Shelby "Men Working" 10/22

Men Working

In my ongoing "Men at Work" series I look to break down the barriers and stereotypes that surround gender roles. In this unspoken system the female assumes the role of maintaining the home while the male provides monetary support. I find that this system is inefficient and creates tension, conflict, and underappreciated as each role struggles to understand one another.  To break down these barriers I transplant the genders out of their typical role and place them in the apposing environment while assigning them the apposing tasks. The male role is taken from his construction job and placed in the home environment where he fulfills tasks of the domestic role. Conversely the female role is placed into the blue-collar environment and performs tasks that were previously assigned to the male role.

"Men Working," joins the "Men at Work" series through a 15 minute performance and on construction site documentation. In this performance I am directly pointing out that woman are not present on the construction work site by holding a sign that reads "Men working/ Men at Work." I also address the stereotypical role of woman construction workers as Sign Holders that are in a way sexually advertising the construction that is happening. In designing the outfit I combined construction worker attire and nonfunctional additives that are present in female products. Some nonfunctional additives for this outfit included, construction nails, reflectors on top of the helmet, holes in sun blocking fabric, reflectors instead of a steel toe guard, a corset instead of a safety vest, ribbon instead of shoe lases, reflectors on safety glasses, etc.