NIKLAS: A CIS MAN WITH A FEMININ TOUCH

Recalling the reasons that attracted me to this project, it became very apparent that it was all down to its’ depth, span and complexity.

All the in’s and outs reeled me in.

The courage, the pride, the dignified beauty and the self-reliance that I then witnessed, they kept me hooked.

These emotions needed visuals.

The following images, taken over two sessions, depict an amazing dignified soul.

Niklas has overcome the most challenging hurdle of all: embracing wholeheartedly who he is.

He is flexible, accepting of his opposites, sensitive, original, independent, unconcerned about social norms, set on challenging beauty stereotypes.

He is through and through androgynous.

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. Someone who is androgynous has both male and female characteristics, their outward appearance combines both male and female traits. They are not clearly masculine or feminine

A person who is androgynous may engage freely in what is seen as masculine or feminine behaviors as well as tasks. They have a balanced identity that includes the virtues of both men and women and may disassociate the task with what gender they may be socially or physically assigned to.

[source] Woodhill, Brenda; Samuels, Curtis (2004). "DESIRABLE AND UNDESIRABLE ANDROGYNY: A PRESCRIPTION FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY". Journal of Gender Studies.

An androgynous person is an individual who has a high degree of both feminine (expressive) and masculine (instrumental) traits. A feminine individual is ranked high on feminine (expressive) traits and ranked low on masculine (instrumental) traits. A masculine individual is ranked high on instrumental traits and ranked low on expressive traits. An undifferentiated person is low on both feminine and masculine traits.

[source] Santrock, J. W. (2008). A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Since I can remember I always struggled with finding myself in the concept of gender that our society has created. As much as I never felt particularly masculine I never felt overly feminine either. I always floated somewhere in the middle. It just confused me to a point of an actual existential crisis trying to figure out and find myself in gender.

It took time, education and maturing to understand that gender as we know it can't be described in two categories and is better seen and understood as a spectrum where you can be on the more masculine end, the more feminine end or just somewhere in the middle, floating and just being you.

Through Drag I am able to embrace and quite honestly accept my more feminine side, while being out of Drag, embrace my more masculine parts of my personality. Yet, I also just figured out that I am quite androgynous, a cis man with a strong feminine touch. I always was ashamed of it but the older I get, the more I embrace it and just feel in peace with me, my personality, my gender, and gender identity.

This photoshoot means a lot to me because it is a big celebration of finally being able to accept every part of me." Nicklas (Alias Bijou)