Gussied up tighty-whities: On decoration, stains and exchange

Abstract

Due to the homoerotic undertones of male underwear ad campaigns and their representations of sexualized bodies, male underwear and their packaging are formative objects in the realization of one’s same-sex desire. Underwear often projects a gay male gaze and becomes a symbolic object charged with ethos, desire and shame. In this article, I expand on my own relationship and encounters with this formative object, informed by this broader landscape of representations. I present projects from my fibre-based art practice that consists of the transformation and embellishment of male underwear. I contextualize the act of hand-embellishing a mass-produced object as a powerful agent for adaptation and appropriation, and I explore the potential to formally queer this normative object. Finally, I mention a project in which I receive worn and stained male underwear that I embroider on before sending them back to their owner. Accompanied by conversations with their owners, I trace individuals’ unique and similar relationship with this object. I argue that these different creative practices, which hand-alter, adapt or re-create the underwear, interrupt normative consumption cycles and misuse of undergarment functionality and can create a space ‘for us’.