Work ID: 98-45-v01

Title:

"DNA is no excuse"

Digital painting by Bo Lessing, signed 2272

Work ID: 98-45

No. of versions: 5 

Size: 48 megapixel 

This work is available! 

Work ID: 98-45-v01

Since there is so much text, the explanation will not only list the text found on the canvas but also additional information, most of it provided by Bo Lessing in an interview:

1 - [Number "1" can be seen three times over the painting] "DNA is no excuse - understand and take action" --- No excuse to behave like apes and suppress women. We should follow the idea of equality even if our ape instincts tend to a different side.

2 - "Title: the immanent frustration of human sexuality" --- Lessing replaced this originally planned, descriptive title by the more missionary "DNA is no excuse". 

3 - "= men are not the sex partners that women want to be with" --- The ideal man exists only during courtship and thereafter instinctively tends to behave unfair and oppressive towards women.

4 - "... - [to] deal with in the long run"

5 - "lazy illoyal egoists. Don't treat women as equals. Want too much sex. Want kind of sex most women hate. Want (additional) sex with other women." --- Those might be clichés that men deny and women agree to, though often excepting their wonderful exception man who is "in the (her) making". However, men's instinctive (DNA) views of women are best shown in movies of the 1950s and porn.

6 - "[...] as well as women's sexuality = sexual behavior doesn't meet men's urges." --- Another cliché: men want sex more often than women, However, research proves and explains why the instinctive sex drive of men tend toward promiscuity while women are determined by nature to  be rather choosy and don't need much sexual intercourse to successfully reproduce their genes.

7 - "Not often enough. Not enthusiastic enough. Not willing to perform his 'perversions'." --- These male complaints have become stronger with the consumption of pornography. However, woman should not feel obliged to follow these ideas of the instinct driven man.

8 - "} Men and women can't be in an equality based relationship" --- Can they? Some maybe; many maybe for a certain time. Lessing's exaggeration points to the difficulty to overcome instincts for the benefit of a civilized modern relationship, even if it is only (or at least?) transient.  

9 - "Some men can be happy with a slave/servant woman" --- That's the exaggerated short version of the traditional role allocation. Has it died out yet? Unfortunately not. Society (mainly women) is still fighting to end the femae role as cleaning woman, cook and trophy of the male human ape. 

10 - "- massive compromising generates the illusion of happiness" --- It might not be an illusion but simply a low level happiness. But is that all that live has for offer people, especially women?

11 - [Written in green] "[compromising = ] sexual compromises are only a part of the BIG COMPROMISE BOND" --- Two partners give up on their individual demands - hopefully reciprocally, but not always.

12 - "Equality can be achieved by two partners being equally compromising and thus"

13 - "[... thus] being equally unhappy" --- one could also say "equall  happy on a mutually humble level".

14 - "Fortunately evolution has gifted us with a numbing module" --- That's a bitter comment, but it's true. After getting used to it you can even have fun in prison. Time heals all wounds, and so does habit. 

15 - "Being single doesn't seem to solve the problem since evolution selected a permanent drive for close attachment." --- Solitude doesn't make happy. Humans have a strong social instinct. They want to mingle with others - though humans can be replaced by pets and, better even than humans, lovable robots.

16 - "[attachment defined as:]- Love for parent[s]. Love for sex partner / selection of spouse; sort of tendency toward -> fidelity. Love for children." --- Lessing lists the kinds of love.

Here comes a very important section of the text:

17 - "Triggering of LOVE REFLEX - should and will be a separate work - can be observed even when humans fall in love with their pets. -> Humans can honestly love animals! No difference to loving humans. Humans can love robots." --- The feeling of love is triggered by instinctive patterns which don't depend on human-to-human interaction. Humans are not doomed to have social relationships to make them happy! Pets can replace children. And robots can replace humans.  
18 - "Because robots can trigger love reflexes better than humans, cats or dogs." --- That's Lessing's key prediction: before 250 years robots will be more lovable than humans and thus be preferred for companionship over humans and pets.

19 - [Written in pink / Genetic determination of women:]"Love with a bit of sex, then children and then some sex for fun." --- Courtship and love are nature's methods to win the best possible partner to pair one's genes with. After impregnation for a woman there is little biological need for further sex. The woman still has some sexual appetite, though mostly less than before motherhood. Men's sex drive doesn't change. Which leads to a host of problems.

20 - [Written in orange] "-> Evolution programmed this (by natural selection) = more successful proliferation over generations -> 230,000 years minimum."

21 - "-> Nature's goal: getting pregnant from strongest, healthiest man with likely intention and best ability to provide for the female mate and the child." --- Let's face it, this is an unpopular statement in the 2020s, despite scientific proof. 250 years later people don't understand why these facts of life have been denied for so long by so many.
Back to the text: unfortunately this Mr Attractive is as tempting for other women, too. And he knows it. Why be loyal to only one, particularly if she is less interested in sex than him?

22 - [Written in yellow] "Female sex drive and 'fun' are only a small part of that complex evolution written code." --- Pregnancy is the goal, and it's a very big investment for the woman. She wants to do everything to raise her kid - that's her first priority, much more important than having fun in bed. Again, in the 2020s that sounded anti-feminist, but in the 2020s a majority of humans believed in religion too, despite of not a bit of scientific evidence.  

23 - [Written in beige, right of orange texts] "However, women enjoy sex too! Most problems come with the duration of the relationship: less courtship from the man, less sex drive from the woman." --- Well, at least that women of the 2020s could subcribe to.

24 - [Written in white, und er yellow text] "Modern problems of women with men: male lack of interest in women's thoughts, feelings, every day life, achievements. Men are not emphatic enough. Men don't listen. Men don't ask. Men don't sonsult women in matters converning both. Men don't share most women's interests. Men want sex when women won't. Men act rude when not provided sex. Men want sex with other women even when happy with female partner." --- True or not? Feminists will agree, so will science.

25 - [In large blue letter, right of long texts:] "} Those are the facts of nature" --- For decades instincts were denied, and so were the instinct determined differences in men and women. The denial was perpetuated by the male sex.  

26 - [Light blue] "We can't change the results of evolution - even though we would like [stricken: "us"] humans to be more 'civilized'. Well, we have to tackle our"
[Dark blue] "animal nature"
[Mauve] "by creating a civilized culture (-> societies) to [stricken: "tame"] elevate ourselves." --- That is exactly what human civilization has tried to, with good but until the 21st century still surprisingly limited success. The robot rich society will improve humanity a lot, not as much of purpose but by accident.

27 - "Equality of male [symbol] and female [symbol]. -> No other animal has that! [continued in beige below:] because no animal is able to create intellectual ideas and convince others of their value."
[Under "equality ...", continued in mauve:] "Rules / laws and enforcement."
[Stricken by beige cross, written in mauve on the right:] "-> Even apes have that"

28 - [The word "civilized" is circled in beige, a beige arrow points to black text:] "-> This definition [of being "civilized"] has been worked on for 3,000 years and seems to stay similar since the year 2100. - Canon of civilized values: - equality; democracy; solidarity; peace; freedom of speech ..."

29 - "[Stricken: "Dear Diary"] "Dear participant of the international congress for ... - Yeah, this is serious, even tody, in the year 2272." --- Lessing seems to digress here. He turns his painting from a pamphlet into an invitation letter.

30 - "Dr. Ibrahim Yehouli: 'Why did religion die out in the 2150s - and not after the holocaust?' Prof. Jenny Johnson: 'Why did neither politics nor science see overpopulation as the key reason for all global catastrophies?'" --- Anybody familiar with Bo Lessing's works knows that overpopulation and religion in his opinion are two of the major obstacles in human progress.

"DNA is no excuse" - for inequality of women first, and second for being unhappy" - which both are the key problems of romantic love and female-with-male partnerships. That we should "understand and take action". The artist calls on us to "tackle our animal nature by creating a civilized culture".

Work ID: 98-45-v02

In this version the emphasis is on the text, obviously. 

Work ID: 98-45-v02

Work ID: 98-45-v03

Lessing here creates a notion of amicable incompatability.

Work ID: 98-45-v04

A more "acrylic" version, compared to the more "oily" version v01.

Work ID: 98-45-v05

Lessing has not said anything about the identity or meaning of the woman in the foreground. Might come in a later interview.

Work ID: 98-45-v06

Another rather "acrylic" version. 

Work ID: 98-45-v02

How it would look on a museum wall.