Welcome to The Pixel Project’s “30 For 30″ Father’s Day Campaign 2019! 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 7th 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 third “30 For 30″ 2019 Dad is Eugene Hung from USA.
The Dad Bio
After a long career as a Christian minister, Eugene has worked for several years in the NGO and higher education sectors as an advocate for women’s rights and the prevention of relationship and sexual violence. He speaks at conferences across the U.S., writes for both print and online publications, and serves as a recurring guest on public radio. He writes about gender, race and parenting his two awesome daughters at FeministAsianDad.com.
1. What is the best thing about being a dad?
That is an extraordinarily hard question to answer, because there are so many wonderful things that come with being a dad!
My relationships with my daughters are among the best things, especially our love for each other. Being their dad has made me an emotionally and spiritually healthier person, as the demands of parenthood have shown me how I need to change and grow, challenging my innate self-centredness along the way.
These days, I’m especially enjoying the ability to share with my daughters things that I loved as a kid, like superhero stories and movies!
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’ attitudes towards women and girls. How has your father (or father figure) influenced the way you see and treat women and girls?
My dad treated my mom as an equal partner, never demanding that she follow his way of thinking. He often struggled to relate to my sister, especially in her teenage years, but he never stopped trying to connect with her on a deeper level. I remember how he would take her out to one-on-one lunches, showing how much he still valued her.
His legacy lives on in my own family; my own wife and I have an equal partnership in our relationship, and I strive to give both of my own daughters individual “daddy-daughter” time too.
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?
Dads and other father figures can be role models for how boys relate to women and girls, and that includes being involved together in activism!
It begins with teaching boys how to empathise with the oppression that girls and women experience, helping them to understand their own male privilege and how they can speak up as allies.
It also involves exposing boys to stories of girls and women who do great and heroic things, highlighting the struggle for equal rights and gender equality as a noble cause worth joining.