"Most people ordinarily seem to think that sex and gender are coextensive: women are human females, men are human males. Many feminists have historically disagreed and have endorsed the sex/ gender distinction. Provisionally: ‘sex’ denotes human females and males depending on biological features (chromosomes, sex organs, hormones and other physical features); ‘gender’ denotes women and men depending on social factors (social role, position, behaviour or identity). The main feminist motivation for making this distinction was to counter biological determinism or the view that biology is destiny." Excerpt from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Franck Glenisson's new photographic journey consists on re-discovering gender, beauty and possible new or or aspects of Sex. Starring Alex Wetter, his story Kiss The Gender is an ode to alternative beauty. An exclusive for Un nouVeau iDEAL.
FilepMotwary: You are born as a man, yet you dare to confront your sex by walking in women’s shows, pose as as a woman? How would you define yourself if I asked you to?
AlexWetter:It's a delicate question but I would say I am a man with a feminine side that I fully accept , I am not a drag queen. When I dress up as a woman, I don't see myself as wearing a costume, I feel as comfortable in the body of a woman than in the body of a man. I would define myself as androgynous boy.
F.M: How did you start modelling in the first place.
A.W: I started just after university, just for fun at first as I really enjoyed it. The real modelling started after I was discovered on facebook, and I decided to move to Paris to see if I could really pursue this career.
F.M: May I ask what was the most beautiful and the hardest thing about your childhood and
teenager years?
A.W: When I was a teenager I had trouble identifying to other boys of my age. I was bullied as I was very different. It´s only after a few years that I realized that this difference was a real strength, and that I needed to embrace it. I feel that this difficult time made me stronger and contributed to molding me into the person I am today.
A.W: I always imagined that the fashion world was unreachable, only reserved to the elite and that a country boy like me would never get access to it. I never tried getting into modelling, it´s modelling that came to get me.
F.M: In your opinion what is it about you that fascinated Glenisson?
A.W: I think what attracted him to me was the fact that I was comfortable as both man and woman. It's more by the way I held myself, my attitude, where he felt that I was an androgynous creature more than being only identified as a man or a woman.
F.M: Who is the character you embody in his story?
A.W: I would not say that I was in character during the shoot, I would just say that I accentuated my feminine and masculine side for some of the pictures, but that I remained mostly myself.
F.M: Do you feel beautiful? What is beauty for you?
A.W: Of course I feel beautiful, not because of how I look but because of who I am and what I had to go through to be the person I am today. I feel unique and comfortable in my own skin, as a man and as a woman and I think that's what being beautiful is really about.
A.W: Most models have a very limited time frame to succeed, the fashion industry is mostly driven by youth. I think my unique look will raise curiosity and make people realize that your gender doesn't define you as such, how long this will last is hard to know. But fashion is a difficult industry to predict, one minute you're in and the next you're out. I do hope that my look will inspire more people to do the same, to embrace more of their feminine or masculine side.
A.W: I have just signed with a modelling agency in Germany PMA where I am represented as a male and a female model. This really is a first. People always tell me that I am the new Andrej. I hope my career will be as successful as his, even if we have very different looks.
Photography and Make Up by Franck Glenisson, based on classic make-up ideas of the late Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent.
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