A large and comprehensive exhibition, Masculinities at The Barbican explores the many aspects of what masculinity can mean, historically, sexually and culturally.
Jeremy Deller’s film of the life of Adrian Street , with a mural by Imelda Cox, documents his escape from a working class mining background and a brutal father to becoming a cross-dressing professional wrestler, reflecting the societal changes in Britain after the Second World War.
This incongruous photo by Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak taken in Afghanistan in 2002 caught my eye
as did this collection he made of photographs from Taliban-sanctioned photography studios of kohl-eyed fighters.
Straight men holding hands, whilst unusual to Western eyes, is considered quite unremarkable in South Asia, another example of different cultural associations of masculinity.
