And Now for Some Striking Role Reversals
“The conversation I really wanted to have is if you can put a girl on a bike, you should put a guy on a bike. And, if that looks silly to you, you should rethink the other,” Jensen Beeler, editor of Asphalt & Rubber, told CNN. That’s why, last year, his magazine published a photo set arranged by Arun Sharma, the general manager of the Portland, Oregon-based Ducati dealership MotoCorsa with an all-male cast.
Initially, Sharma’s shop had hired model Kylie Shea Lewallen to do one of those typical “sexy girl on a bike” shoots on top of the spanking new Ducati 1199 Panigale. Sharma is aware of the girl-on-bike trope and though he tried to soften the inherent sexualization of such a series by ensuring that Lewallen wore more than just a g-string, the response was lukewarm. That’s when it hit him: “We should totally do the same poses with the guys in the shop.”
The response from his employees was mostly enthusiastic. To recreate the Lewallen shots, they had a drawing to determine which pose they would imitate. A.J. Ralston, a senior technician who’s been working in the shop for 11 years recalls the experience, “it was super-hot outside, so holding a pose like that with sweat everywhere and my knees slipping all over the place gave me a new appreciation for what models do.”
The series featuring the burly shop men in boy shorts, halter tops and heels really appealed to Beeler, who ran them in August of last year on Asphalt & Rubber. “I’m kind of tired of the ‘pinup girl on motorcycle’ theme that our industry does, so it was kind of fun to see someone poke that in the eye,” Beeler recalled. He suggested that a more equalizing approach to marketing like this one could only benefit female riders. The series eventually became a calendar.
Of course this was all a year ago. They made a splash in automotive circles, but it wasn’t until last month that the series started popping up in social networks and mainstream publications.
The photos, which can be found on MotoCorsa’s website, continue to inspire both praise and horror. It’s evident in browsing comments on any one of the stories about this series that there are very rigid cultural standards in place regarding how the genders are expected to present themselves. Desirability, these types of comments suggest time and again, is a female characteristic and for men to present female by adopting an outfit or pose meant to convey desirability is not just wrong, but utterly revolting.
Challenging these notions of what is acceptable is something Hana Pesut really likes. The Vancouver-based photographer has been working on a series called “Switcheroo” for the past three years that features two subjects — usually a man and woman — posing together in their own outfits and then switching them.
Her series has taken her from North America to Europe and Asia. Despite an unsuccessful Indiegogo campaign in 2012, five months ago Pesut released an 80-page book of her series, which is available for $30.00.
Speaking to the Huffington Post about her work, Pesut said the project shows how far we’ve come in terms of what’s acceptable for men and women to present themselves.
“My mom recently told me that when she was in high school she had to wear to a skirt or dress and wasn’t allowed to wear pants,” she said. “Now it seems that almost anything goes. With several of the shoots I noticed that a man could be wearing a dress and heels in a public place (or a woman in a suit and tie) and no one thinks that it is strange — people barely even stop to look.”
Nevertheless, she admitted that some of her subjects were not altogether comfortable in their partner’s clothes, and the reaction to her project, as with MotoCorsa’s Ducati shoot switcheroo, has been mixed.
