Welcome to The Pixel Project’s Voices Of Dads Against VAW blog interview series! This series takes our original 30 For 30 Father’s Day interview series to the next level by opening this interview platform all year round to dads worldwide with one (1) or more dad interviews published per month.
We created this interview series:
- 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.
To date, over 150 dads have completed this simple yet thought-provoking interview. If you are a dad who is interested, you can fill in the interview form here.
Our second Voices of Dads interview of 2024 is with Andrew Bockhorst from the U.S.
Picture courtesy of Andrew Bockhorst.
The Dad Bio:
I’m a former archaeologist, cancer survivor, and longtime fan of horror. In 2023, I picked up my extended family and moved from Massachusetts to Italy, where my 8-year-old son is acquiring dual citizenship and learning Italian. We’re currently adjusting to our new lives and travelling when we have the chance.
1. What is the best thing about being a Dad?
The best thing about being a dad is helping the kid I love navigate his way through life and seeing him turning into a caring, confident and very funny guy. I love seeing how he draws the attention, affection and care from other family members and friends, and the positive effect he has on them. I love hearing him get excited about things he’s learned in school and about friends he’s made. Inevitably, I think of myself at his age, and how much more he’s seeing and learning about the world than I did. Sometimes he’ll break my heart, though: he just hated The Empire Strikes Back.
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 think primarily, my father and other male role models in my childhood communicated respect toward women by their own interactions with them. While my parents’ marriage dissolved while I was in my teens, their relationship appeared to be a good partnership. There were arguments, but nothing close to violence.
Also, one of my best friends was a teenaged neighbour who was delightfully charismatic and adventurous. He made a huge impression on me at a young age, and never uttered a misogynous word in my presence.
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?
It starts with the father’s/male role model’s own attitude toward women, and what behaviour they model toward women for their boys, I think. Acting respectful in my own family, teaching my son to do the same, and speaking up when we see disrespect and violence are things I can do.
Also, boys have to be taught to reject the idea of dismissing female empowerment and representation, to not roll their eyes at media showing strong female figures and characters. Exposing them to stories and biographies featuring such figures and enthusiastically holding them up as people to be admired might go some distance in combatting the moribund old misogynist culture we’ve inherited.