As you will notice #Imnot2015 is considerably smaller than the past two campaigns and this is because Oliver and I moved to South Korea. Shooting this campaign in a different country came with a whole host of challenges, the most obvious being differences in language. Nonetheless, shooting in three different locations in Seoul and Incheon we have managed to put together 9 powerful images. 

 

Once again it emerged that people do not like to be underestimated (#Imnot stupid) or put into boxes around ideas as to how they should behave as homosexuals (#Imnot a stereotype) or as women (#Imnot aggressive). For example, Hellena feels that her passion is misread as aggression because she is a woman but John believes he may be misread as a bully because he people find his appearance intimidating (#Imnot a bully). These illustrate how different expectations and practices of anger may be read differently for women and men.

 

Others made apparent how some words and assumptions carry implicit meanings and that these too are harmful. For example, Fergal challenges people's willingness to say things like "You don't seem gay" and mean it as a compliment when in actual fact it illustrates how deeply entrenched their ideas about homosexuality are. Anon, on the other hand highlights how pervasive the use of the male pronoun is when people speak and that it makes men the norm and women borderline figures and anomolies. 

 

Talking more about Korean experiences, Alex takes a broad swipe at the belief that to be different is to be wrong saying that while the Korean word "틀리다" means both different and wrong the two meanings must not be conflated with one another. Div tackles an inequality of a different kind, what she believes to be an overt tendency in Korea for employees to be underpaid and expected to work 'out of passion and duty to the country' saying she is not a volunteer worker and should be paid her fair wage. 

 

Two Korean women then discussed issues around marriage with one saying she is tired of being called "老처녀" (a negative word similar to that of spinster) when she has a bad day and having others attach her emotions to the fact that she is not married. H.J then challenged the idea that women must be obedient and subservient to their husbands (#Imnot obedient) saying defiantly that she will not be. 

 

This years words were very diverse and in combination with #Imnot2014 we see that gender cannot be discussed in isolation from other articulations of inequality whether they are financial (#Imnot a volunteer worker), racial (#Imnot a token black), and health (#Imnot mad #Imnot crazy).