Introduce Matthew Dean Stweart’s book, “Fragile Masculinity”.
Jump in the middle, what do you wear now?
Generally I can be seen wearing the “Cowboy Tuxedo” which is the same blue denim on denim. But my favorite thing to wear is a pink puffy jacket that I bought from Forever 21 last year. It Is so fluffy and cuddly and perfect for the cold Portland winter!
In your private life are you a fan of cross-dressing?
I do not cross dress in my own life. Sometimes if I am going out I will find something exciting to wear that isn’t dress pants and nice shoes. I recently wore a jumpsuit to a straight friend’s wedding, and I am certain everyone thought I was crazy, but I knew I didn’t want to wear a button up and a tie, and I wanted to be comfortable and cute.
How/why you got the idea to make „Fragile Masculinity”?
The idea of this project came out of a constant frustration of seeing how society separates men and women. No matter what country, we each have specific things we are “supposed” to do according to societal standards. So the question “who told us that it was supposed to be this way?” always comes into my mind, and my work. Obviously within the gay community we have many men who identify in many different ways, but even we have an idea that we are attracted to men, so men should be “masc.” I had the idea of putting men in dresses in a stripped down sense. Not trying to impersonate women, or making it like a drag queen, just showing how an article of clothing falls designed for a woman falls on a man. Clothing has always been a hot topic for me, because it is another societal expectation placed on us and other people telling us how to represent ourselves. And men (straight and gay) seem to be scared to wear something that is designed for a woman, scared that it challenges their manlyhood and makes them less than.
Do you think masculinity is fragile? What fragile means for you in the therm of „Fragile Masculinity”?
The idea of fragile masculinity is very interesting to me, because we live in a media world where companies call the shots. They push gender specific ads to use all day, and we eat it up. I used to only buy candles that had a “manly scent” because thats what I thought boys would like who came over. When really I wanted my room to smell like “warm vanilla sugar” from Bath and Body Works. I allowed myself to be swindled by what I kept seeing in the media, and thought it was okay. The fragility to me means someone that is scared of something. Scared that who they inherently are will be challenged and not accepted. We see ourselves through the lenses of others, family and friends of course, but even through the eyes of strangers. What we need to remember is that we are only on this planet for a microsecond, and we need to live the life we want to be living every single day.
Who were your models and how did you find/choosed them?
I have found men from 5 different cities and all through social media. I reached out to many different people that I felt would be comfortable not only putting on a dress, but posing completely nude. Standing full frontal and nude is a very vulnerable place to be in, and I wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable with me, and with the images being produced. While looking for people to photograph, I wanted to make sure that I was representing as many different variations of men as possible. I didn’t just want to put out a book of fit white men, but try and get all different body types and races. It is important to me to represent a world where there are different types of people, which goes back to challenging societal expectation and what we have been trained to see. All bodies are beautiful and should be celebrated and I am happy to be showing a wide variety of men in this book. We need to constantly be reminded that the world is a melting pot of different people and we are all; trying to co-exist together.
Any funny story what you can share with us and happend during the book’s shoting?
One of my favorite moments was when I was sin San Francisco. It was my last full day in the city and I knew I wanted to get another person to model for me. I put out on Facebook to see if anyone was free and wanted to shoot, and a friend messaged me and said he would be down. I had never met this person, but he suggested that we go down to the beach to shoot. He showed up where I was staying driving a mint green Vespa, and drove me down to the beach. I had never been on any type of motorcycle scenario, so it was absolutely terrifying, but ended up being such a beautiful day and I cured my fear of Vespas and motorcycles in the process!
You kept some space for art in the book. Do you know who’s will be featured on those pages?
All of the artists are from all over the world. A few of them actually modeled for me and included their work as well. But most of them are people who I have met through social media. I knew I wanted to open it up to different voices, to help enhance my own. And I can’t imagine this book without them, they really add so much good to the project!
From when and where can we buy your book?
Right now the book is an incentive on the Kickstarter! They will also receive a limited edition enamel pin and 5×7 print! The Kickstarter ends on January 15, and after that the book will be available after it is printed. I not have a specific date yet, but looking for late March or early April! And it will be for sale through my website matthewdeanstewart.com
What is your motto to live by?
My motto right now is to live the life you want to live,
and don’t let others define who you are. Use your voice to help to world, not hinder it. And be open to other people and their views on life, you might just learn something useful.
Find more: @matthewdeanstewart / matthewdeanstewart.bigcartel.com