Kid, um, that was kinda empowering... right?! ) but when its a man its just becomes another site of hyper-masculine violence.

Men wearing blood as a heroic or warrior like aesthetic becomes somewhat problematic. Contrary to some beliefs we don't live in a post-feminist world, our culture, our economy, our wars are very much driven by a white-supremacist and patriarchal regime. So this is exactly why bloody male faces on runways can become sites of masculinity in terror. is it possible that the "war on terror" has become internalized? are men valorizing a bloody fractured idea of masculinity in order to assert a stronger more warrior like image of a gender identity? I have no idea, i just think its frightening to see bloody men as a fashionable aesthetic!

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