The activity arises from a simple question: how much of the characteristics we attribute to the masculine and the feminine actually belongs to gender, and how much is instead the result of cultural and social conventions? Over time, many qualities – strength, care, sensitivity, authority, sweetness, courage, fragility, determination and many others – have been associated more frequently with one gender rather than the other. Today, as the concept of gender is increasingly considered in its complexity and fluidity, it can be interesting to make these associations visible and to try to transform and question them. The proposal takes its inspiration from the work and reflection of the artist Silvia Margaria and uses the flag as a symbolic and participatory element: a sign that can represent a belonging, but can also be modified, reinterpreted and relocated.
A collection of words is proposed: qualities, characteristics, ways of being or of acting that each person recognises as culturally attributed more often to one or the other gender. Each participant receives a small cardboard flag belonging to one of the two forms envisaged by the workshop.