went to the MoMA and if you haven’t been
there it’s either a place of great
beauty or you see like a painted square
on the wall and you’re questioning how
this is art and so what I saw was
there’s just a room where there’s a
string hanging from the ceiling to the
ground and somebody next to it and I
stare at this for like 10 minutes I’m
like this can’t be art it’s holding
something underneath the like a
chandelier or something and so
eventually I go up to the woman I’m said
is is this art I’m sorry I can’t tell
and she just slowly takes off her
glasses and looks at me and she’s like
we’re in an art museum of course it’s
art and so after I finished running away
because if you’ve never seen an angry
New Yorker you have an experienced fear
so I’m over shoot I can’t remember I
think was Andy Warhol which is also
debatably not art but I’m standing there
I’m just we’re in an art museum so
everything and there I’m trying to I’m
trying to work it out and it’s like one
of those puzzles that you’re given in
like the middle or lower school where
it’s like an apples of fruit and oranges
of fruit button Apple is not an orange
and I’m trying to I’m applying it to
this it’s like this is so much like
everyday things you know in we always do
that because we were people we like
organized things we we want to see
something fit into the slot neatly like
Legos are wonderful because you can make
them all like a yellow thing over here
red thing over here and they never have
to mix but the issue is that we’re going
around in a world of things that aren’t
like two categories it’s not not yes or
no it’s more of a spectrum we’re going
looking at things and we’re trying to
get to the common denominator but we’re
not looking at what the things actually
are and nothing’s more apparent with
this than gender and if you haven’t had
the chance there’s an absolutely
brilliant
special on National Geographic called
the gender revolution and it goes into
this and it’s beautiful if you haven’t
had the chance watch it I can’t remember
it’s free but if it’s not it’s well
worth your money but the issue is that
to society
specifically Western society there’s
always been male/female there’s nothing
else the issue is that what we’re
finding is that it’s not just these two
things it’s so much more complicated but
we’re trying to just convince it as much
as we can so that it’s never
everything’s in this place
anything that steps out of its place is
just wrong and you try to ignore that
and we’re finding that it’s nowhere near
that simple
it’s so much more there’s nothing that’s
that simple in the world and you find
that we’re giving arbitrary slots to
represent complex things like if you
think about it men are supposed to be
like manly and tough and you know rugged
but then you get down to stuff like boys
or blue pink as girls and there’s
absolutely no logic to that it’s people
decided long ago that boy masculine blue
girl feminine pink and it doesn’t make
any sense there’s no reason why it
should be like that but when you see a
newborn child if they’re a boy they’re
in blue and if they’re in pink they’re
if they’re big they’re a girl and even a
show like The Office has this point
where there’s a lady holding a baby and
Pam comes up to her and she says oh I
like your girl because it’s in pink and
the woman says no it’s a boy his
favorite color is pink and that’s
supposed to be this weird and confusing
moment but when you look back at it now
it doesn’t make any sense because why
can’t a boy’s favorite color be pink and
another thing is with makeup and visuals
and you’re looking at it and it’s men
never supposed to wear makeup women all
the time and you hardly ever with like
big movie stars when they go out to like
on the red carpet or whatever they’re
always wearing makeup and when it’s why
not is that why is that just for women
why what dictates that that’s not for
men and I’ve had people come up to me
when I’m wearing makeup or clothes like
this and they’ll say you should be
ashamed to be out today because that is
not what men should wear and it happens
almost all the time
you’re going around and you’re either
seeing people judging you and moving out
of the way so they don’t have to be near
you or they’re coming up to you and
saying that and luckily I’ve had so many
wonderful people and my brother is this
wonderful guy I dare you to find someone
to hate him he is ridiculous
but he’s wonderful and he came up to me
and he said look I don’t care if you’re
a brother or sister your sibling and I’m
always going to mess with you and then
he cheated in Mario Kart and that’s the
that’s the only conversation we’ve ever
had about it it
he just it’s not a big deal
and he exemplifies it shouldn’t be a big
deal but we’re trying to make it a big
deal because it doesn’t fit with our
little boxes and that’s what I want to
try to impart into you is that like
don’t when you see an issue or when you
just see anything in your daily life
don’t go oh this is blank or put it
wherever and your mind you shouldn’t do
that because we’re looking at things out
of face value as a 2d value what we need
to be doing is we need to be looking at
it and trying to figure out what this is
and why this is so next time that you
see a string hanging from a ceiling
don’t assume it’s art because it’s not
it’s something more [Applause]