Prisoners of Gender:

Prisoners of Gender
Chih-Lin Cheng, Deja Rolle, Emmaline Jeansonne, Gaurav Dey, Kexin Zhang

‘Prisoners of Gender’ explores the ways in which ideas of gender were problematically constructed in Harper’s Bazaar from the years 1990-2001. This installation aims to show how Harper’s Bazaar insinuates gender as a choice ‘wardrobe’ to adopt or reject on an individual basis.

Where Harper’s Bazaar showcases gender identity as a choice defined by clothing and accessories, we problematize these gender constructions as more complex than just a ‘wardrobe’, finding gender identity to be imprisoned within these selected stylizations. We invite visitors to explore the limitations and stereotypes developed within Harper’s Bazaar by placing them at odds with Judith Butler’s quote, which explains how gender has been too often misapprehended.

Visitors are invited to explore these discourses through a wallpaper, a video presentation of films in the 1990s that show the performativity of dominant gender constructions, and finally a table which represents minority perspectives and experiences of gender in this time period. Inspired by the packaging of Barbie sets, the wall installation consists of four highlighted markers of predominant ‘types’ of identity constructed in Harper's Bazaar from 1990 to 2001: “Marlboro Man”, “Mary-Jane”, “Pretty Principle”, and “She Wears the Pants”. These names and characters are taken directly from the pages of Harper's Bazaar, and they demonstrate a lack of diversity in terms of gender binaries, but also race, ethnicity, and other identity formations. These idealized figures act as a testimony to the normative discourses about gender developed during the Nineties which are further stressed in the video placed to the side of the wallpaper, where gender stereotypes are depicted within popular culture and cinema from the 1990s.

To counter the fictional narratives found in these films, the table placed in front of the wall demonstrates the historical reality of the same time period. It shows the little evidence of discourse about diversity and inclusivity in Harper’s Bazaar with testimonies of activism by LGBTQ+ groups and general political resistance against dominant gender culture during the Nineties. ‘Prisoner of Gender’ reveals the problematic implications of gender where it’s being presented in a pre-constructed and commodified shape. The effect of these ideas in Harper’s Bazaar can be long lasting and far reaching, potentially limiting dominant culture’s conceptualization of gender ideals to this day.