They do work “for them” and vice versa: 50 celebrities photograph themselves against stereotypes

The woman looks radiant, with her nails and lips painted red. She with one hand she holds a wrench. Her mouth seems to scream a goal, a sign that the water outlet has been repaired.

Another woman appears wearing makeup while holding some choris and morcis before putting them on the grill. A round of applause for the grill? There is also another lady in a suit and tie playing the role of a wallet, the one who delivers correspondence. None of them lose their femininity beyond what they will say.

The scene is reversed with a man putting on lipstick in front of the mirror. Another man appears kneading gnocchi with a look that is touching. A similar sequence occurs with a man in his fifties ironing his clothes or that man who smiles while he sews a garment.

It seems that the roles have been reversed But in the 21st century, men and women will be able to do all types of tasks equally, regardless of their gender, age or social status.

Without stigmas It is the photographic exhibition that seeks to break down stereotypes without distinction of gender: they do things “of them”; and they, “theirs.”

More than fifty celebrities, including actors, actresses, singers and also journalists, were photographed by Sebastián Naón, photographer and also documentary filmmaker.

Together with the producer Agustín Pulido, he designed this exhibition that began during the pandemic and came to light three years later, with 40 portraits personifying scenes of home and work life according to the current times.

“Stereotypes are responsible for stigma, but societies are the ones that establish it: they follow the rules of the game, they allow and accept the existence of stereotypes,” he explains. Naon, He is also the architect of the “Immortal Women” project, declared of Cultural Interest by the Buenos Aires Legislature.

Without stigmas causes a sensation at the Sagai Foundation. Until December 13, the portraits will be free at the 25 de Mayo 586 headquarters.

The exhibition has the participation of Andrea Pietra, Tomás Fonzi, Carlos Portaluppi, Andrea Taboada, El Puma Goity, Mirta Wons, Celeste Pisapia, Natalie Pérez, Georgina Barbarossa, Jorgelina Aruzzi, Benjamín Vicuña, Thelma Fardin, Claribel Medina, Fabiana Cantilo, Antonio Grimau, Martín Seefeld, Manuela Pal, Esther Goris, Fabián Vena, Luis Machín and Alejandro Müller.

Also of Luciano Caceres, Mario Pasik, Gisela Busaniche, Alejandra Darin, Anabel Cherubito, Laura Azcurra, Laura Cymer, Graciela Tenenbaum, Facu Gambande, Nicolas Scarpino, Sebastian Francini, Nicolas Maiques, Desiree Naguel, Nancy Anka, Julia Zenko, Lula Rosenthal, Mariano Bertolini, Romina Ricci, Roberto Vallejos, Anama Ferreira, Juan Ignacio Canne, Brenda Kreiserman, Viviana Puerta, Fabio Di Tomas, Georgina Mollo, Melody Llarens and Solange Verina.

Naon devised this project with the purpose of putting aside attitudes that discredit and reject people because of their sex, age, social, economic status, ethnicity or religion.

When the exits allowed it, Naón went out with his camera to photograph artists in real places such as a slaughterhouse, an abandoned factory, a mechanical workshop, bars, mansions or tenements of the time. Each session lasted between 3 and 5 hours between each shot and makeup touch-ups.

The show begins with Natalie Pérez characterized as a nurse-midwife, welcoming a newborn in a hospital. “The photo speaks of a birth, that this newcomer cannot imagine that there is a world that is so governed by stereotypes,” explains the author.

“What will await this new being if these stereotypes are in the social imagination installed for so long?” he asks. Naon.

Along these lines, Tomás Fonzi and Manuela Pal are shown smiling in the same image but with the colors “inverted”: he wears a pink jacket and a shirt of the same tone, and she wears a light blue jacket.

“To a girl, pink, lilac, ducky yellow. The colors are highly cataloged according to the social imagination or the stereotype in which pink is for girls, light blue for boys. And when that boy grows up – you see him in high school – he wears a pink sweater or the girl wears a light blue top or bow,” he warns. Naon.

Another photo that impacts is that of actress and singer Lula Rosenthal titled “An applause for the asadora.” “It’s quite an allegory because she made the roast on Sunday and the woman could make that roast. It is one more meal that adds to what he does every day but it is closed and framed in the man,” reflects the photographer.

“The woman became empowered: some make barbecue, but in your imagination you never hear the neighbor saying ‘a round of applause for the grill.’ It is very strange to hear that phrase.”

More women doing “men’s jobs”: Georgina Barbarossa as a plumber; Anamá Ferreira, in the role of her mechanic; Claribel Medina distributes correspondence as a messenger; Andrea Prieta is a welder and Andrea Taboada is an electrician; Julia Zenko, carpenter; and Thelma Fardin, characterized as a gas technician.

“I wanted to deny this, remove a little bit and deconstruct. Show women with little heels but with some waves, some eyelashes, with some gloss on their lips so that it can be seen that they they are flirtatious and they are doing something like welding or fixing a leak. They are activities that are generally associated with men but without losing femininity,” explains their creator.

Similar situations occur in men, such as the portrait of Carlos Portaluppi putting on makeup in front of a mirror. “The photo generated astonishment. In the character he makes, a man who wears lipstick, I, as the creator of the photograph, thought about the character: I am not making him homosexual nor that he was going to cross-dress. He is a straight man with his wife and his children: one day he wanted to paint his lips and put a touch of eyeliner on his eyes,” says Naón.

“In ancient Egypt, men wore makeup and eyeliner; women, no. This is changing as a social pattern.”

Other portraits show Mario Pasik making repulgues with the gnocchi, Martín Seefeld ironing, Luis Machín cutting a sewing thread with his mouth and Antonio Grimau washing clothes in a tenement. They are men of today doing tasks cataloged to women in another era.

In Without stigmas There are also shared portraits, like that of El Puma Goity and Mirta Wons on a day of fishing: who is in charge of the rod and who sets the table?, asks the author of the funny photograph, who also posed with Celeste Pisapia. They both work as restaurant workers.

There are also individual portraits of those who look “towards a future without stigmas”, such as those of Benjamín Vicuña, Fabiana Cantilo and Fabián Vena.

The exhibition ends with a double message: with a portrait of Luciano Cáceres who also looks towards a different future and with another of Celeste Pisapia with the corset in her hand “to take away this pressure that the society in which we live puts on us.”

Without stigmasby Sebastián Naón

Where: Sagai Foundation, May 25 586.

When: Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Until December 13.