harinef:Can you explain the concept of the cis gaze?Hari Nef: The cis gaze looks at trans people. It
harinef:Can you explain the concept of the cis gaze?Hari Nef: The cis gaze looks at trans people. It just looks. It looks at our bodies. It doesn’t hear, it only sees. It makes its own conclusions and associations based on its own experiences – which are, of course, cisgender. The cis gaze takes a trans person and scoops out everything that makes them unique. Within the cis gaze, the trans body becomes a paper doll to be posed, superimposed, dressed up, dressed down. The cis gaze asks what the trans body can do for it.What was the best thing about working with an all trans team?I want to focus on the positive, but a better question might be “What’s the worst thing about working with a cisgender team?” Almost every time I show up on set, I prepare myself for misgendering, clothes that don’t flatter my body, problematic moodboard references – the list goes on. When I work with trans folks I don’t have to think about any of that because we’re all thinking about it. I can just work. I cherish every collaboration, but collaboration doesn’t necessarily entail sympathy, empathy, or mutual understanding. With a trans team however, it’s all there.Can you explain a bit more about about the importance of gender diverse casting?Diversity is everything. Inclusion leads to understanding, demystification, destigmatisation. Fashion has the power to glorify bodies and identities – to include them in a narrative of luxury and beauty. I’ve only worked in the industry for a few years, but I know it well enough to conclude that an appeal to social justice and civil rights via fashion casting will fall on dead ears. The fashion industry does not care about these things, and it probably never will. It does, however, care about what’s new and contemporary –because that sells. It cares about consumers.The internet has exposed a generation of consumers to luxury which in no way resembles the fashion audience of the past. There are people of colour buying luxury; there are trans people buying luxury; there are disabled people buying luxury; there are plus-size people buying luxury. They’re out there, they have a million followers, and they deserve to be reflected in contemporary fashion imagery. Why do I wear Eckhaus Latta, Vejas, and Hood By Air? Because the clothes are great, but also because they use transgender models. Do the math.i spoke to dazed about diversity in fashion and the cis gaze -- source link