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Icons of Masculinity
A Deadly Hypocrisy - Gender Studies Applied to Fin de Siècle Images
The modern civilised man wears black and aspires to be muscular and virile. He leaves the artifice of beautiful clothing to women, who are weak by nature. It is claimed that homosexuality is a form of mental degeneration akin to criminal behaviour.
In this context, how can we explain the craze for art that glorifies the image of a feminised man?
Masculinity was undermined by the modern man's sedentary lifestyle.
The future of France would be saved by restoring muscle, because the male body, regenerated by physical exercise, would produce vigorous and intelligent offspring. Lifting dumbbells and weights became a patriotic duty.
Chapter 1 - Virility, Muscles and Patriotism
Women are becoming more masculine.
Paradoxically,this masculinist society consecrates gender inversion through its art and idolises the androgynous figure.With Jean Delville's painting, one fantasises about the fusion of male and female souls; in Gabriel Dante Rossetti's work, feminine beauty is portrayed through masculinised canons
Chapter 2 - Spiritual and Female Androgyny
Men are becoming more feminine.
The effeminate ephebe embodies masculine beauty in the paintings of Edward Burne-Jones and the erotic photographs of Wilhelm von Gloeden. Even the most conservative collectors are embracing this trend, decorating their homes with these homoerotic figures.
Chapter 3 - Masculine Androgyny
Hypocrisy reached new heights of contradictions.
The end of the century saw the emergence of the first queer theories and coming-out stories. However, Simeon Solomon and Oscar Wilde (Salomé), as illustrated by the talented Aubrey Beardsley, were ostracised by their admirers: a pathetic and hypocritical contradiction of a Victorian society that adored ephebes yet persecuted its most talented ‘invert’.
Chapter 4 - Queer Theory and Queer Art, Oscar Wild and Aubrey Beardsley
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