The Ideal: Navigating internalised stereotypes through self-portraiture

I got my first camera at 13-years-old, but it wasn't until my first year of university that I turned it on myself. Initially, I saw photography as a way to capture real events in the moment, without considering its potential to portray ideas and narratives. But this changed when I began to explore why I was photographing in the first place, realising I could depict my lived experiences and create art from past events and situations. By the end of my first year, I stopped viewing photography just as a tool for documenting and embraced it as a medium for art.  

"The Ideal" is a sculptural photographic work consisting of four full-body self-portraits split into twelve individual images across three levels. Each level can spin, making the full bodies interchangeable depending on how the viewer deems the work “ideal”.  

I live at an intersection in my relationship with the patriarchy. I was born male and identify with my maleness to a certain extent. But, as a queer person, I don't fully experience the straight male perspective. This duality allows me to critique patriarchal ideas, but only so far, as I still benefit from them in many ways. My position within this intersectionality shapes how I view and engage with patriarchal structures, highlighting both my complicity with the patriarchy and my challenges in navigating these societal norms. 

This intersection I’m faced with came to life with these photos. The work features four characters: “The Ideal Male,” exploring the Alpha Male archetype inspired by figures like Andrew Tate, illustrating the aggressive, sexist persona men may feel pressured to adopt. “The Ideal Female” examines societal expectations for women to be both motherly and caring while also sexually available and attractive. “The Ideal Homosexual” faces similar expectations to “The Ideal Female” to be attractive and available. This character also portrays the anonymity of gay hookups and the idea of existing only for others' use, hence the lack of a face. The final character, "?", is an amalgamation of the previous characters, representing the internal conflict when these societal expectations combine. It shows my own internal struggle trying to fence all of these expectations into one person.  

I often let patriarchal ideas dictate my identity and body image, allowing others' perceptions to shape my self-image. By making the images interchangeable rather than standalone, I aimed to expose how viewers, especially those who don't know me, project their preconceived biases of the “ideal” onto my appearance. Being able to physically change me, altering my body was an active choice for the viewer, holding them accountable in a confronting way.  

I drew inspiration for the character design by observing alt-right and incel communities online, particularly on Reddit and Twitter. I noticed people in these communities often refer to women as "females". Not to say the word "female" isn’t inherently bad, but in this context, it is used to dehumanise and strip women of their identity, reducing them to objects discussed freely without responsibility or repercussion. Such clinical and jarring language strips women of personal identities in favour of the “ideal”, which, while having identity lacks individuality. I labelled the characters "Male," "Female," and "Homosexual," to highlight how language can easily diminish identity. Combined with the viewer’s ability to change the characters, these labels feed into the project’s objective: To interrogate what people perceive as "ideal."  

It was horrifying to think people would be looking at and critiquing images of me when I started self-portraiture. With my body being revealed in ways I’m not normally comfortable with, there was a period while making this work where I didn't like any of the photographs. I found it difficult to critique my work because it felt like I was critiquing myself rather than the photographic techniques. I had to learn to disassociate from the personal feelings of the project to be as unbiased as possible. 

But as this project came to a close, and I took down the display, I didn’t feel satisfied. In a patriarchy that's constantly evolving, will there ever be a combination of stereotypes that is “ideal”?