Justice. Equality. Feminism. Human rights.
CreativeMornings Lisbon August event was about these huge and powerful concepts, about a subject that is still actual, unfortunately. The sexual harassment suffered mostly by women in Portugal. It’s present in our society, in our families, through our friends, and most importantly it is still present in our action and words. And this shouldn’t go on.
So, on the last Friday of August, the morning started with another amazing CreativeMornings event hosted by Beta-i with a nice venue, particularly the balcony with a view to the city of Lisbon, and a marvellous breakfast, co-provided by Allways.
We had a full-house and the atmosphere during the breakfast was amazing, everyone chatting with each other, eating something good and drinking the expected morning coffee, so characteristic of CreativeMornings.
To talk about Justice and Equality we had the #NãoéNormal movement, with Ana Esteves and Diogo Faro. They started by presenting this movement, how it started and what it aims to be. Diogo was the one doing this presentation with his sense of humour reflected in his speaking as he is a known Portuguese comedian. First, as a man, Diogo never truly thought about how it is to be a woman at school, at work, at public transportations… How women can suffer from being observed, some comments from their bosses or just some kind of pick up line in the street that is everything but that… At some point, some months ago, he decided to do some humoristic work about these types of sexual behaviours of minor importnace and how they are so frequent within our society. Through his social media, Diogo asked women to share some story they have lived concerning this subject. He wasn’t expecting more than 30 testimonials… But he got more than 200…! He continued to receive messages sharing stories of sexual harassments and that made him understand that something had to be done, something that overcame his initial idea, that something must change. This is not normal!
So, he met with some friends, Ana included, and they created #NãoéNormal, a movement to promote gender equality and to deconstruct acts of sexism that are too much rooted in our society. This has been quite a process for Ana, Diogo and the other co-founders as they understood and gained conscience that each one of them is also part of the problem. Não é Normal is not particularly targeted for rapists, it is targeted for the “normal people”, it aims to help enculturate new and small daily behaviours that could change society mindset. What this movement does, as a call for action, is sharing ideas through social media and going to schools to promote debates about this among the youngsters. Essentially it is about getting conscious about these issues, make everyone think about them and understand how each one of us is part of the problem. And then, they hope, get to change something: some acts, some sayings, some prejudices.
It starts with small things… Society gained ideas that are spreading this issue, such as “you’re a lady, you must know how to cook” or “bad driver? Must be a women” … These ideas that grow with us… And must definitely change!
After Diogo presentation, Ana tried to make some debate, promoting audience questions. For her, this is a matter to discuss, to make everyone think about it. That is the only way to make a change. There were a lot of questions and shares, which truly made everyone understand how real it is, how this is something that everyone should think and care about.
This month theme was serious and somehow tough. CreativeMornings event was a place for shares, for thinking, for understanding the urgent need of justice and gender equality. August event was a time for networking, as always, for bonding and for social impact discussions. Always full of creative minds and inspiring people, in an innovative and inspirational place as Beta-i, where startups are accelerated and launched to create impact. We couldn’t think of a better way to end August month as with this inspiring, touching and reflective event!
Justice is about true equality, when man and women are treated as equals, having the same rights. It’s about knowing that whatever you say can, and most certainly will, affect the other person and will enter their own individual space. We should all think about this and gain consciousness that through our lives we had situations when we felt as victims and other where somehow, we contributed to these minor sexual behaviours. We should all care. Something must change. This is not normal.
Text by Ana Sousa
Photos by Eglė Duleckytė and Maria Narciso
