At first glance, you would not guess that model Andrej Pejic is male. The 19-year-old native Bosnian began modeling in Australia three years ago, and credits his success to hard work and being at the right place in the right time. Pejic, who models both women’s and men’s clothing, has been received very well by the fashion industry; he is part of the gender-bending trend of fashion campaigns that embrace gender fluidity.

Much of the reaction Pejic has received is simple curiosity. Pejic is breaking the norm that only female bodies may model women’s clothing; mainstream fashion is learning that male bodies, too, can be feminine. His participation in the fashion industry is a step towards disconnecting the binary that only female bodies can be feminine. Pejic’s ability to exemplify femininity and masculinity is reconstructing the static notions of gender. Performativity of gender becomes more apparent with Pejic’s changing representations in modeling.

While Pejic deconstructs the relationship between femininity/masculinity and female/male, the matter by which his body is presented solidifies what it means to be feminine. The fashion industry accepts Pejic, whose body is thin and fragile, and this acceptance indicates that femininity is considered to be slimness and delicate features. Body politics is at the forefront of this discussion: Pejic’s inclusion in the fashion industry is at the cost of representing an exclusionary view of what it means to be feminine. [Read more...]