Gender fluidity in correlation to spatiality

"My research is based on a psychoanalytical approach to gender. Despite constant attempts by patriarchal societies to enclose gender dynamics in rigid, abstract masculine/feminine categories, numerous scholars have exposed gender as a fluid, performative act. My research project delves into masculinity studies and gender expression, paying special attention to the effect of space on the former. My field of study being Hispanic Literature, my work is focused on literary representations of gender dynamics. My research shows that the dominant, traditionally male-centric Latin American gender system, where men express masculinity through specific behavioral traits, is deeply affected by spatial constraints. Space can bend rigid gender limits into fluid expressions of masculinity: inside the home (traditionally feminine and thus feminizing), men are castrated, unable to express their masculinity, but outside they manage to express it by forming relations known as homosocial. The photography I took shows the Peoples Gas Education Pavillion in Lincoln Park, in an attempt to relate its architectural design to gender fluidity. Considering space alters rigid limits (in my research, gender limits), depending on our spatial position lines will appear either rigid and straight (right) or bent and fluidly interwoven (left), just like expression of masculinity in my research."