Robert Sasarman
Dat Vinh Tran
Robert:
"When it comes to our gender or simply to our family, we cannot choose our sex nor our parents, this is something that we are born with. If we speak about rights, there have been a lot of differences between man and woman in history and even nowadays this difference can still be seen in our society.
How do you see this gender equality ? What does the term gender tell you ?
For example, in some countries here in Europe there have been a lot of problems lately when it comes about gender and equality and even in Romania where I come from, they wanted to ban the gender studies in all the education systems which caused a lot of protests, but in the end, it was not accepted.
In my opinion man and women should have the same rights in our society especially when it comes about jobs or payments."
How do you see this gender equality ? What does the term gender tell you ?
For example, in some countries here in Europe there have been a lot of problems lately when it comes about gender and equality and even in Romania where I come from, they wanted to ban the gender studies in all the education systems which caused a lot of protests, but in the end, it was not accepted.
In my opinion man and women should have the same rights in our society especially when it comes about jobs or payments."
"As you previously said, there is a huge difference between the countries and how this subject is approached, but I think this is a general issue even though in some more developed areas maybe is not that visible. Like you said about Vietnam, I can totally see this back home in Romania as well, same mentality and education given about equality, rights and how a woman or a man have their roles in society. Coming from a Communist dictatorship, I believe that this had a lot to do with the actual mentality, especially for our grandparents who are very hard to change and explain that society has changed, and we should all be treated equally, like two human beings. Me personally, I grew up in this kind of "traditional family" where the man was the "head" of the family and the woman was supposed to cook and wash but this changed with my parents and they always taught me that I should never have this ideology and I should always treat people equally.
Besides this, in Romania the church still has a huge influence in society which can have a huge impact in how people think, choose or just act. As few examples I could say that they wanted to ban all the possible marriages besides the "traditional family" which should be between a man and a woman, the fact that if you have a different orientation besides that, you have a "disease" and maybe the church could help you and so on. All this above were about to happen in few countries from Eastern Europe and they were approved in Poland, Hungary, and Russia but surprisingly in Romania the president didn't approve any of those and I'm happy to see that we might go into a better direction when it comes to our own life and the way we want to live.
Another interesting story which I only found out few years ago was that in Switzerland, which is one of the wealthiest and educated countries in Europe and always stood for its population and their needs, women were only allowed to vote after 1970's, and in some region only by late 1990!! being the last country in Europe that was banning such a fundamental right because of the gender but also because men where providing everything for the family and the woman were supposed to be home and not have the power of choice at such a high "level".
This was and it will still be one of the biggest problems of our civilization where people will be judged, marginalized, or even seen differently in society because of the color, nationality, gender or simply our own choices of how we want to be.
With that being said, I would like to portray this in a way of equality and acceptance, where there is no judgment about our preferences or the way we were born. "
Besides this, in Romania the church still has a huge influence in society which can have a huge impact in how people think, choose or just act. As few examples I could say that they wanted to ban all the possible marriages besides the "traditional family" which should be between a man and a woman, the fact that if you have a different orientation besides that, you have a "disease" and maybe the church could help you and so on. All this above were about to happen in few countries from Eastern Europe and they were approved in Poland, Hungary, and Russia but surprisingly in Romania the president didn't approve any of those and I'm happy to see that we might go into a better direction when it comes to our own life and the way we want to live.
Another interesting story which I only found out few years ago was that in Switzerland, which is one of the wealthiest and educated countries in Europe and always stood for its population and their needs, women were only allowed to vote after 1970's, and in some region only by late 1990!! being the last country in Europe that was banning such a fundamental right because of the gender but also because men where providing everything for the family and the woman were supposed to be home and not have the power of choice at such a high "level".
This was and it will still be one of the biggest problems of our civilization where people will be judged, marginalized, or even seen differently in society because of the color, nationality, gender or simply our own choices of how we want to be.
With that being said, I would like to portray this in a way of equality and acceptance, where there is no judgment about our preferences or the way we were born. "
Dat:
"I think that we both look from the same perspective. To me, I just see the term of gender in the making baby process, it shows clearly the exclusive right of each gender such as women will provide eggs and man will provide sperm. Beyond this term, man and woman should have the same right of choosing what they want to without social prejudices.
However, we all know this is just an idea, in fact, difference countries would have different way of how people look at gender. For example, in Vietnam, the majority of people still thinking that the main role of women is just to take care of children, being housewife. In other side, the roll of man in is to go out to make living for the family.
Having said that, from my observation in the context of Vietnam about gender nowadays, more and more women realized that they can do more than just marriage and housework, the society has began to recognize and take a different view of the role of women.
For this assignment, I am planning to photograph my mom, as since my parent divorced, my mom has been playing two roll as a mom and a father. She has proved that she is not just good at taking care of the family but also success in her business, being independent without help of a men.
How about you, how would you approach to this project?"
"I think that we both look from the same perspective. To me, I just see the term of gender in the making baby process, it shows clearly the exclusive right of each gender such as women will provide eggs and man will provide sperm. Beyond this term, man and woman should have the same right of choosing what they want to without social prejudices.
However, we all know this is just an idea, in fact, difference countries would have different way of how people look at gender. For example, in Vietnam, the majority of people still thinking that the main role of women is just to take care of children, being housewife. In other side, the roll of man in is to go out to make living for the family.
Having said that, from my observation in the context of Vietnam about gender nowadays, more and more women realized that they can do more than just marriage and housework, the society has began to recognize and take a different view of the role of women.
For this assignment, I am planning to photograph my mom, as since my parent divorced, my mom has been playing two roll as a mom and a father. She has proved that she is not just good at taking care of the family but also success in her business, being independent without help of a men.
How about you, how would you approach to this project?"
"The fact like you say, it will be always one of the biggest problems of our mankind. But as I mentioned before, things are changing, for example in Vietnam, I can tell nowadays more and more female are working hard and they event holding a high position in a company or the system of a country or in society.
At the end of the day, we are just human and we are just in a form that we could not choose, but it can't say anything about our ability right? Gender is just a vague term in human daily life, except for sex. Beyond that, gender does not prove that man can do well and women can't and vice versa."
At the end of the day, we are just human and we are just in a form that we could not choose, but it can't say anything about our ability right? Gender is just a vague term in human daily life, except for sex. Beyond that, gender does not prove that man can do well and women can't and vice versa."
"At the beginning, My idea was set up sense for the photograph this week, but thing didn't follow my plan as my mom is busy this weekend so I could bot arrange a shooting with her. Thus I m gonna use an archive picture of my mom. I choose the one which i photographed her when we on vacation together."