dreams and nightmares - no. 53

transformed

This is my second set of photos on the theme of 'Women' and I must pause here to pose the question what exactly is a woman?  

Traditionally the answer would be easy - the female of the species.  However, there is a very significant and growing school of thought which challenges the view of gender from a binary perspective.  Many now see it as a fluid range.

This is not a new concept.  Many ethnic minority groups in places such as South America, India and Pakistan hold to ancient beliefs that recognise and celebrate a much broader definition of gender.  If you want to read more about this here's a link to a very useful article.

The photos below are to celebrate and stand with the LGBTQ community in seeing this richer, deeper meaning to gender. They are a visual metaphor for the process of transformation.

In one sense these images represent a physical process - the cutting of flesh and a moulding to produce the desired form.  The clinical terms used for this type of reassignment surgery include penectomy, orchiectomy and vaginoplasty.  There is, however, a deeper meaning hidden within.

We could see these photos in terms of differentiation.  Hard versus soft; rigid versus pliable; penis versus vagina; testes versus breasts.  But here's the rub - we might also observe that all four of these paired concepts derive in each case from the same fruit.