Censored:
Queer Sexual Citizenship and Censorship: An exploration through Men’s Underwear

In exploring men’s underwear through deconstruction of form and functionality in men’s underwear, I am engaging with ideas of censoring the embodiment of queer sexuality. Censorship of queer sexuality in the public sphere is done often in an attempt to privatize areas within the public sphere. This is done so due to a perceived wrongness in sexual expressions of queerness, simultaneously upholding heteronormativity (Simmons, T.). In removing the normalcy of form and function in men’s underwear and “queering” them to appear and act as other to, I am rendering a utilitarian under garment into a frame for the very thing it conceals. I am using the garment as a physical framing of the embodiment of queerness. By juxtaposing videos of queer embodiment through the use of make up, I am exposing a state of undress akin to nudity. 

In approaching the task of disrupting either form or function and choosing to work with the classic men’s white cotton briefs, I felt challenged. I embarked on a series of material investigations, observing the construction of this highly ordinary commodity. The briefs, constructed from a low stretch white cotton jersey are also bound with overlocked seam binding. The front area of the brief acts as a pocket from the front and the back, creating a passage for the male genitalia to expose itself through. After multiple experiments with a six-pack of these underwear from Walmart, I realized that I was unsure what each of my movements meant and I struggled to identify the purpose of my actions. I was cutting, sewing, ripping, and embellishing but not finding my solution. I began to write lists of words to bring out what the brief communicates in its form, and how it functions. The overlapping concept to conceal or hide spoke to both the form and the function of the garment, and I sought to disrupt this.

Gert Hekma describes sexual citizenship as the cultural and public aspects of sexual expression. It is a term used to define the political aspects of the erotic and sexual components of the political. In exploring the media and what is advertised to consumers, gender is made binary. Advertisements display Western society’s ideals of masculine bodies or feminine bodies to sell undergarments. This binary representation of gendered bodies leaves little (if any) room for a third sex or other. It excludes the complex and fluid gender identities of trans, non binary and gender non conforming individuals. The nature of this binary and its exclusion of bodies actively conceals this expression of queer sexuality from mainstream media and advertising. In its active censoring of these bodies and sexual identities, it also works to other and criminalize the nature of queer sexual expressions (Hekma, G.). This research into the censorship of queer sexuality invoked a self reflexivity of my own queer identity and lack of visual representation shown in the media of it. The underwear I have presented in this video are evidence of a disruption to this censorship.

To engage with my material object I deconstructed portions of one pair of underwear to reveal more of the wearer, rendering the model vulnerable, and making the private visible to the public. I used elastic fed through each side of the pouch concealing the wearers genitalia to open and produce a frame for what was to be revealed. In placing a green screen material in the frame in the front area of the underwear, I was able to produce a window. Juxtaposed within the open space are videos taken by individuals applying lipstick. Lipstick, and the lips, are visual signifiers of the erotic (Ellis, H.). By disembodying the lips and mouths of individuals in the videos added, I am fetishizing a single body part. Similar to the erotic nature of exposing ones genitalia, applying lipstick is a view into the private sphere of dressing this sexualized body part. Lip stick and the use of make up by queer individuals acts as a means to render the wearer adorned or embellished. The videos are made of contributions from men, women and non gender conforming identifying persons to produce a diverse range of bodies represented. Because lipstick can be read as hyper effeminate, the use of lipstick by cisgender men, trans men, or masculine presenting non binary and gender fluid individuals is an act of queering hegemonic norms of masculinity. The music in the background of the video is a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s song “Some Velvet Morning”, sung by Rowland S. Howard featuring Lydia Lunch. The song is comprised of both individuals singing back and forth, almost competing, echoing the combination of masculinity and femininity as binary oppositions, melded together, blurring these lines and ultimately rendered queer.

In conclusion, CENSORED is presented as an act to visually expose the censored bodies and sexual expressions of queer individuals. It was an exploration of materials, turned sexual and political. My engaging with the classic mens brief was an exploration of deconstructing a physical object for its form and function but in doing so transgressed the material and became a dialogue between queer body politics and hegemonic ideals of masculinity.