Men who construct their gender identity with reference to the dominant masculinity model seem to have to continually prove their virility, silencing weaknesses and manifestations of vulnerability. At the same time, such a model is based on the idea that any behaviour that deviates from the norm is tantamount to demonstrating failure in the construction of masculine identity and should therefore be repressed. This insecure and frustrated masculinity is often synonymous with violent behaviour, which ends up affecting society as a whole.
In a society that is transforming, I would like to focus my attention on a new narrative of masculinity, imagining weaving the map of the world we desire, identifying what already exists in the present, in order to narrate it and thus try to contribute to its germination.
In Buenos Aires there are several groups of men who through collective processes try to reconnect with their feelings, desires, and vulnerabilities. During my research I chose to learn more about “Hombres Tejedores”, a men’s collective that gathers to weave in public spaces in order to affirm the transversality of a gesture that should no longer be a stigma or a secret. Through the observation of this practice my gaze questions the transformation it suggests, an individual and collective process of deconstruction and construction.
Under the cloak of invisibility, or within a cocoon, the radical changes brought about by metamorphosis reveal themselves, after intense incubation, through a process of dissolution and liberation.
Until we abandon the fear that drives us to obsessively preserve the form we embody, will we ever be able to adapt to change?
