a few years back I was invited to take part in the creation of a short film that was recorded and distributed for International women’s day ( Yes I was read as a woman.. but well… it’s for the political outcome is it, so I said yes). I was asked 9 questions, and their answers are as up-to-date as they were when I was asked them so I thought I’d share:
- What are you fighting for?
I am fighting for a society in which we replace inhibiting and oppressing gender stereotypes with a questioning, body-positive humanism.
2. What still needs to change?
A lot, but personally, I think what really needs to change is the everyday sexism in people’s heads. We might have reached a certain degree of equality in a general sense, but the old patriarchal ways of thinking persist in most peoples’ minds, men as well as women. We need to free ourselves and others of the many misbeliefs about gender. No person assigned female at birth ends up decorating herself with dress and make-up because she was biologically designed to do so and no person assigned male at birth goes to the gym because his biology tells him to.
3. Change is when…
Change is when women don’t feel obliged to put on or correct their make-up on the tube anymore, when they go to work, date or to friends.
Change is when a person assigned male at birth can wear clothes, that are associated with femaleness without judgement or stigma.
Change is when a person wearing a dress or a skirt is simply a human being wearing a dress or a skirt.
Real change is when finally the nuclear family stops the endless unconscious repetition of gender stereotyping.
