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.
“Do not eat more”. “Put your belly in.” “If you continue like this you will have to go on a diet.” “You got fat, didn’t you?” “You lost weight, how beautiful you are.” Since we were little girls, we women have received a flood of comments about our bodies from our closest environment, which does not stop with the passing of the years. “You should take better care of yourself.” “You should go to the gym.” “You are pregnant?” “Cover your cellulite.” “How do you keep yourself so well?” “Did you have any surgery?” The result of these constant judgments about us is that, as actress Emma Thompson denounced this week, most of us are unable to stand naked in front of the mirror and accept the image we see reflected. Some of us hide belly, others gather and lift their breasts, there are those who look at each other from the side or only dare if it is in the dark.
For Latin American women, emulating the bodies that are reproduced daily in advertisements, media and social networks has an added difficulty: they respond to beauty canons that do not coincide with the most common physical characteristics of the continent. “These ideal corporalities are not linked to our territory. Here there are no such levels of whiteness, nor that type of hair, and yet it is aspirational”, says Argentine artist and lawyer Lali Pasquinelli. Pasquinelli is at the forefront of the community Women who were not coverwith which they seek to hack stereotypes.
When the austral summer approached in the southern hemisphere —and with it the return of the Operation bikini with offers on gyms, cosmetic surgeries, slimming pills, and miraculous diets—that community launched the campaign “Sister, let go of your belly,” in which they encouraged women to send photos of their bodies regardless of their size, height, or other features physical. The impact was instant. The e-mail and the account today accumulate more than 4,000 photos, messages and thanks.
“Today for the first time in my life at 49 years old I put on a two-piece sports tight, #soltélapanza in swimming, I swam a hundred lengths and I laughed alone all the time. Happy, happy!”, wrote one of the participants. “Happy to have encouraged me to the verticals, to the acrobatics, to the short tights, regardless of whether my belly is visible,” wrote another next to a photo in which she is seen doing the vertical in a park.
When asked if they had ever used the ideal of beauty and femininity to humiliate them, a young woman recounted the eating disorder she had suffered: “When I was 12-13 years old, my parents told me to try to avoid snacks because I was very big and ‘it was ugly’ At 19 I had anorexia, with amenorrhea for almost a year and bone problems. “My ex-partner several times told me: ‘Look at you, you’re a disaster. No one else would want you with that body, you should be thankful that I love you, no one wants to be with fat people, “said another woman.
The body shaming (making someone ashamed of their body) reaches all women, regardless of class and economic status. “They are inoculating us drop by drop with that shame that has as a consequence not only not being able to see yourself in the mirror but also taking away power, autonomy and freedom. We do not put limits on these comments, we do not consider ourselves entitled to raise our voices,” says Pasquinelli. Letting go of the belly is symbolic and also implies letting go of all kinds of insecurities, such as daring to have sex with the light on, dressing as we want, and responding to those who make unsolicited comments about our bodies so that they stop doing so.
More and more voices are being raised against the tyranny of beauty stereotypes. This week, former top model Linda Evangelista broke her silence by confessing for the first time in five years the nightmare she went through when she was left disfigured after undergoing an aesthetic treatment that went wrong. “I loved getting on a catwalk. Now I’m afraid to run into someone I know, ”she told the magazine People. “I can’t live like this anymore, hiding and in shame. I couldn’t go on living in this pain any longer. I am determined to speak out,” she assured. But, in addition, the former model hopes that her situation will help others to get out of that spiral of “shame”. And he leaves an open question: “Why do we feel the need to do that to our bodies?”
These are our recommended articles of the week:
A Ugandan minister ignores the president of the European Commission in the face of the passivity of the president of the European Council, Charles Michel (not the first time this has happened). French President Emmanuel Macron tried to remedy it.
Of the 19 presidential candidates, only four are women. In Congress, less than 20% of the seats are occupied by politicians.
Kate Kelly was expelled from the Mormon church for wanting to establish the ordination of priestesses. She is now advising Congress to push through an amendment first introduced in 1923. “You can’t go anywhere that doesn’t have patriarchy,” she says.
Paola Schietekat denounces the little consular support she received during the judicial process. She has been sentenced to seven years in jail
The obstetrician Barbosa Moraes, director of a hospital in Recife, a reference in the care of girls victims of sexual violence, battles to guarantee reproductive rights.
And to say goodbye, some suggestions:
🎵 A female singer:
For Sara Curruchich, a Guatemalan Mayan Kaqchikel singer-songwriter, being a woman and indigenous in Guatemala is an act of resistance. Despite her youth — she is 28 years old — she has spent years taking her songs about memory, culture and the different struggles of the original peoples to the rural communities of her country and to international stages. Her firm and mesmerizing voice plays with different genres and she blends seamlessly with other singers: from her collaborations with indigenous Latin American women, such as Lila Downsto the Spanish artist I bite, with whom he has released his latest single, ‘Amor diversity’, an invitation to free love in the face of hate speech.
This March 5 presents his tour Indigenous woman at the Spanish Cultural Center of Guatemala and tickets are already sold out. But we recommend you follow her news on networks and, if you’re lucky, come to see her in concert. Do not miss this version of The Siguanaba, a theme inspired by a Mesoamerican legend, but with a gender focus. Her interpretation, playing the guitar and accompanied by marimba and percussion, is moving.
🤸🏽♀️ A woman to follow:
Today when we talk about stereotypes and body shaming, our colleague Diego Mancera recommends us to follow Alexa Moreno, who made all the insults for her physical complexion the best fuel. The Mexican gymnast received criticism on social networks at the 2016 Olympics for not meeting the standards that many expected of an Olympic athlete. With a lot of resilience and talent, she won an unprecedented medal at the World Cup in 2018 and in Tokyo 2020 she finished in fourth place. The 27-year-old athlete will take the keys to her success in a talk at Harvard University next week.
Thank you very much for joining us and until next Sunday! (If you have been sent this newsletter and want to subscribe to receive it in your email, you can do so here).
#Sisters #lets #drop #belly