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Andrej Pejic - The ‘Femiman’ Icon
Is that blondie a guy …
Or a girl...?
Pictures extracted from google.com/images
During June 2010, he appeared at Paris men’s shows. And currently, Andrej Pejic ranked #11 within male models.
Born with male beauty, he had become an international star and created guess-the-gender route in many fashion shows today.
Hereby, I had attached an 11 minute video clip from youtube.com to let you have a better understanding of this femiman icon, Andrej Pejic.
To me, he is really a pretty boy especially when he is in that wedding dress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3V4Qg8AlAQ
19-year old extreme androgynous model, Andrej has deceived many people during the first catwalk in Paris. “He is a Cinderella and also a Prince Charming’ narrated by Sunday Night. In the clip (01:16sec), he mentioned that he is a girl everyone wants. Indeed, he has a unique look and this is supported by Elgar Johnson from i-D Magazine who agreed that Andrej is special and possesses something extra (07:16sec). When being asked whether he thinks he is beautiful (05:41sec), Andrej replied that he is attractive but he does not place much value on beauty. However, society does and that explains why he able to end up in the fashion path.
In biological terms, he has the male genitals and dual facial looks, but definitely more towards a natural flair of femininity. There is not much evidence to say whether he has both masculine and feminine characteristics. Since young, he just any ordinary kid, however he expresses more comfortable with girls and interested with his mother’s cosmetics and jewelleries. Due to the differences as his brother, they aren’t that close. His brother is masculine and a sport lover whereas Andrej is more girlie and reserved. But he is aware of it and trying to identify who he really was. Despite this, the support that Andrej gets from his family is a motivation for him to stay as who he is. Just like, Dyson Kilodavis (My Princess Boy), the parents accepted who he is too.
Andrej born in Bosnia, and together with his family, fled the war-torn region to Melbourne, Australia during the 90’s. I am going to describe the culture difference between these two countries, to strongly illustrate that it is not just Andrej’s pure luck or unique look that makes him an international star. The place where there is more acceptance and tolerance, credits for this identity too.
During the 90’s, described by Barbara Franz (2003), in the book: No.73 Bosnian Refugee Women in (Re)settlement: Gender Relations and Social Mobility that Bosnian refugee women are pushed into the labor market and work in low-skill and low-paying jobs during resettlement at New York City or Vienna. However, it does not increase their emancipation, because they maintain their traditional understanding of women in the patriarchal culture. As for men, being selective and unwilling to take up any job offered to them, they faced a more difficult time to adapt and hence, a loss of social status in both hosts societies. Grounded from what Franz said, we can see that there is a strong culture of male dominance and female subordinate in Bosnia during the 90’s.
However, things are quite different in Australia during the late 90’s. Dr. Coates, an honorary life member for the Western Australia Sexology Society discussed that Australia, I quote, “through the activities of well-organized women’s groups, that successive legislation has been introduced in support of women’s rights which include laws governing equal opportunity, antidiscrimination, and family law issues, help to breakthrough from the traditional gender roles”. From the International Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Australia, we can observe that most of the laws maintained equality between genders. Other than that, less hostility towards sexuality can be seen such as the age of consent to sexual acts is 16 years; however, the age of consent for males to have sex with other males is 21 years.There is no recognition in the law for female-to-female sexual acts.
Davis argued that individuals cannot float free from social structure. They can choose to act on and transform structures, but structures must always be recognized as constraining individual and social action (2002:283). Living in a more open-minded society like Australia, at a correct time, Andrej is being accepted. But if war did not happen in Bosnia, and he continues to stay there, things may have a different twist. He may be constrained to become who he really is even though his family can accept it.
Next question that pop into our head maybe because he entered a job industry which is more acceptance towards ‘femiman’. Yes, he may not be the first to possess both male and female traits in the fashion world. But in gender studies, we know that gender cannot be reduced to set of personality traits (Wharton, 2005). In the clip, Andrej had said that in the beginning, people said he is specific and only a few clients will want it, so it is a small market to invest in. However, once someone bolds to take him (the culture of an organization), break from the norms and outsiders sees the ‘wow’ side (socialization and interaction), his fame grew overnight - creating a new trend in modeling. Trend is ever-changing and can be forgotten at times, hence, it is important of how we can ‘repackage’ it and make it acceptable to the society again. Society is the customers. So, I agreed with Davis that we can transform structures but there are still rules and regulations for this transformation to satisfy our customers.
Other than discussing to the extent of how Andrej can be who he is, we can see that model shows are a place where ‘doing gender intentionally’ holds great emphasis. As a model, the way you walk, the way you pose for a portfolio, every single movement holds a significance of differentiating a male and a female. Obviously, Andrej can do a great job in both. The way he bite a rose, standing seductively - all this actions have portrayed that he is a girl at that moment. The talent to ‘do gender’ helps him to establish a name in this industry too.
Although Andrej did not 'perform' as per his biological traits but I am sure he has find a unique mission that only he can fulfill. Recalling the say from English designer Paul Smith, “fashion is today and tomorrow; he is today.” Perhaps this is just one case and cannot be generalize to the whole fashion industry. However, his unique gender characteristics give shape and meaning to himself and his environment, and definitely attracts gazes around him.
Or a girl...?
Pictures extracted from google.com/images
During June 2010, he appeared at Paris men’s shows. And currently, Andrej Pejic ranked #11 within male models.
Born with male beauty, he had become an international star and created guess-the-gender route in many fashion shows today.
Hereby, I had attached an 11 minute video clip from youtube.com to let you have a better understanding of this femiman icon, Andrej Pejic.
To me, he is really a pretty boy especially when he is in that wedding dress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3V4Qg8AlAQ
19-year old extreme androgynous model, Andrej has deceived many people during the first catwalk in Paris. “He is a Cinderella and also a Prince Charming’ narrated by Sunday Night. In the clip (01:16sec), he mentioned that he is a girl everyone wants. Indeed, he has a unique look and this is supported by Elgar Johnson from i-D Magazine who agreed that Andrej is special and possesses something extra (07:16sec). When being asked whether he thinks he is beautiful (05:41sec), Andrej replied that he is attractive but he does not place much value on beauty. However, society does and that explains why he able to end up in the fashion path.
In biological terms, he has the male genitals and dual facial looks, but definitely more towards a natural flair of femininity. There is not much evidence to say whether he has both masculine and feminine characteristics. Since young, he just any ordinary kid, however he expresses more comfortable with girls and interested with his mother’s cosmetics and jewelleries. Due to the differences as his brother, they aren’t that close. His brother is masculine and a sport lover whereas Andrej is more girlie and reserved. But he is aware of it and trying to identify who he really was. Despite this, the support that Andrej gets from his family is a motivation for him to stay as who he is. Just like, Dyson Kilodavis (My Princess Boy), the parents accepted who he is too.
Andrej born in Bosnia, and together with his family, fled the war-torn region to Melbourne, Australia during the 90’s. I am going to describe the culture difference between these two countries, to strongly illustrate that it is not just Andrej’s pure luck or unique look that makes him an international star. The place where there is more acceptance and tolerance, credits for this identity too.
During the 90’s, described by Barbara Franz (2003), in the book: No.73 Bosnian Refugee Women in (Re)settlement: Gender Relations and Social Mobility that Bosnian refugee women are pushed into the labor market and work in low-skill and low-paying jobs during resettlement at New York City or Vienna. However, it does not increase their emancipation, because they maintain their traditional understanding of women in the patriarchal culture. As for men, being selective and unwilling to take up any job offered to them, they faced a more difficult time to adapt and hence, a loss of social status in both hosts societies. Grounded from what Franz said, we can see that there is a strong culture of male dominance and female subordinate in Bosnia during the 90’s.
However, things are quite different in Australia during the late 90’s. Dr. Coates, an honorary life member for the Western Australia Sexology Society discussed that Australia, I quote, “through the activities of well-organized women’s groups, that successive legislation has been introduced in support of women’s rights which include laws governing equal opportunity, antidiscrimination, and family law issues, help to breakthrough from the traditional gender roles”. From the International Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Australia, we can observe that most of the laws maintained equality between genders. Other than that, less hostility towards sexuality can be seen such as the age of consent to sexual acts is 16 years; however, the age of consent for males to have sex with other males is 21 years.There is no recognition in the law for female-to-female sexual acts.
Davis argued that individuals cannot float free from social structure. They can choose to act on and transform structures, but structures must always be recognized as constraining individual and social action (2002:283). Living in a more open-minded society like Australia, at a correct time, Andrej is being accepted. But if war did not happen in Bosnia, and he continues to stay there, things may have a different twist. He may be constrained to become who he really is even though his family can accept it.
Next question that pop into our head maybe because he entered a job industry which is more acceptance towards ‘femiman’. Yes, he may not be the first to possess both male and female traits in the fashion world. But in gender studies, we know that gender cannot be reduced to set of personality traits (Wharton, 2005). In the clip, Andrej had said that in the beginning, people said he is specific and only a few clients will want it, so it is a small market to invest in. However, once someone bolds to take him (the culture of an organization), break from the norms and outsiders sees the ‘wow’ side (socialization and interaction), his fame grew overnight - creating a new trend in modeling. Trend is ever-changing and can be forgotten at times, hence, it is important of how we can ‘repackage’ it and make it acceptable to the society again. Society is the customers. So, I agreed with Davis that we can transform structures but there are still rules and regulations for this transformation to satisfy our customers.
Other than discussing to the extent of how Andrej can be who he is, we can see that model shows are a place where ‘doing gender intentionally’ holds great emphasis. As a model, the way you walk, the way you pose for a portfolio, every single movement holds a significance of differentiating a male and a female. Obviously, Andrej can do a great job in both. The way he bite a rose, standing seductively - all this actions have portrayed that he is a girl at that moment. The talent to ‘do gender’ helps him to establish a name in this industry too.
Although Andrej did not 'perform' as per his biological traits but I am sure he has find a unique mission that only he can fulfill. Recalling the say from English designer Paul Smith, “fashion is today and tomorrow; he is today.” Perhaps this is just one case and cannot be generalize to the whole fashion industry. However, his unique gender characteristics give shape and meaning to himself and his environment, and definitely attracts gazes around him.
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