This is the web version of Americanas, the newsletter of EL PAÍS America that deals with news and ideas with a gender perspective. To receive it every Sunday you can subscribe in this link.
Body gestures, what great messages. In the mornings of the president of Mexico, the men of his cabinet sit down, the women go to mass. There is the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, with her legs aligned and her knees well together, her hands obedient in her lap. Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Government of Mexico City, does the same thing when she responds to the president’s call. There is no moment of relaxation in which the comfort of a simple posture is sought, but in accordance with the ceremony, which is nothing more than a simple press conference. They are just two examples, but it is repeated almost every morning, with many women. Firm vestal goddesses before the altar, motionless as statues, hands still, legs tight, like good and fearful young ladies.
At his side, his comrades, even the military, open their legs without modesty. Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval crosses his ankles; others in uniform, with their hands resting on their thighs and their bodies leaning forward, seem to be getting up from their chairs. Campechanos like no one. The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, does not know the rubbing of knees. Neither Undersecretary Gatell nor his boss, Mr. Varela. They settle their buttocks comfortably and turn on their cell phones. Who taught them to close their knees or the reckless danger of having them open? That was destined for attackable sex: it is not provoked, it is not suffered. And so we come to the 21st century.
manspreading. I don’t even know who put a name to what had been bothering me for a long time. Aptly translated into Spanish as despatarre, the practice is recurrent in public transport, for example, where women occupy the seat that corresponds to them and they extend further, launching the message, like the dog leaves the piss: this is public space , ergo my territory. The networks are full of photos. It is valid for congresses, exhibitions, television talks, for any appointment. What in men is decorous and natural, in women is shamelessness, contempt, impudence, indecency, unseemly. When Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, she allowed herself to be photographed with her legs spread wide on the stairs of her house. I remember the sexist criticism hidden under arguments of good taste and I don’t know what other trifles.
Lady (I’m done). Miss is one of the most pronounced words in Mexico, whether it is a call to the bank or good morning in the market. It doesn’t matter if you’re 15, 49 or 72. Because it’s not a matter of age, but of marital status. Is she single?: Miss. Married: Mrs. The term is not innocent, of course not. Only children and some pipiolos of the upper class are called gentlemen (pure kitsch or mechanism of distinction of the father and owner of the herd). But women, of any class, are forever young ladies, because infantilizing them is a strategy. They are always young and inexperienced, crazy and without criteria, emotional without reason. The sex to be protected, the supervised sex, the sex that doesn’t make decisions, that obeys with closed legs, like a good lady. They will say that the women who pass by in the morning are powerful. Of course. But the gestures are a message and in this case there is nothing good to learn from it.
These are our recommended articles of the week:
Lorena Beltrán, victim of a surgeon with a questionable title who destroyed her breasts, talks about why the deaths of women in the operating room continue.
The mother who changed the way these crimes are investigated has spent almost 12 years waiting for a sentence against the alleged murderer of her daughter Mariana Lima.
Just nominated for an Oscar for the third time, the star of ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ opens up about her refusal to stop speaking her mind.
The documentary ‘Niña sola’, by director Javier Ávila, portrays the life of a family that faces the monster of sexist violence in Mexico.
We have an essential task ahead of us. And it does not happen to consider masculine discomforts alien. They must be understood and given meaning.
And to say goodbye, some suggestions:
A recommendation from Naira Galarraga Gortázar, correspondent for EL PAÍS in São Paulo
Ida B. Wells, the thread between the lynchings and Barbie
I suspect that one of the last things you expect to see in a feminist newsletter like American It’s a Barbie, but here I bring one. The makers of that anorexic-looking blonde have just dedicated a doll to Ida B. Wells, an extraordinary character. Born a slave in 1862, this reporter and activist against the lynching of blacks was already practicing what we now know as data journalism at the end of the 19th century. Incredible true? She documented thousands of cases in the American South, investigated the accusations against lynchers — including the typical one of raping white women — and discovered a pattern: It was a tactic to instigate terror among blacks and maintain white supremacy. From her research the book was born to network record.
The daring and courage it took to embark on such a task against the established order stands in stark contrast to how Ida B. Wells looked in the toy version. She wears a Victorian dress, high-heeled ankle boots and a high bow, in keeping with the times. A conventional image that hid a pioneer in capital letters. She was also director and co-owner of a black newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech, as well as a suffragette. I remembered Ida B Wells these days after the brutal lynching of a Congolese man in a beach kiosk in Rio de Janeiro.
And speaking of journalists, one last recommendation:
The Mexican political scientist Denise Dresser says that the aggressions that women receive in social networks are an extension of the violence that we experience in the streets. These attacks are especially serious for some, such as journalists, who, as various studies have shown, are victims of anonymous trolls and political actors who harass them with insults and threats in the digital world. This week, the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF) has presented the report Women Journalists on the Front Line: Challenges for Press Freedom in El Salvador, which analyzes the specific forms of abuse and attacks suffered by Salvadoran female reporters. “There is a pattern of violence that is characterized by digital harassment and cyber attacks; stigmatization and hate messages because of their gender; and threats with sexual components,” the organization’s communications coordinator, Karen Arita Ramos, told us this week in an email. The report also reflects that they are often ridiculed or questioned about their intelligence or ability.
According to the document, in recent years there has been a notable increase in these attacks that places journalists at levels of hostility not seen since the civil war in the 1980s. “Aggressions and violence against women journalists have not started with the government of the president [Nayib] Bukele, but it has intensified, as part of a state practice. These are not isolated events”, explains Leonor Arteaga, director of programs for the organization. “This has a silencing and intimidating effect against women journalists specifically, but also against all women who want to raise their voice.” If you want to hear more about the threats Salvadoran journalists face from their own voice, this Tuesday DPLF is organizing a conversation on Twitter Spaces.
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