Eduard Michalko
Minh-Hoang Nguyen
Eduard:
"I come from a small country in Europe, an even smaller town in eastern Slovakia. Growing up in such a city means doing things that everyone in the same city does. Dress more or less the same, have the same interests, listen to a similar style of music.
There are about 4,000 inhabitants in this city, most of them strongly religious and, as usual, I became a strong religious at a certain age of my life. I read the Bible during Mass in the church, I visited the church very often, I served in the church, and I was also for a time in the club of young people who met every week and freely discussed about God.
As we already know, topics such as gender, marriage, sexual intercourse, I learned more or less with the help of the Bible and what the pastor said, which according to God is right. So my attitude that time was very simple, the couple is a woman and a man, sexual intercourse is to take place after the wedding, and if God has united love, then only he, no courts, no lawyer can take it.
In this city where I grew up, people liked to make fun of other sexual orientations, pointing people at them, pointing fingers at them and making fun of them, sometimes it caught me or other people, for example at school. After moving to the capital, where I studied and worked, it was during this job that I met a person who was a homosexual, that friend helped me acclimatize to work and integrate me into the team to make it easier for me to work, I can say that he became one of my best friends, at the time a few years ago but also in the present.
I started to understand that the people of my city live in a kind of bubble, but that bubble is wrong. So I was wrong too.
In recent years, things specifically on this topic have moved faster and faster, and I think in the right direction. I like the direction it is going.
In my photo we can see 2 cherries, but one pair. The couple will still be made up of two people, and whether it's a woman with a woman, a man with a man or a man with a woman, or anyone with anyone, it doesn't matter so much, it will still be a couple holding, supporting each other.
I chose the fruit of the cherry because they have been a symbol of gender, virginity, etc. since the 16th century, according to the quality of cherries in the season, it was known whether, for example, many children would be born and other “mystical” things.
In today's century, with more current issues such as sexual abuse or sexual rape, cherry is also a symbol of the fight against sexual abuse, as cherries can be picked, busted, broken, copped, gotten and cracked. I hope this problem disappears and resolves faster than I think.
Fruit itself, may suggest passion and desire, sexual desire; like the apple in Eden, fruit is a sign of sensuality, as well as being a key link in the cycle of botanical reproduction. On the other hand I see two beautiful cherries, shining, gently touched by sun, soft, full of joy and holding together."
"I come from a small country in Europe, an even smaller town in eastern Slovakia. Growing up in such a city means doing things that everyone in the same city does. Dress more or less the same, have the same interests, listen to a similar style of music.
There are about 4,000 inhabitants in this city, most of them strongly religious and, as usual, I became a strong religious at a certain age of my life. I read the Bible during Mass in the church, I visited the church very often, I served in the church, and I was also for a time in the club of young people who met every week and freely discussed about God.
As we already know, topics such as gender, marriage, sexual intercourse, I learned more or less with the help of the Bible and what the pastor said, which according to God is right. So my attitude that time was very simple, the couple is a woman and a man, sexual intercourse is to take place after the wedding, and if God has united love, then only he, no courts, no lawyer can take it.
In this city where I grew up, people liked to make fun of other sexual orientations, pointing people at them, pointing fingers at them and making fun of them, sometimes it caught me or other people, for example at school. After moving to the capital, where I studied and worked, it was during this job that I met a person who was a homosexual, that friend helped me acclimatize to work and integrate me into the team to make it easier for me to work, I can say that he became one of my best friends, at the time a few years ago but also in the present.
I started to understand that the people of my city live in a kind of bubble, but that bubble is wrong. So I was wrong too.
In recent years, things specifically on this topic have moved faster and faster, and I think in the right direction. I like the direction it is going.
In my photo we can see 2 cherries, but one pair. The couple will still be made up of two people, and whether it's a woman with a woman, a man with a man or a man with a woman, or anyone with anyone, it doesn't matter so much, it will still be a couple holding, supporting each other.
I chose the fruit of the cherry because they have been a symbol of gender, virginity, etc. since the 16th century, according to the quality of cherries in the season, it was known whether, for example, many children would be born and other “mystical” things.
In today's century, with more current issues such as sexual abuse or sexual rape, cherry is also a symbol of the fight against sexual abuse, as cherries can be picked, busted, broken, copped, gotten and cracked. I hope this problem disappears and resolves faster than I think.
Fruit itself, may suggest passion and desire, sexual desire; like the apple in Eden, fruit is a sign of sensuality, as well as being a key link in the cycle of botanical reproduction. On the other hand I see two beautiful cherries, shining, gently touched by sun, soft, full of joy and holding together."
Hoang:
"I have a certain ambiguity regarding gender. I believe that we, as a whole, contain both masculinity and femininity and it is the balance between these two according to each person's own psychology and choices that make us responsive and true to ourselves. It is no coincidence that at one point many of the mind's illness was attributed to sexual troubles, an attitude continued even now. Unfortunately, the current society is nothing conducive to such equilibrium. Men are expected to be masculine and women feminine, all regardless of individuality. As such, men found themselves disconnected from emotions, blindly glued to masculine values such as the pursue of materials. On the other hand, women are pushed backstage, taking care of the family and children, discouraged from more ambitious goals comparable to men's. A sexist norm, therefore, hurts all of us by forcing us to be different than who we are.
Personally, I view myself as having a good balance of both masculinity and feminity, not only that they are comfortable with each other, they are also about equal parts. It was in 2015 when I started growing my hair long that I also started to grow into this feminity of mine. The longer my hair got, the more I enjoyed my femininity. I started wearing more colorful clothes, I started to enjoy the moments when random strangers mistook me for a woman.
I also grew softer. I also found a direction to live by, which is to be as gentle as I could. Paradoxically, this growth of my feminity is in direct proportion with my masculinity. Think about it, it's the strong people who can afford to be gentle. As such, in order to be as gentle as I could, I have to get as strong as I could, mentally, emotionally, physically. The more I nurture my feminity, the more my masculinity benefits. It's nice.
The picture I have chosen for this assignment encapsulates the feminity I have. It prominently displays my long hair of course. More importantly, a dear friend told me that the picture gave her the impression that I'm someone precious, soft, and vulnerable and because of that she wants to protect me. Astoundingly, those words came from a very frail, younger female friend."
"I have a certain ambiguity regarding gender. I believe that we, as a whole, contain both masculinity and femininity and it is the balance between these two according to each person's own psychology and choices that make us responsive and true to ourselves. It is no coincidence that at one point many of the mind's illness was attributed to sexual troubles, an attitude continued even now. Unfortunately, the current society is nothing conducive to such equilibrium. Men are expected to be masculine and women feminine, all regardless of individuality. As such, men found themselves disconnected from emotions, blindly glued to masculine values such as the pursue of materials. On the other hand, women are pushed backstage, taking care of the family and children, discouraged from more ambitious goals comparable to men's. A sexist norm, therefore, hurts all of us by forcing us to be different than who we are.
Personally, I view myself as having a good balance of both masculinity and feminity, not only that they are comfortable with each other, they are also about equal parts. It was in 2015 when I started growing my hair long that I also started to grow into this feminity of mine. The longer my hair got, the more I enjoyed my femininity. I started wearing more colorful clothes, I started to enjoy the moments when random strangers mistook me for a woman.
I also grew softer. I also found a direction to live by, which is to be as gentle as I could. Paradoxically, this growth of my feminity is in direct proportion with my masculinity. Think about it, it's the strong people who can afford to be gentle. As such, in order to be as gentle as I could, I have to get as strong as I could, mentally, emotionally, physically. The more I nurture my feminity, the more my masculinity benefits. It's nice.
The picture I have chosen for this assignment encapsulates the feminity I have. It prominently displays my long hair of course. More importantly, a dear friend told me that the picture gave her the impression that I'm someone precious, soft, and vulnerable and because of that she wants to protect me. Astoundingly, those words came from a very frail, younger female friend."