GENDER IS AN IMITATION FOR WHICH THERE IS NO ORIGINAL
Lee Kern
Lee Kern
2023
Supervisors_ Prof. Axel Kufus, Prof. Jozef Legrand, Anja Lapatsch
BA Graduation Project_ Lee Kern
BA Graduation Project_ Lee Kern
„There is no original or primary gender a drag imitates, but gender
is a kind of imitation for which there is no original.“ -Judith Butler
Gender is an elaborate and often repressive construction. One look on the internet is enough to encounter long instructions on how to produce masculinity or femininity. Gender is not a neutral fact, it is a categorization we make towards people and their bodies. This categorization is accompanied by expectations about appearance, character, lifestyle, and sexuality. People are shaped from birth within a specific gender system. At the same time, bodies in their variance and the diversity of human existences oppose simplistic, binary logics.
Gender is an imitation for which there is no original is an investigation of binary gender constructs from a disidentified (alienated) perspective. In queer tradition, I have re-appropriated and actively misinterpreted or reinterpreted normative guidance on binary gender as a non-binary person. Parody and misunderstanding serve as a means of deconstructing social and gender norms.
The ambivalence and ambiguity of linguistic formulations allowed for the creation of newly revealing and speculative variants. Stereotypical metaphors from internet forums became metamorphoses of the familiar in their pictorial translation. Images and objects emerge that are both alienating and familiar. They shape and extend my body.
That we are strongly influenced by binary norms cannot be denied. However, the norms can be deconstructed and examined for reinterpretations and queer potentials until the norm exposes itself in its absurdity and the alienation develops a life of its own. Counter-designs that offer new understandings of the body, self-care and self-expression take the place of normative gender.
Text by Lee Kern
Gender is an elaborate and often repressive construction. One look on the internet is enough to encounter long instructions on how to produce masculinity or femininity. Gender is not a neutral fact, it is a categorization we make towards people and their bodies. This categorization is accompanied by expectations about appearance, character, lifestyle, and sexuality. People are shaped from birth within a specific gender system. At the same time, bodies in their variance and the diversity of human existences oppose simplistic, binary logics.
Gender is an imitation for which there is no original is an investigation of binary gender constructs from a disidentified (alienated) perspective. In queer tradition, I have re-appropriated and actively misinterpreted or reinterpreted normative guidance on binary gender as a non-binary person. Parody and misunderstanding serve as a means of deconstructing social and gender norms.
The ambivalence and ambiguity of linguistic formulations allowed for the creation of newly revealing and speculative variants. Stereotypical metaphors from internet forums became metamorphoses of the familiar in their pictorial translation. Images and objects emerge that are both alienating and familiar. They shape and extend my body.
That we are strongly influenced by binary norms cannot be denied. However, the norms can be deconstructed and examined for reinterpretations and queer potentials until the norm exposes itself in its absurdity and the alienation develops a life of its own. Counter-designs that offer new understandings of the body, self-care and self-expression take the place of normative gender.
Text by Lee Kern
