GQ USA - 11.2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1

VOICES OF THE NEW MASCULINITY


VOICES OF THE NEW MASCULINITY


VOICES OF THE NEW MASCULINITY


VOICES OF THE NEW MASCULINITY VOICES OF THE NEW MASCULINITY VOICE


Thanks to roles in ‘Billions’ and
‘John Wick: Chapter 3,’ Asia Kate
Dillon has made headlines for playing
Hollywood’s first gender-nonbinary
characters. Off-screen, Dillon, who uses
the singular “they” pronoun, has become
a powerful advocate for greater inclusivity
in popular culture.

GQ: Is masculinity an idea that resonates
with you personally? Do you feel like
certain parts of the way you see yourself,
or the way you present to the world, are
in some way “masculine”?
ASIA KATE DILLON: Traditionally,
masculinity and femininity have been
seen as binary polar opposites. What
I was excited to discover for myself, and
what I’m excited to see happening in
the larger cultural context, is a redefinition
of masculinity and femininity as things
that are all-encompassing—that
masculinity can be hard or soft, strong or
vulnerable, and that those things aren’t
opposites of each other, because being
vulnerable is a sign of strength. I’m excited


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ASIA


K AT E


DILLON


The Actor Who
Brought Gender
Nonconformity to
America’s Living
Rooms

Photograph by Jillian Freyer
Styled by Taryn Bensky

A cultural anthropologist,
Katrina Karkazis is
a professor at the Honors
Academy at Brooklyn College
and the co-author of the
new book ‘Testosterone: An
Unauthorized Biography.’

GQ: What’s an example of
a stereotypically masculine
behavior that actually
has nothing to do with
testosterone?
KATRINA KARKAZIS:
Aggression is a great
example. Researchers say
the relationship between
testosterone and aggression
is weak or nonexistent.

How do you think the idea
that masculinity is rooted in
biology impacts the way that
our society views gender?
As #MeToo was heating up,
there was a conversation
between the writers Ross
Douthat and Rebecca Traister.
She asked him what’s at
the root of this, and he said
testosterone. I think he
was joking, but people believe
that. And if we accept that
gender hierarchies are tied to
evolution and biology, then it
seems impossible to change.

How so?
Testosterone often gives men a
pass for their negative behavior,
and a pass for their success.
With titans of Wall Street, for
example, testosterone didn’t
have anything to do with those
men reaching the highest level
in their field—there are other
structures that elevated men
and suppressed women. If
biology and testosterone aren’t
the explanation, then we have
the much harder work to do of
addressing the social causes.

Katrina Karkazis
on... The New
Science of
Masculinity

to see people deciding for themselves
what masculinity and femininity mean
to them. For one person, masculinity
might mean a dress and a face of makeup,
because that’s how they see themselves.

You’ve done a lot to bring attention to the
gendered nature of acting awards. What
kind of change would you like to see?
I think that the “actress” category should
be removed from awards shows. If people

108 GQ.COM NOVEMBER 2019

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