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| Pejic was just cast in Yoana Baraschi's runway show. Yoana is known for her ultra-feminine frocks. |
ANDREJ PEJIC is suddenly everywhere. Still in his teens (that's right, HIS), Pejic has already featured prominently in many runway shows, magazine editorials, and print ads. His two big 'gets':
Watch out for him (yep, HIM) in Marc Jacob's soft focus. stripe-heavy spring campaign:
He'll also be appearing in Jean Paul Gaultier's new ad campaign, with lookalike blondie Karolina Kurkova:
It's tough to tell the Czech supermodel apart from her costar, no? Pejic was born of Serbian-Croation parents, but the family fled their war ravaged homeland and settled as refugees in Australia. He (I know! I would kill for HIS lips) now catwalks in Paris and Milan. No wonder this confusingly cosmopolitan upbringing has the fashion world enthralled. I too adore anyone with a story or personality so unique it deflates the abstracted cliches that form the fashion industry and associated marketing, bringing it back down to me. Humanized.
I bet someday Andrej Pejic will be at the heart of actual debates. He'll function as a jumping off point, a pop culture reference in some tweedy professor's Powerpoint Presentation. Androgyny is nothing new in fashion. Yet, the extremes to which Pejic takes his look and the success he achieves because of (or in spite of) it, are an Emeritus-Professor-in-Sociology-with-a-focus-in-Gender-Studies' wet dream.
Wishing him (I tripled-checked and we're talking XY) all the best.
Now the boy just needs himself a Wikipedia entry.
You're a moron. Stop emphasizing 'he'.
ReplyDeleteAndrej identifies as androgyne, which is neither man nor woman. The correct pronoun to use here is zie/zer. Do some research, stop being such a disgusting bigot, homophobe, and transphobe.
To anonymous, I do not believe that anyone who emphasises that this dude, is a dude, is a moron. perhaps you are a moron for supporting such riduculous rubbish. I am pro-gay and do not really give a crap what anyone else does as quite frankly it doesn't affect me, but this is just ridiculous. Next we'll say it's okay to make babies with your cousins... please, give me a break. No wonder society is screwed in the head.
ReplyDeleteWriter's Note: Thanks for the comments, both of you. I actually decided to mention Pejic after seeing some other sites call him a 'crossdresser'. I thought that was at least an odd misnomer, and perhaps outright offensive to any communities that might feel represented. I chose not to use the gender-neutral pronoun 'Hir', but certainly didn't intend to offend anyone with that choice. I've never met Andrej, so I couldn't tell you what his preferred identifier is. I once had a colleague who was going through the RLT phase of a transgender process who found the use of 'Hir' to be offputting, like being called an 'it'. I suppose it's a matter of taste, since our society still requires all people to ascribe to one gender or the other, even if just for legal purposes.
ReplyDeleteI think most readers will see that I was simply trying to make the point that this is a model who was born male and is now creating quite a stir in the fashion world BECAUSE of his surreal adrogynous look. Andrej is practically indistinguishable from the flaxen-haired females that flank him, and THAT'S the point! I think I did make this point, and with an obviously positive take - I'm excited to see mere fashion photographs bring about debates that are tangential, worlds removed from the blond-haired model who spawned them. I don't think Pejic has made any public statements regarding LGBT rights, but he clearly gets people talking... and that's a very important step in the right direction.
The thing is that Pejic DOESN'T identify as a man. Pejic has said, I quote, "I don’t really have that sort of strong gender identity – I identify as what I am." Pejic has not come on record (as far as I know, and it's not like I'm Pejic's best friend so I wouldn't know yet) with what pronouns Pejic prefers.
ReplyDeletePersonally, as an androgynous person who is tangibly hurt when people refer to me as 'he' or even 'she', the way you emphasized every time you used a masculine pronoun for someone who doesn't identify as male really put me off. Why such incredulity? It's a step in the right direction that there's a well known androgynous model, but when that step includes miles of people saying 'him, he, male model, etc', it's not a very good step, is it? Certainly not the best it could be.
Now I will say, in regards to your colleague, I think it's perfectly reasonable for them to not want to be referred to as 'hir'. I am assuming that person is binary gender? Or prefers a different set of pronouns? But what about those of us who aren't men or women, who do want to be referred to as 'hie' (personally, I use 'ne' but I don't meet many others who do unfortunately)? As we know, there isn't 'one gender or the other', there are many genders. And, yes, legally I have to have an 'M' or an 'F' on my driver's license, but I'm also not allowed to get the medical procedures that would help me be comfortable in my body or to get the same benefits from marriage that heterosexual couples get. Bureaucracy is hardly ever the best judge of things when it comes to LGBT issues.
So, you took this all positively but you kind of bumbled your way through with respect to androgyny, and I liked your article except that I cringed every time you emphasized that you assume typically male parts means Pejic wants you to refer to Pejic as 'he'. You're right, 'crossdresser' wouldn't be the right term. Some people do identify as crossdressers. Andrej Pejic is (to my well researched knowledge) not one of them.
I've put a lot of words in to this, and I know it's close to a year old, but I hope you read this and understand that while I wouldn't put it the way the first person did (I really hate it when people use slurs to get LGBT messages across -_-' ) you did really make me uncomfortable.