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Marie al-Khazen (1899-1983) is an amateur photographer who took most
of her photographs in the 1920s and 1930s in and around Zgharta, a
village in the North of Lebanon. In this paper, I will analyze how gender
a category used to express differences between male and female
individuals depending on a combination of naturally endowed and chosen
attributes, abilities, appearances, and expressive codes —is represented
socially and culturally in a number of her photographs through complex
conventions and significations. How and in what way men inhabit alKhazen’s
photographs is the focus of this paper. These photographs were
produced during a period that is often characterized as predominantly
patriarchal. In most of the photographs selected for this paper, I will
argue that, al-Khazen reflects this predominantly patriarchal ideology
and will show how most of al-Khazen’s photographs prescribe to
meanings of masculinity as heroic.
While analyzing the photographs, I consider the following question: How
do representations of masculinity differ from representations of
femininity in al-Khazen’s photographs? Her position being behind the
camera puts her in control of the image provided to us today. In other
words, she is not a neutral mediator, but, rather, manifests control
through her choice of the subject matter, the moments that she wanted to
be salient in her life, the light and shadow, the objects in the foreground
* Ph.D., Associate Professor, e-mail: ytaan@lau.edu.lb
Masculinities Journal and background setting, the subjects’ positions within the space of the photograph and the ways in which these subjects perform their social relations to each other within a group. How do al-Khazen’s photographic
decisions shape our understanding of gender relations in her
photographs? I will examine the ways photographs disseminate ideas and meanings by generating discursive notions on gender. Gender is explored as a category used to express differences between male and female individuals
depending on a combination of naturally endowed and chosen attributes
and appearances. The paper offers a scrutinized study of the photographs
and the different ways manhood or rujuliyya, particularly in the rural areas in Lebanon, was culturally represented through an amplified masculinity. From having a moustache, smoking a cigarette, sporting tarabish to holding rifles, a plethora of props and accoutrement appeared in the photos to denote signs of virility. |
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