Portraits of Queer Bodies
By Maria Neis
Professor Wendy Salmond
Art History 335: Theories of Modernism
3 December 2021

Queer people are oftentimes stuck under scrutiny. There's a reason why the closet exists—people fear the backlash, hatred, and fetishization that they may face when coming out. These black and white photographs by queer people all depict queer people exposing themselves in some manner; they are not hiding the fact that they are not cis or straight in these pictures. These pieces seem to document truth rather than put on a show. Even though the subjects in these images are posing, they are being themselves completely. By putting themselves on display in such an open manner, they force the audience to confront what they believe about sex, gender, and sexuality. The boxes that we put ourselves in are not as sturdy as we are led to believe. The subjects in these pieces are vulnerable in their varying degrees of nudity or queer-coded clothing. By opening themselves to an audience, they are opening themselves to backlash. However, they are also allowing other queer people to see themselves in art and are forming a sort of archive so that people can look back and see that they have always existed. Visibility is crucial to acceptance, both in society and for the self. These pieces demonstrate that queer people have existed and faced many struggles for a long time, whether people knew it or not.

Fuck Your Gender and Fuck Your Gender by Laura Aguilar (1991) (Gelatin silver print)

These two pieces are a part of Aguilar's Clothed/Unclothed series, which includes many other portraits of models who are queer and multiracial (Murray). These pieces show that one cannot understand a person completely from a simple glance. Once the model's clothes are removed, a nipple piercing and a sign commanding us to fuck our genders are revealed. The use of the word "fuck" is important in this piece due to its many meanings. The phrase "fuck your gender" could be a command to disregard and forget your gender. However, the lewder connotation of this word also suggests that people can play with their genders in regard to sex. The nipple piercing and the sign show us how people can be more complex than they first appear. Nudity can be freeing, daunting, humiliating, and terrifying. By modeling both in clothes and without clothes, the subject is open to the world in a manner similar to how queer people expose themselves by coming out or by merely being themselves in everyday life.

Untitled (Self Portrait in Bed) by Mark Morrisroe (1983-6) (Gelatin silver print from Polaroid T-665 negative)

Morrisroe took many self-portraits with varying degrees of sexuality and nudity throughout his life before he died at age thirty due to AIDS (Ribbat 37). In this one, he is posed somewhat similarly to the classic painting Venus of Urbino by Titian (Ribbat 1534) and many other famous nude portraits of women lying seductively on beds. The sunlight on his legs is so bright that one loses all sense of dimension in that area. This simultaneously makes the piece more and less modest as the viewer cannot distinguish much from his pubic area, but the lightness draws the eye so one will automatically be drawn to that area of the photograph. This piece shows him in his home, on his unmade bed with an empty bottle and a closed black book beside him. He is completely vulnerable to the viewer; whole body and personal life on display while he looks away, not confronting the viewer for invading his privacy. He demonstrates how queer people are always under scrutiny, even in their most personal moments. They cannot escape people's stares, questions, and judgements.

Untitled (I am in training, don't kiss me) (1927) (Gelatin silver print)

This self-portrait shows Cahun in makeup and an outfit that are extremely queer-coded. Even though most articles use she/her pronouns when referring to Cahun and call them a woman, they identified as "neuter" and rejected gender. In this photograph, they do not conform to any gender stereotypes. Audience members oftentimes merely decide what they view Cahun as rather than respecting the fact that Cahun adamantly denied gender. They look directly at the viewers, forcing them to make eye contact and to say directly to Cahun if they do not approve of them. The skin-tight clothing that resembles their skin color, the lips beneath the words, and the dots on their chest that resemble nipples all encourage the audience to think about sex, nudity, and attraction while Cahun remains fully clothed. The several hearts decorating Cahun on their legs and cheeks contradict the words on their chest that say, "I am in training don't kiss me." Through breaking these binaries of male and female and sexuality and asexuality, they defy the norm proudly.

Ivy wearing a fall, Boston, Nan Goldin, 1973 (Gelatin silver print)

Nan Goldin was famous for her portraits of queer people. Ivy, a subject of many of her photographs, was a drag queen. Goldin admired the gender ambiguity of the drag scene, and how it offered more options than merely male or female. In this picture, Ivy is almost nude, only in her underwear. Her body is turned away from the camera with her arms across her chest, preserving some sense of modesty. Though she may not have breasts like most women, she is presenting as female, and therefore keeps up the act in hiding herself like a woman would. Despite her lack of clothing, she has a full face of heavy makeup and is wearing a long wig; two elements which are very important to drag culture. The viewer is below Ivy; she looks down at them almost in disgust. This reflects how queer people are oftentimes looked down upon; Ivy turns the tables as she examines and judges the viewer, even in her vulnerable nudity.


Bibliography:
Enright, Robert. “Endings and Beginnings: The Generative Photographs of Nan Goldin.” Border Crossings, vol. 40, no. 2, Aug. 2021, pp. 34–51. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.chapman.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid,cookie,url&db=ofm&AN=152320534&site=ehost-live.
Murray, Yxta Maya. “A Pioneer of Latinx Identity.” Aperture, Aperture Foundation, 10 Aug. 2020, https://aperture.org/editorial/latinx-identity-laura-aguilar/. 
Ribbat, Christoph. “Queer and Straight Photography.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 46, no. 1, Jan. 2001, pp. 27–39. EBSCOhost, discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=28b0e7d8-159c-3b8c-a358-19facddac004.