It's not just that in Mexico, a month ago, Ingrid Escamilla's boyfriend killed her in the most brutal way; is that the directors of two Mexican media found it convenient to publish the photos of his skinned and dismembered body. It is also that the best thing that happened to say to the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, following the grotesque murder was that much has been manipulated about this matter in the media.
It's not just that a man says that women report harassment only if it comes from an ugly person. That is what the president of Ecuador said a month ago. The one who claimed that any famous person can handle any woman's genitals without any problem (Grab'em by the pussy) is the president still unpunished from the United States. And we, who are the recipients of so much offense, twist once more of helpless rage.
Today, March 8, when we celebrate women, we praise instead the powerful rage. Today, women from all over the world will go out and shout through the streets, to call by name the politicians, the manoseadores, the murderers, the overlapping manassadores of the murderers, and those who do not see themselves facing so much horrendous crime . Surely there will be among the demonstrators of this day those who shout out, paint graffiti on the sacred walls of some institution and, worse still, break some glass and paint the doors of the power forts in red. And then the same powerful leaders who mock the raped women saying that they should have covered more, will cross themselves at the spectacle of women in rebellion, shake their heads in distress, call them violent and warn them that it is okay to protest, But do not overdo it.
In the absence of such overwhelming ideas, anyone can feel like going over and throwing themselves full-length against the castle doors. I still can't write about the murder of Ingrid Escamilla or the Fatima girl in my country, Mexico, without every word skipping me wrong on the screen, my brain breaks down so much. And yet Mexico is not, by far, the country with the highest number of murders of women. See if not the figures for El Salvador, Bolivia and the entire Caribbean. What happens is that young Mexican women, supportive, enraged, violent (yes, it is laughing) have launched a rabid campaign of protest and scandal. And they have made López Obrador make some attempt to modify his speech in favor of the murdered women, and that the media that published the photos of Ingrid Escamilla apologize.
Young Mexican women, in solidarity and enraged, have launched a rabid protest campaign
Even so, there are still many (most?) Adult women who distrust these young women, and especially feminism. (I use the word as a kind of backpack that fits all variants of activism in favor of achieving equality for women). They are deeply rooted in the conviction that a woman loses femininity if she is not sweet, conciliatory, loyal to her man. Being feminine is a precious gift, and they fear that adopting feminism will make them aggressive or - again the word - violent.
That is why so many women find it impossible to take their own rights and their own body into account when voting. In recent years they have been elected by overwhelming majority - and will have had abysmal or more or less good efforts in other aspects - rulers such as Trump, López Obrador, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Evo Morales (the now former president of Bolivia, who could calmly say that when traveling to the villages the pregnant women remain and in their bellies says Evo meets) or Silvio Berlusconi, prosecuted for child prostitution.
In fact, if a spectrum of women is asked if they are in favor of equal pay for equal work, that there is a labor reform that takes into account the specific requirements of motherhood, that household work be shared, that violence against women be fought, etc., the majority will be in favor. Except for abortion, which is a difficult issue for absolutely all women, the other demands promulgated by feminist movements are so reasonable that even men say they agree, and the legislation of a good number of countries already guarantees these rights. And yet, here we are, with the femicide growing in almost all of Latin America, the wage gap in Spain out there of 30%, and the trafficking of poor women in the southern countries, supplying brothels in the northern countries. As for the support of feminism; there will be many who will go out today to march with the women, and others who will not but who support. However, there are many more who think what an always kind and generous man said to me: feminism ?, that depends on how far they want to go.
The demands of feminist movements are so reasonable that even men agree
In women's awareness, one always begins, or ends, speaking of oneself; it seems that to accept that women have to fight for their rights, it is necessary to recognize their own harm. In my case, I always considered that my life, so free and independent, perfectly matched the postulates of feminism, and that it was no longer necessary. I could list the twenty moments in which I half glimpsed that it was not like that, but let's say one: the day I realized that I never looked up in the street, for fear that I would engage with the eyes of another, thus causing inevitably I followed whole blocks some male, enraged and helpless me, while he murmured innocent gallants, foul phrases, insults, invitations, when not some tapping that forced me to run while he laughed. (At 16, in Italy, I suffered exactly the same harassment). Much later I learned to plant myself and challenge the guys, but at 13, 14 years old you don't have that strength.
That discovery was followed by many more: the slow inhibition of the freedom of the body that is responsible for imposing the family; the contempt that is instilled in young girls - in this case, my friends - for intelligence and intellectual ambition; the prestige of desirability. Anyway, I was understanding all the damage that can be done to a woman without even touching her with the petal of a rose, and I got angry.
From anger I went on to count my days, and from there, to what I had been percolating for decades, it was bubbling and sprouting everywhere and it was called rage. Some women who have gone through the same process will have voted for the first time in their lives. I wrote a book. Others will take to the streets today, uprooted and happy, a great carnival of women who have finally granted permission to feel their own anger and shout it. Let us celebrate that achievement.
Alma Guillermoprieto is the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 2018.
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