ABSTRACT
An exhibition called "The Right to be Human" had its inaugural showing under trade-union sponsorship in a large Stockholm factory in February 1975, as part of the activities launching International Women's Year in Sweden. Prime Minister Olof Palme was among those present. The exhibition's message was that imprisonment in the masculine role is at least as great a problem to men as conformity to a feminine ideal is to women; that a debate on liberation and equality must be about how men as well as women are forced to act out socially determined stereotypes. In short, its point was that men and women have the same battle to fight: for the right to be human. Photographs and documentary material mounted on mobile panels depicted the pressure on men to be aggressive and competitive, to keep a stiff upper lip, and to conquer new lands—both literally and figuratively. The alternative was shown too: that men like women could be allowed to be soft and kind, needed to be able to express emotion, and had a right to a share in parenting and in family life.
