Defiance of binaries
Women have been seeking emancipation for as long as homo sapiens have existed.
The right to be sovereign. To make choices about our bodies, our sexual expression, beauty, financial independence. The ability to be seen as equal in capacity in most things, particularly intellectually. Generally not as physically strong, yet emotionally stronger.
To be given the same rights and access as our male counterparts.
This simple binary rights war is still far from being resolved. Throw into the mix the many shades that blur definitive binary codes, and the conversation has much to do before all-humans-are-seen-as-equal-and-different is the world we live in.
As someone born with a clear sense of my own sexuality, one that conforms with the long-held traditions of my world, a woman who is attracted to men, living in a world where this was just the way things are seen as ‘normal’, I did not think about the rainbow colours that live between the easy male/female choices until the last two decades.
It was a 2012 speech given by Lana Wachowski, of the Matrix Trilogy fame, that tipped my world into the multi-expressing diversity of sexuality. This speech remains one of my favourite speeches of all time.
My partner and I re-watched Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s glorious Sense8 series these last few weeks. Over the course of the series, the mixed-up turned around diverse scenarios of sexuality and identity were so normal, so healthy, so beautiful, that they lost their register of being different.
I suspect this was the point.
Perhaps art like this can do the same for other elements of our divisive human issues. Racism. Physical, emotional, intellectual difference in ability. Humans affect on our home planet. Syntropic enterprise.
Art that takes us on an immersive journey from ‘this is different and I struggle with that difference’ to ‘this is delightfully normal, isn’t the world so amazing for offering us such rich diversity?’
Photo taken June 14th 2021
