A Modern Challenge to gender

     Jaden Smith stands at the intersection of many disciplines: gender normativity, race, sexuality. He is often found making an unwavering stance against the unfair discourse leveled at marginalized groups. In fact in a 2016 interview he states his intent in taking such a hard line against this unfair criticism of marginalized groups as so “in five years when a kid goes to school wearing a skirt, he won’t get beat up.” From this statement we can infer, the fashion, life choices, and statements he makes are clearly less about the personal choices of who he is but rather a political statement saying ‘here I am, people like me exist and we are not going away.’ This thought is best echo’d in his picture as Nylon’s August cover star in 2016.​

     This picture brings Smith and his message front and center from the first glance. It does this by the blank white background which allows the eyes to only focus on Smith. It also creates a contrast between the blackness and, soon to be discussed, externalities from the whiteness of the background. Those who may be typically unnerved by Smith in this photograph will commonly fall under the white category: these people may try to find solace and comfort in an ironically apt white background located nearby, but this background, as said before, will always lead the eyes back to Smith. This creates a discomfort for his many detractors who are forced with the inevitability to engage with his portrait and the dialogue it seeks to say. This matches exactly with Smith’s stance that this dialogue will be spoken and listened to, and the people who speak it will not be ignored.​

     It is an important realization to understand that we must listen to this photograph’s dialogue, but one might ask “what exactly is this dialogue?” To help understand this, and so this photograph, further we have to understand the meaning behind the photograph’s elements. The first main element is Smith himself, who stands towering over the viewer, arms crossed in a masculine style popularized by media; however, this stance he physically takes is juxtaposed against the feminine features he has: the flower in his hair & the nailpolish on his nails. This melding of two styles is what the photographer intended viewers to see. Indeed, it is beyond the fact that Smith brought up earlier in an interview about boys being able to wear skirts (or in this photographs case nail polish & flowers). Instead, this photograph makes a statement that the masculine features are not mutually exclusive to feminine ones, not that boys may just wear skirts or other feminine objects, but rather skirts and other objects are not inherently feminine to begin with as here they are on a man without detracting from his masculine features. It therefore must be that this idea is what the photographer wanted us to understand about this image.