Issues with Gender Equality

I’ve been taking a variety of quotes from Emma Watson’s UN speech on gender equality, my favourite being ;
“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong.”

I have made a few pieces of artwork based on this quote alone, but now i’m moving my art forward, by creating works around an adapted form of this quote.

I’m currently sewing into a blank sheet of canvas the words ‘I’M FREE TO BE’, where the sentence will be finished by the title of the painting. I’m planning on creating two final works, both with this quote sewn onto them. The first being titled ‘STRONG’, the second being titled ‘SENSITIVE’
STRONG ;

This painting will be of a female. She will share a confrontational eye contact with the audience. Women are often shamed for being muscly, told that it is a masculine appearance. They are also stereotyped as being overly sensitive, unable to hold strength in emotional situations, so this title works in different levels.

SENSITIVE ;

This painting will be of a male. He will also share a confrontational eye contact with the viewer. Men after often shamed for showing any sign of emotion. ‘Boys don’t cry’ etc.

This is a painting that I have started (and not yet finished) of my friend Summer. I wanted to paint this portrait so I could practice sewing into it, but it’s taking so long for me to finish. I’m struggling with the proportions of the face, first of all I made her face too wide, and once I had corrected that, I realised that I made her eyes too big.
It needs a lot of work, and i’m unsure whether to put it on hold for now so I can focus on moving my project forward.

I am really happy with how all the colours have blended together in this painting, and I hope to continue using the bright colours in my next paintings. I’ll change the composition slightly in my next works; I want the subjects of the paintings to share eye contact with the viewers, as it’s quite confrontational, and will help with the political nature of the paintings.

I want to try and embroider over this painting, as a practice for my final two portraits. I’m considering embroidering a floral pattern, but not too large or too much, as i don’t want to draw too much attention away from the painting itself.