'Designing with a hard-on': The queer sexual politics of Bernhard Willhelm's fashion. (1st September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brajato, Nicola
• Is Part Of: Queer studies in media & popular culture. Volume 6:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 233
• Page End: 253
• Publication Date: 2021-09-01
• Subjects: Gender identity in mass media -- Research -- Periodicals; Gays in popular culture -- Research -- Periodicals; Gays in motion pictures -- Research -- Periodicals; Homosexuality in motion pictures -- Research -- Periodicals; 305.3
• DOI: 10.1386/qsmpc_00059_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2055-5695

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the existing literature on Antwerp-trained designer Bernhard Willhelm by highlighting his dissident intervention in the redefinition of the relationship between masculinity and sexuality. To do so, it analyses the different designs and visual strategies through which Willhelm has queered what I define as the 'hegemonic male dressed body' ‐ a specific type of embodiment at the intersection of hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity ‐ in order to demonstrate that the designer's critical fashion practices represent tangible ways to recontextualize the male dressed body outside the strictures of heteronormative social regimes.