“Macho.cados” uses photos and stories to raise awareness about machismo

The gigantic transformative power of the image is being used by photographer and artivist Melissa Maurer, from Chapada dos Veadeiros (DF), to discuss machismo, raise awareness, welcome. She has just launched online exhibition “Macho.cados”which uses photos and stories to raise awareness about the layers of violence that machismo brings with it, its effects, but also its solution.

The project features 20 participants including gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender men and one non-binary participant. The project’s proposal is to bring these naked bodies into positions of vulnerability, where each photograph provides an account of how machismo affects their existence.

Melissa states that “the search for a masculine ideal that has been established and strengthened throughout history has reiterated that, the further a man moves away from the feminine universe, the ‘more of a man’ he will be”.

The exhibition shows that this “is a simplistic binary logic that, in practical terms, inhibits or constrains men from enjoying or developing sensitive and practical potentials that society has encouraged in women, such as, for example, expressing sadness, fears, suffering, difficulties, self-care, constraining them to seek medical or psychological support, causing harm, including, to men’s mental and physical health”.

The idea for the project came from the photographer’s internal reflections, whose work normally focuses on female bodies. After being hired by a man for a shoot, she accessed sexist patterns within herself by becoming uncomfortable in proposing more vulnerable positions.

“Socially, we are not used to seeing men feel. When I had this experience of being hired, I realized within myself a need to portray the strength and virility of the male body, and I accessed this block of mine.”