The unconventional Surrealist who challenged gender norms with make-up

27 Mar

Looking back on the extraordinary self-portraits of Surrealist Claude Cahun and her unusual relationship with make-up, we unpick what she will be able to teach us about beauty today It would appear to be our obsession with beauty has never been greater, but seeking to the past tells a special story. Making Up The Past is a column great women from history and the way they used cosmetics to shape their identities, from ancient queens to modern artists.For many of human history, cosmetics have been a rarefied luxury. Even when the social mores that shape our understanding of beauty have continually shifted, make-up has at all times served as a method of...

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14 Sep

How persons are using genital piercings to affirm their

by Beauty Tips

Beauty, Featured

Many trans people discover a profound sense of healing through ‘genital biohacking’, with piercings which can be difficult to find elsewhere If the phrase ‘genital biohacking’ incites visions of sex robots or a unadorned Gwyneth Paltrow in her laboratory, it’s not your fault. A fast Google search reveals results which can be, at best, weird and, at worst, stuff Edward Scissorhands would find hard to swallow. In point of fact, biohacking covers any DIY practice done for biological performance or health enhancement, including modifying your genitals with piercings. This isn’t just “a latest weird thing young persons are doing”, Lynn Loheide, a non-binary skilled piercer and ‘body modification historian’ tells Dazed. Genital biohacking “can...

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15 Feb

One photographer’s uncensored documentation of her gender transition

by Beauty Tips

Beauty, Featured

gender transition Charley Dean Sayers’ debut photography book November seventeenth captures her gender confirmation surgery on her own terms. Here, she speaks to Nicola Dinan about the project November 17th will leave you wondering: why should happiness demand a lot suffering? In her debut book of photography, Charley Dean Sayers, 23, documents her gender confirmation surgery, which she underwent three months after her 18th birthday. The book spans Sayers’ five weeks in Chon Buri, Thailand. It’s a portal into an especially intimate period of Sayers’ life, and of mental and physical tumult. As I moved through the photographs, diary entries of Sayers and her mother, messages sent to friends, I often felt like more of an intruder than a reader. The nice irony...

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24 Nov

Beauty on the margins: photos of Nigeria’s gender non-conforming

by Beauty Tips

Beauty, Featured

Beauty on the margins Beauty on the margins A recent exhibition in Lagos titled UnCommon Beauty champions brave individuals who actualising themselves within the face of oppression Lagos in October is hot, stifling, exhausting. But town has a magic of reviving itself when fashion, art and design weeks come around. In considered one of town’s affluent suburbs, an exhibition unfolds, the massive frames of photographs pegged to lean strings of ropes. In several portraits, star subjects wear gravity-defying gowns, knitted dresses, perch-feathered corsetry, sequinned silhouettes, with faces fully glammed-up; hair, nails and neck all accessorised. Happening October 22, the exhibition, titled UnCommon Beauty, shared a glimpse into the truth and exquisite existence of trans women, drag artists and cross-dressers living in Nigeria – in a...

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