Girls will be boys by Dunja

This week marked the turning point in my modeling career, and it’s certainly been equally nerve wrecking and exciting. I had wanted to try my hand at male modeling for a very long time but never really had the guts to chop all my hair off and get a load of brand new tattoos needed to make the transition smoother! However, last Wednesday I did my first modeling shoot as a male model, and I have to say it was quite a revelation. Yes, I had the privilege of working with one of the most talented photographers around, and thank goodness I managed to in fact pull off looking like a boy in the pictures, but there was something else to it that I didn’t even consider before the shoot.  I have been modeling for a long time, 16 years now, so I didn’t really think it would be all that much different to some of the more androgynous shoots I’ve done in the past. But it was.

See this was the first time I wasn’t expected to look younger than I am; told to ‘soften’ my face, be sexy or vulnerable; there was no one fussing about my makeup or oiling up my body or tightening up that belt to make my waist smaller.  In a nutshell, I didn’t need to look pretty, I only had to have character. For the first time ever I’ve looked at unretouched pictures of myself and thought, thank god for those smile and frown lines, they help show off my personality, my true character. I didn’t turn my head away from the computer as I usually do, waiting for the retoucher to make me into a pretty, 2 dimensional image of a person.  I was proud of the way I looked before Photoshop waved its magic wand.  It really comes as no surprise why female models are the most insecure women I’ve ever met!

The whole experience made me remember an interview Dustin Hoffman once did where he admitted what a significant eye-opener it was playing a female role in a film. He said that as soon as hair and makeup transformed him into the female character, his primary concern was looking pretty, and only later did he question why he felt that way. Thing is, whilst men are valued in society for a wide variety of traits, unconnected to their outward appearance, women are foremost valued for their looks. It’s a fact we all live with, however men don’t usually get to experience that first hand, so I consider Mr. Hoffman as very fortunate.