Sympathy for the melancholy girl who couldn't cry.

Abstract

This project is a study of sexuality through the medium of self-portrait photography. The American post-structuralist philosopher, Judith Butler, wrote an essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” that speaks of how gender is not a stable identity but an identity constituted by cultural and historical norms. Therefore, gender becomes a performative illusion. This female persona shown in the work is not something that defines the artist but is an act that reveals and expresses his experiences and feelings that seem to embody femininity rather than masculinity. The work thus generates an awareness of the duality of gender.