The Tutu Project…
A middle-aged, average-bodied man. A kind man, a loving husband, whose wife has terminal cancer. A man who had a vision for gorgeous, sweeping, breathtaking photographs punctuated by something we don’t usually see—a middle-aged man in a pink tutu.
The Today Show profiled Bob Carey, his project, and the foundation created from this project.
The thing that makes this story work so well for me is that he isn’t making fun of his body. Too often men’s bodies are used as a joke… But he isn’t using his body as a joke, he’s using it more as a knowing wink. A nod toward the husbands and partners of those with Cancer. They aren’t superhuman, they are average guys living big, scary, beautiful lives.
And he makes his wife smile.
Good man, Bob.
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Great couple and fantastic story – drips goodness everywhere.
“Too often men’s bodies are used as a joke… But he isn’t using his body as a joke, he’s using it more as a knowing wink. A nod toward the husbands and partners of those with Cancer.”
This is a total non-sequitur. What does this “knowing wink” actually know?
“And he makes his wife smile.”
If it isn’t a joke, than why is she smiling?
I think she’s proud of him. Watch the interview. The photographs are meant to be funny, there’s humor to it, but it’s not humiliation or shame-based. The photos are beautiful for a reason. He’s not a dude in a tutu making a dumb face or put in uncomfortable positions. He isn’t ugly or a bad impersonator of a drag queen. He’s simply a man in a pink tutu in different settings. To emphasize the color pink (breast cancer) and to be a little silly. But he looks handsome, and serious, and the photographs are beautifully composed. There’s a lot of… Read more »
Jokes are not the only reason a person may smile at something that is funny. Smiling feels good; especially when a person is ill. His wife is smiling because his actions show her how much he cares. Chances are her smile says right now, right here in this moment I am happy and all I feel is pure joy and love and all is right with the world because I am loved and love. In this case I suspect her love and the love they share welled up into a smile and overflowed as laughter. The knowing wink aspect is… Read more »
BEAUTIFULLY said, Sweetsue
I’m a nearly lifelong artist and a fine art photographer. I don’t see any of the symbolism you’re pulling out of the photos. As I explained to Joanna, it makes no sense that we’re supposed react to these photos as being funny and silly UNLESS you’re accepting some very unflattering gender assumptions.
I think the symbolism is in the eye of the beholder to some degree, but I disagree that the only way these photos can cause a laugh or smile is by accepting some very unflattering gender assumptions. I haven’t seen any more of the series than what was shown in the embedded video clip, but all of them were whimsical and lighthearted. It wasn’t just, “Here’s a man in a tutu, isn’t that ridiculous?” It was a man in a tutu posing delicately in the snow, a man in a tutu caught in a midair jump on a ferry, a… Read more »
There is a history here with clowning in general where bodies are utilized (male or female-drag or not) to juxtapose dynamics for humor. A big man in a tiny tie, a tiny woman in an oversized suit (Lucy Ball comes to mind). Strange physical movements or facial expressions. There is comedy found in the grotesque or in the turning tables on the sublime. And using gender (like pink tutus usually associated with tiny female dancers) is a way to turn tables for comic effect. It does NOT mean ( to me anyway) that it is denigrating men, but that it… Read more »
I think his body contributes to the whimsy and humor of the photos, but not in a way that’s putting his body (or male bodies generally) down. The reason he started taking the photos (to make his wife with cancer laugh) makes them more beautiful when you know the backstory, but I think it would be a wonderful series even without that going on. I think it would also work if the model was some totally ripped hot-body type, but his averageness increases the everyman appeal. It reminds me of that guy who dances all over the world. It’s a… Read more »
Is anyone else wondering what the neighbours were thinking? O.O
That guy has a pair!
No not really because clearly he didn’t which is quite alright. “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch