Toyhood
Date
2024
Authors
Costello, Mack
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Victoria
Abstract
For my honours thesis in Gender Studies, I’m writing, directing, and editing Toyhood. This six-episode web series follows the protagonist pretending to be male to sneak into an all-boys college - only to learn this is an all-trans-boys college. Instead of the traditional rectangle design, I decided to make this poster on a three-dimensional sphere to more accurately depict how the methodological, theoretical, and practical elements of my project converge. I decided on a mixed media approach to reflect my Fan Studies methodology, which Naomi Jacobs argues is an inherently interdisciplinary bricolage approach that scavenges tools from a variety of different frameworks. Toyhood is a feminist film project, meaning that it’s a highly collaborative, community-based, and intersectional form of art. Thus, I chose a sphere shape to reflect the embodied, affective, and circulatory forms of my feminist filmmaking practice. On my poster, there are sections dedicated to my Fan Studies methodology, my practice-based engagements with mise-en-scène and choreography, and my theoretical inspirations around transnormativity, hegemonic (trans)masculinity, and death. My hope is that the audience who engages with this project can be inspired to think of new connections, tensions, and questions between each of these subjects.
Description
Keywords
transnormativity, transgender, film, fan studies, hegemonic masculinity