How do the icons fall? With remarks that are more than unfortunate, dubious or downright off the mark. Last example to date: Sean Penn’s virilo-mascu outing. The American actor, who won an Oscar thirteen years ago for his remarkable portrayal of gay activist and politician Harvey Milk, regrets that men (including real, heterosexual and cisgender) have become “feminized”. The kind to let go, calm, in the British daily The Independent Friday : “I have very strong women in my life who don’t see masculinity as a sign of oppression towards them. I think it’s the cowardice genes (that come into play) when people ditch their jeans for the skirt.”
In other words, for the producer with anti-#MeToo protrusions, civilization is threatened by men who emancipate themselves from gendered canons of beauty (while these are still in the minority) and expectations concerning their masculinity – in short, d a certain binarity, which locks into boxes more than it frees. We are not far from the reactionary essentialist rhetoric (but what is biology to do with that!) which fed dad-style homophobia – according to the old logic that if “a man is not a woman”, so homos, these “non-virile”, are not men and do not deserve consideration. But no offense to Sean Penn, masculinities continue to reinvent themselves. And it is liberating, provided that men do not undergo any new injunction to be and to appear.
We will not redo the history of fashion, but, yes, very macho men wore the dress or clothes of the same ilk (toga, tunic, skirts) until the 18th century. Today, twenty years after the irruption of the urban figure of the metrosexual boy, men, arch-famous or anonymous, gay, bis or straight, cisgender as trans, finally tap into the infinite possibilities of the locker room, including “feminine” . They wear nail polish or make-up, they sport a ten-day beard or a hairless face; others take care of their skin, multiply the creams like the spa sessions – after all there is no harm in doing yourself good whatever your gender. Finally, and most importantly, many are now accepting that they no longer contain their feelings or express their emotions. These men are no longer afraid to be seen crying, to open up, to be perceived as soft, sensitive or on edge. To be themselves, in short, which is still the least of rights.