This was such a great session with Sasha Damjanovski, I remembered some of the stuff he spoke about from last year and looked back over my notes from that session too. I feel like this came at the right time in my thought process and helped me really think and clarify to myself what I am trying to do, what are the unique things in all of that and how to focus on pushing the right stuff forward. There were valuable lessons on playing to the right audience also that will be useful when starting to approach new stakeholders.
When I have been feeling unsure about the direction of the project and I suppose really when I say that I mean also the eternal research question that is so paramount to MAAI. Not wanting to get too specific too quickly and a tendency to be too interested in pursuing too many things I find interesting have left me evasive at times to really finalise it or refine it. I ignored it for a while in fact. But this has led me down a path that allowed it to wax and wane a bit in my mind and I have become more comfortable with the idea that the question can be both ever evolving and specific at the same time.
With this and some other new perspectives on old decisions or ideas I have decided to stop worrying about trying to make the project so all encompassing. There is time for that eventually down the line. Right now I want to focus on the liminal space between the visuals/art and the responses that make it such a good tool for facilitation, facilitation of ideas, discourse, perspectives and experiences. Equally instead of trying to talk about big concepts of rape culture and patriarchy I will keep the focus now more on the engagement of a conversation about our collective cultural relationship with porn and its effect as sex ed on society.
Coming back to my point about language in an earlier post also I decided to change the name from Feminist Family Collective, something that implies a thing much larger than me at this point, is also a broad and all encompassing name that leaves me to open I think at this point to feeling like I have to do all the things and say all the stuff and have all the answers and resources etc I am capable of those things and have a large knowledge of the subject, but I am also not a “qualified” expert and I don’t pretend to be. I am not here to tell people what to do, how to parent, how to be a feminist or pretend that I am perfect at any of those things myself. Also to my previous post using the word Feminist online and IRL can put people off even wanting to engage. Now whilst I find this annoying and a little beside the point I do also agree that language is important. Not only will it be easier to navigate the inevitable evolution of the project by having a less specifically, I guess political? word in the name but also it will decrease the amount of bots sending me unsolicited gang bang pics.
I hope.
I am however considering the name Muva Art Luva, which is something that’s been swirling round my head for a while. I think the word Mother can be as potentially divisive as anything else up for debate but I don’t think it’s limiting and frankly I am getting really tired of always trying to appeal to everyone. Generally I find someone always has a problem somewhere and I don’t have to make that mine. I think at this point motherhood implies parenting and it’s always the women and mums who want to do this kind of work more happily and openly anyway. So instead of trying to name something that isn’t in existence as such yet I am naming what I have now.