ladies plans

Spain was a party.

The one in 1992. And I traveled to Seville accompanying my boyfriend, who had to attend the first meeting of the board of trustees of the recently opened Cervantes Institute.

We were welcomed into a wonderful hotel.

Men and women he didn't know greeted each other.

What would not be my surprise when the organizers divided humanity in two, on one side the men, on the other, us, the women.

I saw how they took him away, alas, and was led with mine to a dining room.

They were the patrons, we, the consorts.

My astonishment increased when I saw that the conversation of those ladies was reduced to talking about the merits of their husbands;

there seemed to be an unhealthy competition between them.

One husband had been awarded a park, another a marquisate, another an

The bar was very high.

And I, deeply uncomfortable, felt how much I would have to work not to resign myself to a life as a consort.

She had been active since she was 19 years old, but in those environments you were nothing without power, and power was held by husbands.

More information

Video |

The images, the anecdotes and the gestures at the gala dinner offered by the Kings

Times change and, although the percentage of power that women hold is still ridiculous, we cannot define couples who accompany their husbands to an international summit as "ladies of", because, definitely, they are not or they are not. that's all.

From Jill Biden, who has freed herself from so many servitudes of the American first lady (from the cult of fashion to the obligation to leave work) to Brigitte Macron, who breaks the mold by sharing life with a much younger powerful man;

from Begoña Gómez, who has the ability to continue having an active and free life without being persecuted, to Queen Letizia herself, who has spent years negotiating between protocol and her personality.

I can't imagine them at a meal praising the excellences of her husbands.

Much emphasis has been placed on the fact that only two men were part of the delegation: Gauthier Destenay, husband of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, and Juraj Rizman, partner of the President of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputová, and that two were missing They declined the invitation.

Perhaps they did not like the plan to join the overwhelming majority of women in making a

culture

It is not strange: the survival of the culture is up to them, according to the statistics, and they do not usually sign up.

My experience over the years has been to accompany, but also to be accompanied, and I must say that the presence of couples, whether sentimental or friendly, always animates the most relaxed hours of a work day.

It is the media that put the emphasis on that already archaic title of First Lady, on something that has lost its old meaning and has become a more natural presence.

I don't understand such outrage.

It would be better to react to the scarcity of women in those summits where the rearmament of the world is decided, a turn that particularly terrifies me, and that is not alleviated at all with that spectacular pictorial setting that the Prado Museum gave , through which those leaders walked who could be portrayed in an art gallery in a century if court portraitists continued to exist.

From the war of men to the culture of their partners.

I am surprised to have heard so tiredly these days that the consorts were organized a plan of little things for ladies.

We're.

It turns out that going to the Reina Sofía, to the gardens of La Granja or to the Royal Theater is a thing for women, for girls, for little tourists.

Oh, what defines our prejudices escapes us when we least realize it.

As it has been defined, it is a plan for ladies to visit one of the most fascinating places in any theater: the workshops where tailors, costume designers, hairdressers or wig designers pose and carry out the staging of an opera in which some connoisseurs will lift the eyebrow.

I would have added the restoration workshop of those museums in which the photo was taken.

My spouse would sign up for the plan.

As to the visit of the tapestry factory.

But we fill our mouths with the defense of trades and as soon as we get lost we make a condescending comment.

I wish the future of the world would allow us to show that face of our country.

I don't know if the presence of women would promote peace.

At the moment, it seems more thoughtful to pose in front of a painting like Guernica.

50% off

Exclusive content for subscribers

read without limits

subscribe

I'm already a subscriber