Recent studies in the sociology of culture have paid a lot of attention to issues of audience interpretation and the construction of meaning. According to those, our ability to receive and process information is affected by the availability of imagery around us. The arts, our literature, pop culture, etc; consist of a universe mainly portrayed through a masculine, heterosexual point of view. The unconscious effects of the male gaze are a recurring topic of exploration in my work. What is particularly intriguing is how, as a result of traditional masculine gender role socialization, many men develop defencing mechanisms to protect them from being perceived as “less men”. The male gender role is conceptualized as a precarious status. Manhood is hard to earn and at the same time easy to lose. Those fragile perceptions of manhood often manifest through toxic hyper-masculine patterns and femme-phobic behaviors.
In my attempt to approach the topic with a sarcastic tone, I looked into the works of Goya —notoriously canonized for his satirical, yet critical commentary of Spain’s socio-political reality during the 18th century. Inspired by his darkest period, I chose to reinterpret the painting “Witches Sabbath”, a work depicting a stereotypical (for the time) scene of witches worshiping the devil which appears in the form of a red-eyed goat. The reason behind choosing this work is not solely based on my admiration for the painting itself, but for the artist’s principles as well —set out to provoke thoughts and attack superstitious beliefs. My interpretation reflects my disdain for the popular manifestations of hypermasculinity and femme-phobia. “Cinaedus Nunc Eris”, which in Latin stands for “you are now a cinaedus*”, ridicules heterosexual fragility by manifesting a hypnotizing ritual scene in which the viewers’ desires are being restructured and the object-subject roles are being switched. The work is designed to cause discomfort to those overcompensating by being hyper-masculine, to force them to project their fears of feminine identification. Seductive, feared, and glorified; the devil —as myself— stands right in the center of the composition as a constant reminder of the aggravated villainization of the male form.
*Cinaedus - Ancient Roman derogatory word denoting gender-deviant males.
