Fashion

Pri Bertucci, CEO of the [SSEX BBOX] project, about inclusion and diversity in fashion


São Paulo – During
the Trama Affetiva event (about circular economy, upcycling and diversity)
that took place last month in São Paulo, there was also a Fashion and
Activism debate which was attended by Pri Bertucci. Bertucci is CEO of
[SSEX BBOX], which seeks to visualize the issues of gender and sexuality in
public life and the workplace. After the debate, two major Brazilian
fashion companies contacted [SSEX BBOX] and are currently working out how
to train their HR – Human Relations departments about diversity and
inclusion.

FashionUnited: When was the [SSEX BBOX] project conceived? How is it
structured?

Pri Bertucci: “[SSEX BBOX] is a social justice project that aims to put
a spotlight on gender and sexuality. It began in 2011 with a set of
educational web-documentaries that explore sexuality in order to promote
social change based on Human Rights principles. The project has two S’s and
two B’s because it started in the cities of São Paulo and San Francisco,
Berlin and Barcelona. As a result, the project eventually broadened its
scope to include other branches such as the [SSEX BBOX] International
Conference, held annually in various cities; the Trans Pride March, which
celebrated its 2nd edition this year in São Paulo; Queer Brazil; the
[DIVERSITY BBOX JOBS], that connects job openings with the minority
population; [DIVERSITY] and [SOCIAL BBOX], an incubator of LGBTQIA+ people
projects.”

“The two main events that [SSEX BBOX] holds annually are the Trans Pride
March, which will celebrate its third edition on June 12, 2020 in São
Paulo; and an International Conference [SSEX BBOX], which will hold its 5th
edition this year, and will take place for the first time in Paris on
October 18,19 and 20, to discuss various issues on the current political
landscape and how they affect LGBTQIA+ society. Social activists will
attend along with trans Brazilian model, Lea T.”

“Since our participation in the Fashion and Activism debate at the Trama
Affetiva festival and given the fact that fashion companies are now seeking
us out as a result, we are starting with the development of a project
specifically for the fashion industry.”

What initiatives has the project undertaken?

”In 2017, an online catalog was created to map the queer art scene in
Brazil. It has a page for artists to use like a portfolio to create their
own pages with releases, photos, social media portfolio and contact
details. This catalog proves very useful for our clients and brands that
would like to hire LGBTQIA+ artists but don’t know where to find them. We
have a variety of performance artists, visual artists, musicians and many
more.”

“We have created an online platform called E-LEARNING Courses, where we
develop exclusive videos for our business clients and individuals. Thus, we
bring all this expertise we have acquired over the past 10 years of [SSEX
BBOX] projects around the world together and implement it in online
courses.”

Recently, luxury brands like Chanel have created C-suite roles for Diversity and
Inclusion
. Two years ago, Brazilian designer Ronaldo Fraga held a
fashion show using only trans models on the catwalk. This New York Fashion
Week for SS2020 was deemed the most ‘inclusive’ to date. What do you think
of this?

“I think it’s important to see that trans people are assuming their
role in society and that includes the catwalk. But the questions we and the
trans community are really asking from an ethics standpoint are: whether
these brands have diversity projects, employee training programs to coexist
with LGBTQIA+ people within corporations; how HR is trained and goes about
hiring and guiding LGBTQIA+ people – especially transgender people on the
work floor, to the communication process and then the catwalk. With that in
mind, we make this product available within the [DIVERSITY BBOX] called
DIVERSITY Brand Care, where we train brands to not only look at the
outside, but to focus more on the inside.”

”I think that it is necessary to form these diversity committees. After
creating the diversity affinity groups, we created a strategic plan to
split them up into specific affinity groups, and this will include the
entire 360º diversity, which is how [DIVERSITY BBOX] works. These groups
are: women, blacks, LGBTQIA+ people and people with special needs, along
with other topics such as unconscious bias, masculinity and the 50+
generation. It is important to justify why people value diversity by
proving with numbers that it is very important for brands to engage in
creating these diversity committees. According to research we conducted at
the 2nd Trans Pride March in São Paulo, we found that one of the most
important points for trans people is knowing that the company they work for
has a center for diversity they can engage with.”

”A company where people feel safe to be who they are allows each
individual to develop their potential and focus fully on their work. This
is very hard for LGBTQIA+ people, but we can also extend our reflection to
include the issue of chauvinist, racist and empowering jokes, and sexual
and moral harassment. Almost half of all LGBTQIA+ people in the world
remain ‘in the closet’ in their professional environments. That’s a lot of
people, even in companies with pro-LGBT policies.”

What can we do in our daily lives to make inclusion effective in
society as a whole?

”We, as individuals, work in organizations and companies, attend
universities, schools, classes, and are involved with our families. I
usually call people who go through our training diversity champions. These
people learn when and how to intervene if they hear the jokes during
conversations at work, including jokes about women, blacks or gays. Or in
the family, when someone makes a comment, it is knowing how to use this
information to teach others. Because people are ignorant, in the sense that
they are unaware because they have always lived in patriarchal, sexist and
socially oppressive structures. There is a preconception, a huge
unconscious bias, in society about what it means to be a man and what it
means to be a woman. This year we started offering courses to individuals.
We teach the vocabulary of discussions, approach, and how we can all become
allies of the LGBTQIA+ cause and diversity as a whole.”

Anything else you’d like to add?

”I often say that my goal is that [SSEX BBOX] will cease to exist,
because one day everyone will know about these issues, and all this work we
are doing will no longer be necessary. I think this is a crucial time and
people search for information online and need to find quality content. We
see a lot of bad things being said and wrong information on the subject,
and I worry a lot because I want people to know how to distinguish between
terms like ‘gender identity’, ‘gender expression and role’ from
‘body/genital’ and ‘sexual affective orientation’. Most people are really
confused about the terms they have to use to explain something. If people
want to explain something that is already complex using the wrong words
that might actually mean something else creates even more misinformation
and an even bigger problem.”

“The current paradigm shift is that society needs to learn that ‘sex’,
i.e. the body and genitals people were born with, does not determine their
gender. So that’s why we separate genital body from gender. This needs to
be separated in society. People need to understand that there is no
absolute congruence that reports that the genitals a person is born with
will determine their future gender in life. This needs to change and that
is why we are doing everything we can to achieve this goal.”

Glossary:
L: lesbians
G: gays
B: bisexuals
T: transvestite, transsexuals and transgender persons
Q: queer / Questioning
I: intersex people
A: asexual people / ALLIES
+: other sexual orientations and identities not affirmed.

Photo: Gui Gomes

This article was previously published by FashionUnited Brazil before
being translated into English.



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