I Feel Myself Beautiful, The Metamorphoses of Body Performativity in The Transition to Wearing Dissident Underwear

Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality

Year: 2026

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I Feel Myself Beautiful, The Metamorphoses of Body Performativity in The Transition to Wearing Dissident Underwear

Guillermo Leon Ramirez-Martinez

ABSTRACT:

Over the last decade, designers and brands have emerged in various parts of the world, betting on a genderless consumer market. Moving away from the concept of unisex fashion, some direct their proposals to a primarily queer market, made up of people who seek to express their nonconformity with the binary system of sex and gender not only in outerwear but also in underwear.

These brands have pushed the transition from traditional masculinity towards one closer to femininity and seduction. Along the path of this transition lies, undoubtedly, the performativity of the bodies that wear this underwear, which becomes a vehicle that reinforces the identity of the people who wear it.

In Latin America, some emerging men’s lingerie designers and brands have become symbols of dissent, contributing to the transition of users seeking a gender expression that departs from the norm.

The aim of this study is to identify the different masculine performativities that emerge through a review of the collections of the Latin American brands Mesiehomo and Babyboy Lingerie, in order to trace the path of transition in male gender identity and expression through the use of genderless underwear.

Keywords: Genderless Fashion, New Masculinities, Gender Dissidence, Gender Identity, Gender Expression