Welcome to The Pixel Project’s “30 For 30″ Father’s Day Campaign 2018! In honour of Father’s Day, we created this campaign:
- To acknowledge the vital role dads play in families, cultures and communities worldwide.
- To showcase men from different walks of life who are fabulous positive non-violent and non-sexist male role models.
- To provide dads worldwide a positive platform to share ideas about stopping sexism, misogyny, and violence against women and girls.
This is our 6th annual 30 For 30 campaign and through it we will be publishing interviews with dads from across the world throughout the month of June.
Our sixth “30 For 30″ 2018 Dad is Taylor Grant from the USA.
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The Dad Bio
Taylor Grant is a Hollywood screenwriter, award-winning filmmaker and two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist. His work has been seen on network television, the big screen, the stage, the Web, as well as in comic books, newspapers, national magazines, anthologies and heard on the radio. He loves being a father and his favorite things to do with his son include hiking, deconstructing films, and watching his boy play basketball. Learn more about Taylor at www.taylorgrant.com
1. What is the best thing about being a dad?
The best (and worst) thing about being a dad is watching your child grow up. It’s a beautiful experience to witness their journey, and heartbreaking knowing it won’t last forever. You also receive the incredible gift of service. The great responsibility of raising a child forces you put someone else’s needs before your own at times. It is an opportunity to get out of your own head and focus your love, energy and attention on another human being. This is perhaps the greatest gift a child brings to their parent(s).
2. A dad is usually the first male role model in a person’s life and fathers do have a significant impact on their sons’ attitude towards women and girls. How has your father (or father figure) influenced the way you see and treat women and girls?
I had no real father figure in my life except for my mother, who raised me on her own.
Yet in some ways, it was a tremendous gift because this amazing woman helped shape my worldview. I was raised to have great respect for women, by watching my mother as she struggled and prevailed in a time when being a single mother was still rather unusual. Unfortunately, she died at the young age of 42, but her impact on me remains to this day. And it certainly influences all of my relationships with women. I actively leverage those views with my son, and he learns by watching my own interactions with women and how I speak about them.
3. Communities and activists worldwide are starting to recognise that violence against women is not a “women’s issue” but a human rights issue and that men play a role in stopping the violence. How do you think fathers and other male role models can help get young men and boys to take an interest in and step up to help prevent and stop violence against women?
I think the best way is through example. I had a very specific agenda when my son was born: to imbue him with the same respect for women that I have. We can’t shield them from the world forever, but we can lead by example.
Our kids learn from seeing, hearing, and even overhearing us. They don’t learn about values by simply telling them, but by upholding those values. Part of those values relate to empathy, compassion and taking an interest in the plight of others. If that foundation is built, then when a situation comes up in which there may be violence against women, the right thing to do is second nature.