I urge women to report all violations of their boundaries and consent. It would be missing more. Women of the generations who have grown tired of kicking guys in the balls, pushing and running away from guys, when such conduct was not even in the Penal Code, we cannot see it any other way.
"Those who approve an opinion call it an opinion; but those who disapprove call it heresy"
In democracy the form is the substance, that is, the forms are designed to protect the substance. I’m going to talk first about Loreto Arenillas. It is absolutely unacceptable that an elected popular representative is forced to deliver her minutes – that sacred and very personal mandate of the people – without giving any room for defense. According to the Spanish Constitution, internal democracy is practiced in political parties and, for this reason, there is a predetermined, clear, regulated disciplinary regime with the possibility of defense.
It is intolerable that the leadership of her parliamentary group has not even allowed Loreto Arenillas to explain herself. “I feel like a scapegoat,” says the woman who reported “an act carried out by Congressman Errejón, information that they considered not to forward to the party bodies,” but who has been mentioned on networks as a cover-up for alleged harassment. “I have never covered up any act of harassment or sexist violence; on the contrary, I have worked to report these situations my entire life,” she said. The fact is that she has been mentioned on social networks, her party has pressured her, she has refused to hand over the minutes, being within her rights, and she has been pressured again until she has given in. Without a file, without allegations, without proof, without anything at all. Whoever does that does not set an example of anything. A collateral victim? A firewall for others? What it certainly does not exemplify are the democratic modes within its formation.
In democracy the form is the substance. In a State of Law it cannot function in the same ways as the Inquisition. I remind you how that went. The denunciation was the order of the day, not only voluntary but through the edict of faith it was forced to be carried out and with the edict of grace the guilty were ordered to betray themselves. Haven’t some contemporaries still thought about this? Maybe we’ll see it soon.
The accused was never told who had betrayed him. Since when are anonymous complaints the way to convey anything in a democratic State of Law, in which all guarantees are present? I said the same thing on Monday on Más Vale Tarde and my namesake Elisa Mouliaá was watching us, to the point that she posted a tweet in which she mentioned the program and claimed to be a victim of Íñigo Errejón and expressed her willingness to file a complaint. He did it. In the report of his complaint there is no account of criminal acts but, at least, a process is opened that will be a process with guarantees. Being a bastard, a narcissist, having a dominance paraphilia is not a crime as long as you do not cross the line of the other’s consent. It happens that the proof of non-consent is also based on logic, and in court it will be seen that each subsequent act ends up revalidating the consent of the previous one. If they talk to you and propose a game in the elevator and you don’t tell your friends to help you with the slime, if after being in a room where things happen that you don’t like you don’t say anything to your people and You get into a car on the way to that guy’s house, the logic of justice, rationality, will say that consent is tacit.
I don’t go into the depth of the matter. It seems to me that Íñigo Errejón’s addiction to drugs and sex, as he has published in quotes The Vanguard and no one denies even if they do not say, it is enough reason for him not to be qualified to be a spokesperson for a political option or represent the people. He who does not control his life can hardly improve the lives of others. I am concerned about the non-democratic drift that as a feminist I do not want under any circumstances to occur and I am a democrat first of all. There have already been fellow journalists who have been made victims of a revelation of secrets, of flirtatious conversations, and have been threatened with revealing more, just as politicians of all stripes, journalists and other powerful men have generally been targeted.
I urge women to report all violations of their boundaries and consent. It would be missing more. Women of the generations who have grown tired of kicking guys in the balls, pushing and running away from guys, when such behavior was not even in the Penal Code, cannot see it any other way. Now, through the proper channels. I am not going to support anonymous denunciations through a social network or the civil death of people – for me men are still people, my equals – without any possibility of defense.
I would also like to encourage new generations to empower themselves and that means learning to reject unwanted situations and learning to be assertive. When I don’t want something I reject it, above all there is no risk to my physical integrity and in the cases we are talking about there was none. Freedom always breeds responsibility. Everything that is politically or ethically reprehensible is not a crime, but even a complaint that does not seek criminal responsibility must be carried out through regulated channels that offer guarantees to those accused to minimally exercise their defense or give explanations. I’m not even saying it for the fallen one – how good they stab corpses in Spain!, as a colleague said – but for all those others who are being generically threatened, which, in the end, puts everyone in the target.
Paraphilias are free and are practiced among free people. Now it is advisable not to be false or incoherent. What happened to Íñigo Errejón is, to say the least, hypocritical because we have seen how he has put the noose around the necks of others for more innocent acts than those he liked to practice. A certain accompaniment between the life you lead and the ideas you defend is part of the democratic substratum; In fact, that’s also where the discomfort over the Galapagar case arose, if I remember correctly, from the incoherence, from the lack of harmony between the sayings and the facts. I would also remind women that 50 Shades of Gray was fucking shit, Corín Tellado with modern overtones, and that if they come across men who, in their freedom, prefer a type of sex that doesn’t convince them, don’t wait to see if they transform into a prince of darkness and send them to the guano without remission.
Errejón’s little letter is nothing more than an auto-da-fé passed by the ego. I confess, but I do not confess, that it is my fault but I am a child of the patriarchy, that I let myself be carried away by my character as if it were not created by me. The self-exculpation was unintelligible due to lack of will. And regarding men of power, don’t be naive, it has nothing to do with ideology. There is a type of masculine personalities who, when life elevates them, feel that they are the chosen ones and that, therefore, they have the right for life to give them everything. It is so common that we have seen dozens of them fall off the cliff. Sometimes the most touched ones shine intensely, but being a butterfly of light is not a happy idea and many women discover it too late. Empowering yourself means understanding that your own light is the brightest in the universe and that there is no type, power, position or illusion that forces you to flip the switch and turn it off.
Feminism does not deserve the inquisitorial ordeals. We are right and we can fight to bring it about by civilized methods. Many years of struggle have brought us this far, let us not return to the darkness of the past.
#feminism #car
