Cahun’s work focused strongly on undermining traditional concepts of gender stereotypes and gender roles, Cahun considered herself as gender neutral. O’Donnell’s work is very similar to that of Cahun’s; exploring gender stereotypes and the fluidity of gender through clothes and body language. Their methods of work are very similar, both involving self-portraits of themselves and having a mundane, atmosphere to their projects.
Both of their concepts and projects can be considered political in the terms of Identity. Identity politics is a form of politics grounded in and organised by a shared identity that has been the target of unjust practices. Identity politics emerged in the second half of the twentieth century as a way or organising political claims on behalf of oppressed social groups typically, but not exclusively, in liberal democracies. such shared identities may include: ethnic, racial, religious, sexual, disabilities or gender-based. As you can see, Cahun and O’Donnell’s work explores gender which is in the category of Identity Politics. Cahun especially (born in 1894) would’ve been stigmatized for her out look, dress sense, hair cut etc and definitely would’ve been oppressed in those times. Times are very different now and people who are exploring their gender and the fluidity of that are now more welcomed and understood, however you could argue that themes within gender such as gender fluidity, gender transitions etc are still oppressed and still attract a lot of hatred from others which is why gender would still be considered political.
Not only is the concept of both artist’s work considered political, you could also say that the photographs and still images that the two produce are political in themselves. Claude tended to create self portraits that would flaunt her then-stigmatized look, this would’ve been controversial then and would’ve stirred up quite a talk. The clothes she wore, for example wearing trousers, the way she styled her hair, the way she positioned herself in images would’ve been abnormal to have been created and thus oppressed in itself. The audience may have not know of Cahun’s gender fluidity, yet the way she presented herself would’ve been criticised; falling into the category of identity politics. Additionally, Cahun used to release images that were almost mocking the audience for being attracted to what’s not on offer (because women were seen as desirable objects to men that were aesthetic, and Cahun mocked this idea). For example, in the image on the left of Cahun, she is dressed as a body builder, prehaps referring to her identity or multiple identity. Her t-shirt writes in the image: “I am in training do not kiss me “. This is a straightforward denial of the invitation evident in the rest of the portrait (accentuated nipples, thick makeup, love heart on legs etc). This is an attempt to ward off sexual trespassers. O’Donnell’s work is very similar again, she tends to use still images and experiments with clothing that have masculine or feminine connotations. She regularly dresses up in things like suits, with bathing costumes over the top which even to this day would be considered quite unique and different. This is again a form of identity politics; exploring and mixing outfits that define masculinity or femininity. Experimentation like this are still, to this day oppressed especially in certain cultures.
