Red Deer Reality Rant #67 - A Working Equality

Hello friends and Red Deerians! Happy Monday yet again and a holiday for most of us. Last weekend I did CentreFest and wrote about it in my last post. This past weekend I have been busy again with artwork, taking care of family pets, baking and a 4 hour, 5 course fancy dinner on Saturday at Tribe about which you will be able to read about soon this week here on the Brutal Reality Digest blog page, written and reviewed by Mike Wimmenhove. Until then, today’s post is about stereotypes and feeling the brunt of it myself by being female.

I have been working hard on my art career, although without quitting my day job. It is a long time consuming process, but in recent years has been starting to bear fruit. Someday I may even see a profit! It is very difficult to get by as a visual artist, and more so as a female. People seem to expect a girly subject matter from me, or something cutesy. I happen to know some male artists who do these subjects very well and I don’t think they should be gendered. As an artist, I want people to be able to appreciate my work too, without gender expectations. My profile on Instagram as well as here on BRD is just my first initial and my last name.

I am quite happy to be female, and am not ashamed of that fact. I do some very gendered things. I love cooking and baking. I enjoy crafts and making things. I like fashion and having my own sense of style. All of these things are often considered feminine, but there are a plethora of men who enjoy these things too, and some of them do these things in a masculine way. A few people have noticed that I also do these things in a masculine manner. But, to be clear, I am a straight woman and I have no wish to be male.

All I really want is to receive the same level of respect for my work and my artworks as any other gender without bias. My husband has often said that I expect too much from the world, but I really don’t see how. I push for equality for all people, all humans, and I can’t conceive of the world existing any other way or as of myself not being equal as a person to absolutely everyone else on this planet. Even if I am wrong, this is how I live, and it is my hope for humanity for us all to be equal. Maybe someday the world will change, or I will, but my bet is on a better world before I ever change my mind.

###