How do you change a society?
Every day a new 'metoo'-story comes out in the news, where men behave as predators on women as their due prey. In 2020 I exhibited Circle of Life, a story in six triptychs, about how everything is in motion in a process of action and reaction.
How do you change a society?
Change usually comes in small steps, as is the fight for equality between men and women. Since the 19th century, several feminist movements have focused on the age-old established discriminatory norms that normalize, accept and justify sexual violence against women and have forced women into a role of subordination.
Patriarchal societies are evolutionarily new. They only came into existence about 12,000 years ago, with the agricultural revolution, when farmlands had to be worked with physical force and possessions such as land were handed over into the male line.
Paintings of Eve tempting Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, has influenced the position of women throughout the ages. Examples from the Bible were used to warn of the pernicious craftiness of women; with their 'weak nature' an easy prey for the devil. Absolute low point was the period of persecuting 'witches'. Pieter Bruegel created the image of a witch with broom, kettle, fireplace and cat, which is still in use today.
Change starts at the source.
Raising children is complicated, because every child is different, with its own vulnerability, strengths, possibilities and shortcomings. It is important for your child's emotional welfare to let it choose its own toys, clothes or outline for the future.
I've always been an advocate for a gender-neutral upbringing, but reality is unruly. Labeling boys and girls from a very young age is still very ingrained in our society (think of the current trend of a gender reveal party).
Let's give our children the space they deserve without labeling them right at the start of life as a young 'boy' or 'girl'.
