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Miriam Preissel | Los Angeles, California | artist website Chris is part of the series Men in Tutus, and Miriam Preissel's ongoing examination of gender, masculinity and femininity. She prefers to ask 'Why not?' rather than 'Why?', because the answers to 'Why not?' require more rigorous examinations of the limitations, either self-imposed or forced upon us by societal norms, that prompted the question in the first place. So then, the question is 'why shouldn't men wear tutus?' The Chris (note that the name is gender neutral and could denote male or female) in Chris is the antithesis of the elegance and delicacy associated with traditional ballet. He sports a goatee, tattoos, sunglasses, a black headband and smokes (all very non-ballet items). He wears a white tutu--one shoulder is exposed—with white tights, and attempts to strike the 1st pose. The image is full of contradictions that involve the viewer immediately: tattoos and tutus usually don't go together. Preissel uses the juxtaposition of these elements to ask her question: Why not? We are conditioned to reject the elements she has combined: men don’t wear skirts, much less tutus. Our subconscious demands a bony, tall, beautiful woman in the snow white tutu, not a scruffy, smoking biker (a likely stereo type to be associated with this appearance). It goes against everything we have been taught and that society deems acceptable. Preissel's use of metaphor opens up possibilities for dialogue, and lets the viewer ask the question Why not? The second question, more implied than posed outright is, What's the big deal? Preissel hopes that images from the series “Men in Tutus” raise smiles as well as questions. Rather than adhering to the strict norms and standards for acceptable men's wear, she hopes to break the viewer free from tradition and introduce, through humor, another dimension for thought and discussion. Is it necessary to fit into a mold created for you by society? She wants the viewer to see that there is no threat here, that there is more than the binary of male and female, and how quickly the lines become blurred and distorted through something as simple as a tutu. - by Marina Freeman
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