Empowerment and body acceptance is for EVERY person.

Boudoir is a genre of portraiture that is often presented as being predominantly targeted towards women. And it absolutely is for women. It’s an experience that aims to create a space of empowerment, sensuality, confidence, self-love and body acceptance. 

But these concepts aren’t exclusively relevant to women, not by a long shot. They’re equally salient and important for men, and people who fall across the entire spectrum of gender identification. Empowerment, self-love, body acceptance… these are concepts that resonate for humans across every kind of spectrum, be it physical shape, age, ethnicity, gender, etc 

There’s a phrase known as ‘dudeoir’ floating around the industry at present, which I feel fails to fully encapsulate the intimacy, beauty, and bravery of male-identifying individuals who partake in a boudoir session. When we have shoots with these clients, it’s no less an experience of intimate portraiture than it is for the women that we photograph. It should be equally empowering… equally sensual… and equally about both strength and vulnerability. All people should know that they have permission to feel those things, without any judgment from others. To tap into the parts of themselves that they might often keep private, or which not be represented and normalised in mainstream media. The parts that they might only ever share with a very close loved one, or at times, never have the opportunity to share at all.

The current spaces where men and gender-diverse individuals can speak openly about their body image difficulties remains limited. Expectations of stoicism and strength remain firmly in place still, although the tides are slowly beginning to shift for the better. But it’s something that requires work. It’s a privilege to be able to do our part, and to create a safe space for people of every gender identity to have the experience of a boudoir session. But it also takes people not using terms like ‘dudeoir’, which presents intimate portraiture of men as something of an amusing joke... a comical version of so-called ‘legitimate’ boudoir photography that females are allowed to engage in. 

When Jasper and I were first starting out in this genre, we searched the internet far and wide for inspiration where the subject was male or non-female-identifying. Although it’s unbelievably wonderful to see such a huge array of body shapes and sizes when it comes to intimate portraiture for women, we ran into quite significant difficulties when attempting to step outside of this realm. There were some photographs of men (often those which would fall into the category of fashion/underwear photography with professional models), but there was nowhere near the level of representation of different shapes and sizes that we found for women. In fact, one single body type was largely all that we came across. And although there’s nothing wrong at all with people who possess that kind of physique, showing just one particular version of beauty does little to provide an inclusive and safe space that honours the fact that our differences are what make us truly and uniquely beautiful. 

Every human deserves to feel empowered, sexy and confident. Every human also deserves to know that it’s ok to struggle with things sometimes. Sharing in the struggle is a fundamental part of what makes us human, and allows us to remain connected to one another. As the wonderful Brene Brown stated, “People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability, and tell the truth about their stories, are the real badasses.”

I’d like to give a final shout-out to the man behind the lens for most of our clients, Jasper, who has been brave enough to step in front of the camera countless times (as you’ll see in this post). I’m so proud of him for not only constantly striving to create space for people of every gender to feel amazing in front of the camera, but for stepping into that space of vulnerability himself.

Talia x