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Photo Series: Making Men and Man-KindDamien Schumann
Masculinity is socially constructed. It is learned and passed down from one gen-
eration to the next. Masculinity in South Africa is troubled with historic and eco-
nomic challenges, as well as changing gender norms having greatly affected the
way we perceive men in our society, and also how masculinity is achieved. The
inability to achieve a sense of manliness through socially acceptable means leads
to hyper masculine behaviour that includes violence, dangerous acts, and acts of
domination (like rape or domestic abuse), played out in order to counter the stress
caused by the inability to feel purposeful within society.
The response to hyper masculine behavior until recently has been to empower
women, in a sense putting up arms against a threat. Few have considered how to
resolve this threat from its root. What are the concerns of men, and how can these
be resolved to better society?
Graduate Journal of Social Science November 2016, Vol. 12, Issue 3, pp. 94–118This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. ISSN: 1572–3763
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Making Men
Making Men looks at the relationship between fathers and sons and inquires what
kind of influence this masculine role model has had on a boy’s life, and how they
choose to embrace manhood. Based on what they experience in their intimate
environment, what do boy’s consider to be manly? Through observation of physi-
cal similarities including mannerisms, postures, dress code and genetic snaps, a
greater discourse is opened on how much psychological behaviour can be adopt-
ed from a role model as well. The influence of the (physically or emotionally) ab-
sent father is also analyzed.
Having lost his father at a young age, the artist commences this project within
the demographic he grew up in, witnessing how his peers grew up and turned out
having had a male influence. His search to conclude what a good masculine role
model is traverses a gendered line and the relationship between men and boys.
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Man-Kind
For Man-Kind the artist was curious on how men strive to attain and sustain their
sense of masculinity. In a constant battle for dominance how does an alpha-male
come to power and maintain his position? To find out Schumann undertook to
seek alpha-males from a diverse cross section of backgrounds and observe be-
havioral trends, both of the alpha-male and his counterparts. Attention was placed
on noting the performance men take on to exert their masculinity, and also the
vulnerability of what lies beneath this mask. It aims to question how certain men
are of their actions that feed the social construct of masculinity in which they
find themselves; the scope of opportunity their environment provides for them
to achieve this sense of masculinity; and what the repercussions of success and
failure of these actions mean for the rest of society.
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