Red Lipstick

Growing up a gay man in the conservative Deep South of the United States, I experienced firsthand the close-minded culture that vilifies nonconformity in gender and sexual identity. My own experiences with marginalization began to inform my awareness of larger gender issues at play. To underscore this idea, I use vintage advertisements from the 50’s and 60’s (where the height of unabashed misogyny is evident), erased the women, and contrasted them with the male figure enacting those roles. The result highlights the absurdity of commercial culture and its inherent biases.

When you break these images down to their core parts, all you really see are disembodied, long-legged objects with red lipstick.