Trang Minh Hoang - we are all the same
Ana Lucía Fernández
trang:
"We have witnessed a lot of events along the long history that took place as a voice for women's rights.
"We have witnessed a lot of events along the long history that took place as a voice for women's rights.
Luckily I have grown up and been on my way becoming a woman without any noticeable unfair stigma from the society or at least from people around me. Therefore, I have never really thought of gender seriously. It is just some fleeting thoughts occasionally turning up when I see unfair occurrences to women happen in the news or from the stories I am told.
However, I am totally impressed by the idea that came up when I and my friend talked about the LGBT topic. My friend said that why we did not see each other simply as their 'human being' and love the way they are. It is no need to classify people into genders when it is love. They are just the way they are. Those words to me were truly beautiful so I think I will take photos based on this idea."
However, I am totally impressed by the idea that came up when I and my friend talked about the LGBT topic. My friend said that why we did not see each other simply as their 'human being' and love the way they are. It is no need to classify people into genders when it is love. They are just the way they are. Those words to me were truly beautiful so I think I will take photos based on this idea."
Ana Lucia:
"Gender is a theme that I am particulary interested in. As a woman of color, I have felt my gender not only as a defining part of my personality, but also as burden. Misoginy and xenophobia intersect in a way that has made me question everything about my behavour, my looks, my body and my interests. Latina women are percieved to be submisive but jealous, sexy but prude, silent and loud. And neither is never enough. This image has never been me, but I always lacked representation, so i never fully understood what it meant. I learnt to imitate manerisms from the woman around me, and tryed to blend and assimilate. But lets be real, I was not like the women in my enviroment.
I have been called many things: Tiny, cute, exotic, mulata*, monkey, half breed... All meant to dehumanize me, sexualize me or take away my womanhood. Being mixed means I am never enough feminine in their eyes, because my body and skin are not the standard they want me to be. The world has this images in their minds of what we are meant to do, how we are meant to look and what we are supposed to say, and you are punished in a way or another for deviating.
I have never fully questioned my gender identity, but I have thought about how I perform it. I like to challenge the ideas that have been impose on us about how a woman is like, and every morning I consider carefully what kind of woman I want to show that day. Gender norms are constricting and I believe that the only way to get rid of them, is by playing around them. I personaly prefer to blend in the background than to be out there, but I admire those who challenge gender expectations and dare to be their own self without following the norm. Binarism should be left in 2020 and we should embrace a more neutral society, where everybody is whatever they want to be.
*Comes from the Spanish or Portuguese term for ‘young mule’. A mule is a hybrid mix of a horse and a donkey. This term is derogatory in its use to depict people of mixed race or people of dual descent, most often of an enslaved Black female and a White man; mixed race women were often more privileged than the enslaved from Africa but still treated as second-class citizens; the term ‘mulatto’ was commonly used in the 18th century but is now considered derogatory and unacceptable today."
"Gender is a theme that I am particulary interested in. As a woman of color, I have felt my gender not only as a defining part of my personality, but also as burden. Misoginy and xenophobia intersect in a way that has made me question everything about my behavour, my looks, my body and my interests. Latina women are percieved to be submisive but jealous, sexy but prude, silent and loud. And neither is never enough. This image has never been me, but I always lacked representation, so i never fully understood what it meant. I learnt to imitate manerisms from the woman around me, and tryed to blend and assimilate. But lets be real, I was not like the women in my enviroment.
I have been called many things: Tiny, cute, exotic, mulata*, monkey, half breed... All meant to dehumanize me, sexualize me or take away my womanhood. Being mixed means I am never enough feminine in their eyes, because my body and skin are not the standard they want me to be. The world has this images in their minds of what we are meant to do, how we are meant to look and what we are supposed to say, and you are punished in a way or another for deviating.
I have never fully questioned my gender identity, but I have thought about how I perform it. I like to challenge the ideas that have been impose on us about how a woman is like, and every morning I consider carefully what kind of woman I want to show that day. Gender norms are constricting and I believe that the only way to get rid of them, is by playing around them. I personaly prefer to blend in the background than to be out there, but I admire those who challenge gender expectations and dare to be their own self without following the norm. Binarism should be left in 2020 and we should embrace a more neutral society, where everybody is whatever they want to be.
*Comes from the Spanish or Portuguese term for ‘young mule’. A mule is a hybrid mix of a horse and a donkey. This term is derogatory in its use to depict people of mixed race or people of dual descent, most often of an enslaved Black female and a White man; mixed race women were often more privileged than the enslaved from Africa but still treated as second-class citizens; the term ‘mulatto’ was commonly used in the 18th century but is now considered derogatory and unacceptable today."