Fyodor Pavlov is a contemporary queer tattoo artist and illustrator, and I've only recently been introduced to his work via a friend, who sent me this Tarot card design, which reminds me of some of the photographic work of Joel-Peter Witkin:
The point of note is the hermaphroditic anatomy of the two characters, which has echoes of medieval alchemical imagery - a subject I studied widely for a project in 3rd year of my undergrad degree. The outcome was a short film which depicted the creation of two opposing bodies which unite to combine a third, 'perfect' being - the hermaphrodite or androgyne. Alchemical texts and diagrams repeatedly refer to the unification of opposites, and 'queer' bodies such as this image, and the concept of the 'rebis', which is the outcome of the Magnum Opus - an embodied divine hermaphrodite. The interesting aspect of the image is that while the right-hand figure is commonly reflected in art, comix and pornography, the figure on the left - correspondingly bereft of visible secondary sexual characteristics - is far less represented*. This under-representation has its counterpart in the near-invisibility of transmales (especially those who have had 'top, but not 'bottom' surgery) in online adult and pornographic contexts, a subject studied in some detail by Dr. Angela Jones, and also addresses the early research questions I posed at the start of my PhD journey:
1.
Why do some symbols persist universally in human collective consciousness (e.g. the hermaphrodite being, myths of gender-swapping beings/heroes, shamanistic bi-gendered ambiguity)
and
are yet ridiculed, challenged and suppressed in society and culture?
2.
What constitutes an “acceptable” depiction of a non-standard body – is there such a thing? In
what contexts?
3. Why can ‘niche’ areas like stage performance in an arts context and pornography seem less exclusionary of the Other in gender identity than the general public sphere?
*Earlier, I made a piece in the '3 Questioning Cartoons' series, Nip 'N Tuck, which is based upon my own experiences and utilises the under-represented form of the male-bodied hermaphrodite (or androgyne), as the genital area is left deliberately ambiguous. It could be argued that this bodily form could also be termed a eunuch (itself a form of 'third gender'). The ability for female genitals to remain out of sight even when physically present, representing 'inner/hiddenness', also subverts the upper male anatomy, which is itself again called into question by the 'incongruous' hair and physiognomy.
