Welcome to The Pixel Project’s “30 For 30″ Father’s Day Campaign 2016! 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 5th annual 30 For 30 campaign and through it we will be publishing a short interview with a different Dad on each day of the month of June.
Our sixth “30 For 30″ 2016 Dad is Joey Johan from Malaysia.
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The Dad Bio
I am a proud father of one ridiculously handsome boy named Jared who is currently 1 year and 6 months old. I hold a senior position in a telecoms firm and enjoy the job, but between son and work, I am slowly embracing the concept of the “dad-bod”. I also remain a man-child inside and have not let go of my love for anime, comics, movies and video games. I have a love of all things geek and am also an avid collector of high end action figures, statues and lightsabres which fill up my entire home office like a museum display of nerdom.
1. What is the best thing about being a dad?
It is extremely difficult to describe…there are so many feelings involved that I have trouble putting it all into perspective. I guess it’s the feeling that with a child, you will always have someone who will be happy to see you at the end of a long hard day at work. Even if I feel have no one needs or cares about me, this little man loves me and is happy to see me. The feeling I get when I walk through the door at the end of a hard day at work and see my son smile at me and come running to me is indescribable.
Playing with him at the end of the day is a natural stress reliever; laughing, tickling and wrestling with my son makes all my adult problems go away, at least temporarily, because at that very moment, he is most important, he is there, he has been waiting and he needs me.
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 influenced the way you see and treat women and girls?
I will admit, I am my father to some extent. There are similarities in my behaviour, values and the way I act – we eventually become our parents in some form.
I grew up with 3 sisters (I was the only boy) and watched how my father treated them. He was always strict with all of us, but he always had a soft spot for all my sisters. He is very protective of my sisters but has always tried his best to be understanding of their needs (e.g. how he eventually let them study whatever they wanted, even when he disagreed deeply) and how he listens – my sisters literally use him daily as a sounding board for their problems – and how he always tries to help them in whatever way he can even when they refuse to take it (e.g. offering them help in career problems).
I respect how hard he has worked to give my mother and our family a comfortable life that allowed my mother the ability to retire early from her job when she wanted to.
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 strongly believe that the best way to prevent violence against women starts with oneself. Each of us here are role models for our children, our families, our friends, our colleagues and our society.
The best time to instil good values in someone is when they are children, and a lot of what they learn comes from observing their parents. I have noticed that many of my own values and the way I am is heavily influenced by my parents.
Teaching it in class, reading it in books, etc., has merit of course, but I believe it doesn’t have the same impact as compared to an impressionable child observing their parents’ behaviour and actions day in day out as they grow up. Hence if you are a father, brother and son, remember those younger than you, those who look up to you, they are watching…and learning.
It is up to ME to be a good man in hopes that my son will be better than I am someday.