Welcome to The Pixel Project’s “30 For 30″ Father’s Day Campaign 2018! In honour of Father’s Day, we created this campaign:
- To acknowledge the vital role dads play in families, cultures and communities worldwide.
- To showcase men from different walks of life who are fabulous positive non-violent and non-sexist male role models.
- To provide dads worldwide a positive platform to share ideas about stopping sexism, misogyny, and violence against women and girls.
This is our 6th annual 30 For 30 campaign and through it we will be publishing interviews with dads from across the world throughout the month of June.
Our eleventh “30 For 30″ 2018 Dad is Eric Nathanson-Flowers from the USA.
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The Dad Bio
I’m a married father of one daughter who works as a project manager at a software company in Austin, Texas. In my free time, I enjoy great conversations, cooking, listening to podcasts, reading (mostly current events), and watching pro wrestling (yes, I know it’s fake).
1. What is the best thing about being a dad?
Seeing my daughter (8 years old) grow and change. I love seeing her pick up a new skill or take simple ideas and turn them into something more complex.
2. A dad is usually the first male role model in a person’s life and fathers do have a significant impact on their sons’ attitude towards women and girls. How has your father (or father figure) influenced the way you see and treat women and girls?
I’m honestly not sure how my dad influenced my attitudes toward girls as we weren’t very emotionally close. If anything, I was more often surrounded by women (mother, sister, female friends and family) and the idea of all these women I was close to not being given the same opportunities or respect as me or other men never made much sense to me.
By college, I’d become an ardent feminist and very closely identified with the idea of gender equality. In this case, I might have benefited from NOT having a strong male influence where I might have learned to perpetuate patriarchal values.
3. Communities and activists worldwide are starting to recognise that violence against women is not a “women’s issue” but a human rights issue and that men play a role in stopping the violence. How do you think fathers and other male role models can help get young men and boys to take an interest in and step up to help prevent and stop violence against women?
I think most men are simply unaware of the common experiences of women, including risk of violence, lower pay, gendered expectations/limitations, etc. With the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, we saw men become a lot more aware of behaviours women have to deal with (e.g. catcalling, sexual expectations, threat of violence, etc.) that those men may have been oblivious to. Men can and should teach boys about:
- The experiences of women and how men are contributing- women tend to be more frequently targeted for sexual harassment/abuse and often are not believed. Also, that sexual/emotional/verbal abuse is MUCH more likely caused by someone they know, not some shadowy figure hiding in the bushes.
- How gender affects men/boys- gendered expectations may be different for men than women, but they limit men in many ways as well. Most men don’t fit the expectations set for men and often leaves them stunted emotionally, mentally, empathetically and other ways because those are not things that men are supposed to do.
If they understand the above items, then it can become much easier to identify their own behaviors that may contribute to a culture that perpetuates violence against women.