Our project is called « feeling topless, topless feelings » and consists of small interventions in public/private space regarding the act of being shirtless. During this module, we have realised that “the shirtless cis male body” casually and normally appears within the same time as summer does. In such a situation, no one would bat an eye because we as a society are being taught to accept it as the status quo. Whereas when it comes to a female presenting person being topless, the question of decency arrises, especially if there are children present. This then raised the question: why are certain bodies allowed to be shown differently from others in public spaces? And how? And what are societal conventions towards nudity in such spaces?
We were interested in this topic due to our very different experiences while being topless. By exchanging with one another, we noticed how much societal conventions have influenced us and still do. Whether it was the realisation of barriers towards the appearance of one’s upper body in a public space or the lack thereof. We realised that the relationship we have to our upper bodies is strongly influenced by the way we were socialised and the gender we were assigned to at birth.
As a group of people with different chests, we started out discussing how we experience our gender roles in day to day life, relationships, friendships, … We started focusing on our bodies and the emotions provoked by certain situations like painting a wall, going for a swim in the lake or looking at one’s self in the mirror. Our first impulse was then to try and challenge conventions we experience by performing with our “Boobs Out” in public spaces. However, we then decided to change direction and instead of a performance, centring the reactions of the public, we wanted to focus on our own personal experiences and emotions. That way, we were now rather intervening than performing.
Throughout the project, we noticed that what we had planned was more difficult than we had anticipated. Firstly, because of how strongly we have internalized societal norms. And secondly, due to bad weather and bad health. However, in the end, we managed to reach our goal: use our genders as a tool to explore our emotions.
