Spotlight Interview with feature model Felicia Jones on breaking gender norms,beauty,modeling and mo
General introduction on what androgyny means for me: gender binary differences, views regarding my identity and what labels I should or should not claim according to people around me.
Part of being androgynous for Felicia is the look she was born with: she thinks of her features as quite masculine. For her being androgynous means a both neutral and two-sided experience. She can be perceived as either gender-less, masculine or feminine. For her personal experience and development she feels like she has enough room to express herself. Being androgynous and being perceived in different ways can be a blessing: she does not feel like she has to choose, and therefore this gives her more leeway in expressing herself.
What was childhood like in relation to androgyny and from childhood to puberty
Felicia hated developing breasts: she never wanted them. Back in her early teens she was already a tomboy, even before knowing about different genders and sexuality. While she was a tomboy at heart she surrounded herself with female friends. When she was home alone she used to dress up as a boy. Her brother used to practice martial arts and he needed a jockstrap. Felicia tried out how that would feel underneath her clothing.
When she was younger she had long golden curly hair – people around her used to call her “Shakira” . When she was ten years old she cut it all off. As of that moment people would occasionally perceive her as a little boy. This caused her to start questioning her gender expression and identity.
Young adult years
Present
Felicia works full time as a model. Apart from her modelling work she enjoys working out and staying fit. She enjoys how her modelling work enables her to meet new people and connect with people from different people. Her work leads her abroad and gives her the opportunity to visit interesting places. In her free time she loves the performance arts: going to see concerts and theater performances for instance.
Work as a model
Photographers mostly approach Felicia for artsy and eccentric shoots. She also does commercial work and work for fashion shoots, but much less. Fashion and commercial shoots will often want to use Felicia for shoots that convey a special message about being LGBT. These interest Felicia less: she prefers androgyny and different gender expressions to be normal and part of regular shoots, instead of being a special message.
Felicia feels like she can break through as herself at some point in the future: not only in the LGBT community but also outside of the community. She feels like she can be a role model to show people to be their true selves, and inspire others to be more open minded about androgyny and different types of gender expression. In the last two years she’s been getting more opportunities to work abroad: she’s becoming more well-known in different countries. She would like to work abroad more and expand beyond the modelling scene in the Netherlands. One of her ambitions is to work in America, especially in New York. New York has many opportunities for androgynous models as the modelling scene is more open-minded and has more possibilities to do fashion shoots as an androgynous model.
Bringing awareness to people that have never heard about or don’t know what being androgynous is.
Most people are unfortunately too narrow-minded to have androgyny explained to them. They will immediately think that being androgynous equates to being transgender.
What does androgyny mean for those around you? Any common assumptions that you would like to correct?
For Felicia androgyny means expressing herself or feeling as both man and woman. She feels like she encompasses both masculine and feminine features. On the other hand she also expresses a wish to move away from the gender binary altogether. For Felicia the question can be: what exactly does it mean to be masculine or feminine?
Beauty standards?
As an androgynous model Felicia often subverts beauty standards. Most female models are extremely tall and thin: there’s very little variety in body types. There’s tall and thin models, fitness models or plus size models. Felicia feels like she’s not part of any of these categories. This is a message she wants to convey to others: it’s not necessary to fit in a rigid category to be beautiful. She hopes that there’s more diversity in models in the industry in the future. She hopes that one day it’s not necessary to be tall, or that a few extra pounds don’t pigeon-hole a model in the plus-size category. Felicia doesn’t only wants to fit in one single category because of her alternative look, when she can do much more than just one type of modelling.
How does the modelling industry, critics and fans, view androgyny at the present day and where do you see this perspective going in the future?
At this moment in time androgyny is highly sought after and popular in the modelling industry. People are becoming more curious about androgyny. However, in the modelling industry people tend towards hyper femininity or hyper masculinity in the extremes. Instead of being portrayed as a man Felicia will be styled as a butch woman, as most industry professionals still don’t understand androgyny completely.
Her fans find Felicia’s androgyny sexy and refreshing. She keeps surprising them with her androgyny. But her fans often confuse her for a trans boy, because they don’t understand androgyny completely. For instance, they will ask her when she will start transitioning.
In the past Felicia has received online hate via her social media channels. Occasionally she would get messages from trans people in the midst of transition. They would accuse her of dressing up as a man for fun and being able to take off ‘a costume’ at the end of the day and go back to being a woman. They did not understand that Felicia has been expressing herself androgynous since childhood and has always had ambiguous and androgynous features. People who sent her online hate felt like they had to work ‘ harder’ somehow to transition and be acknowledged as a different gender. They accused her of having it easy because of her androgynous features.
Felicia hopes that people will become more accepting of different gender identities and forms of gender expression. She hopes that people will become more open-minded and not restrict themselves to the gender binary.
Which sexual identity do you find most attracted to you?
Felicia finds that it’s mostly women that are attracted to her: not only lesbians, but also bi-curious straight women. Felicia doesn’t want to restrict herself to labels when it comes to sexual preference.
Do you feel like you had a choice to make when it comes to your identity or do you personally not even think about? Elaborate on this further: is it more likened to a switch that can be one way or another with a flick of the wrist or do you make choices in your life one moment at a time with no real forethought as to what your next move should be?
For Felicia being androgynous feels very natural. She does notice that those around her and society and general have an opinion about gender identity and gender expression. She feels like she’s forced to make a choice in her gender identity: is she trans? Is she a butch woman? Is she gender fluid? Felicia feels like she shouldn’t have to make this choice and instead she should be free to express herself. However, society seems to force this choice upon her.
