A dangerous and intriguing woman

30″ x 30″ x 1.5″ acrylics on canvas.

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Do you have a hopeful distraction for when the world feels on fire?

Sometimes (like now!) teaching history is that for me. This new painting is a product of this distraction.

Let me explain…

Class: Gender in African history.
Assigned books:

Main theme: Colonial imposition of patriarchy – the imposition of strict rules about how to be a man or woman, and strict ideas about male superiority.

It wasn’t always this way on the continent… Patriarchy wasn’t indigenous. And African women didn’t behave like European women — African women challenged colonial rule.

Take Queen Lozikeyi. She led an anti-colonial war in Zimbabwe. White settlers didn’t know what to think of this powerful woman waging war, describing her as a “dangerous and intriguing woman.”

It’s all a bit existential – gender doesn’t have to be the way it is.

The idea that women are invented, or that females can be husbands is exciting! It means we can throw away limiting structures and create new ways of being.

These are the hopeful distractions I embrace in times like these.❤️