In September 2022 the photographer Cuban Moník Molinet (Pinar del Río, 33 years old) blew up Twitter in 24 hours. And all for some flowers. Now part of this experiment is open to the public at the Cuban Art Factory (FAC).
On that occasion, Molinet, who lives in Guadalajara (Mexico), shared her project “Masculinities”, in which she portrays Cuban men who pose with a flower over their ears in the central Havana Paseo del Prado.
In less than a day, the publication exceeded five million views. However, the complaints – or rather the misogynistic and homophobic prejudices – of those who saw an “attack on men” in these images, led Twitter to suspend their account.
The platform argued that content had been shown that broke the rules on “graphic violence” on the social network.
“I never expected the scope it had,” he says in an interview with EFE from Havana, where he will show the result of this experiment in a photographic exhibition that opens this Thursday at FAC, one of the cultural epicenters of Havana.
The work will be available throughout April. It will have 13 photographs, two screens that will show the development of Masculinities in a loop -with the positive and negative reactions of passers-by- and a space will be set up for attendees to take a photo with the flower in their ear.
The intention, as he explains, is to question stereotypes and make visible, through that, the fight against sexist violence.
“It bothered me that -almost always- women tend to be constructed from the male gaze and, from there, sexualized and objectified. Questioning stereotypes, it was also inevitable to ask myself (…) what are men doing?” adds the photographer.
new masculinities
Molinet was convinced that “exposing new roles and (new) identities in images” can allow “many people” to feel represented.
We wanted to explore the perceptions of masculinity and its limits, so my team and I went out to look for men who dared to take pictures with a flower in their ear through the streets of Old Havana.
I open ? with the photographs ??
1/10 pic.twitter.com/nng5u9sXJi— Moník Molinet (@PistolaMonik) August 28, 2022
The exhibition is no stranger to a reality that is changing by leaps and bounds in the world, with advances and setbacks, and that is redefining gender roles. However, like any change in culture, this one has met with resistance.
For the Cuban, those who criticized the exercise have exposed “the rigidity of the construction of the most hegemonic masculinity that all men suffer.” This, she stresses, is a problem that is exposed to both men and women from “the moment of birth.”
The reactions during the realization were varied: from a resounding yes, to those who only agreed because the women who work with Molinet seemed “pretty” to “to say no” and even Cubans who came up to criticize the exercise.
“Women can also be macho,” laments the photographer.
Sexist violence in Cuba
Masculinities is exposed in a context of contrasts and contradictions on the island.
On the one hand, in September the country overwhelmingly approved the Family Code, which gave the green light, among other things, to equal marriage, homoparental adoption and non-profit surrogacy.
However, in the feminist agenda there are still pending accounts on the island. The Government does not publish figures on sexist murders, a claim that is becoming more and more popular on independent platforms and in non-official media.
According to independent platforms, in Cuba there have been 19 femicides so far this year, more than half of the 34 registered by activists in 2022.
The feminist groups – who could not march on 8M because they were denied government permission to mobilize – are demanding a comprehensive law on gender violence.
For Molinet, sexist murders should have “a lot of visibility.”
The photographer believes that before approving legislation with gender perspectives on the island, it must first be “educated” because, otherwise, “they will not know how to apply it and violence” will persist.
“(Understanding) the construction of violent hegemonic masculinity is essential to be able to talk about femicides,” he concludes.
Efe/OnCuba.
