In the context of my artistic research and practice I am investigating the fields of masculinity studies, male culture, and masculine behavior. I recently came to realize how flawed and gaslighting the term toxic masculinity was. How it became synonymous with any type of wrongdoing conducted by men or associated with men's behavior. Which reminded me of how hysteria during a period was the most common diagnosis to explain women's behavior. While toxic masculinity appears as a moral judgment, hysteria was allegedly supported by a scientific community. They have in common to be both deliberately unsubstantial while delegitimizing an entire social group on the basis of their sex.

To understand how these categories impact our culture, I’m proposing to look at masculinity as a site where race, class, sexuality, and nationality intersect. In the section Qualities of Touch i’ll introduce how touch as an ethical practice of care challenges heteronormative discourse about sexuality and gender identity. Further down the section Modes of intimacy invites us to look even further into the potential of intimacy as a disruptive tool, especially when it makes contact with current social issues.

My background in dance and combat sport will provide insight in how masculinity is performed in context as such, and help us identify what differentiates them and what could possibly render them synonymous with each other. In combat sport vulnerability is concealed in order to ex-amplify the performance of strength and, de facto, dissimulate what can be perceived as weakness. Dance on the other hand could be read as a celebration of the erotic of strength, and an indulgence of the infinite possibility, fluidity, and plasticity of the body. From that stance, I will introduce a work in the making that extends these problematics through a durational group performance.