Trends & Identity

What if there was a way for men to experience the world through the «female gaze»? To perceive their surroundings with emotions that are branded as stereotypical female expressions of softness and vulnerability. «Radical Softness» is a new-age philosophy that attempts to institutionalize expressing one’s feelings as a strength rather than a weakness. Maleamorphose is a «radically soft» training-kit allowing cis-heterosexual men to feel and express all the emotions that are normally considered as weak and undesirable. It consists of five different contact lenses that each transmit a specific emotion with a «female» connotation such as compassion, love, sadness, fear and guilt.

«Toxic Masculinity» seems to be one of the main problems creating friction and unhappiness in cis-heterosexual relationships. Men not being allowed to express their vulnerability result in conflict and poor communication between partners. How can we eradicate gender roles and stereotypes and create a society where every man can present himself as sensitive and soft without his masculinity being questioned? Compelling men to train their emotional intelligence can morph their and our society‘s ideal of what it means to be a «strong man» and transforms showing weakness into a new strength.

The lenses are suspended in a solution that is made up of the hormones that correspond with each stereotypical female emotion. When putting them in, the hormones enter the body through the conjunctiva and enter the bloodstream transmitting a reaction in the brain and changing the recipient’s perception of the world around him. Radically transforming the way men see the world will result in a metamorphosis, leading them to express every emotion and respecting the strength that lies within being vulnerable.

Julia Fässler