milk and honey

 

la poesía se me suele hacer dificil de leer en ocasiones me cuesta meterme en escena y encontrarme reflejada entre las palabras grandilocuentes y los sentimientos complejos de los grandes poetas

por eso rupi kaur ha sido un gran descubrimiento para mi en primer lugar por la tremenda facilidad de conectar con sus reflexiones miedos problemas y dudas y en segundo lugar porque se atreve a hablar en voz alta de temas que nos tocan a casi todas las mujeres de la sociedad. pone voz a eso que nos avergüenza decir en voz alta temas tabú a veces te hace sonrojarte y despegar la vista del papel para luego regresar y pensar !qué narices no soy la única esto hay que decirlo más alto y más fuerte!

gracias emma watson por animarnos a leer a gente tan interesante con tu club de lectura

I’m a Nasty Woman

Mujeres que corren con los lobos

He visto encenderse un verde destello en los ojos de las mujeres que procuran disimular su furia por el hecho de que otras sean capaces de crear y ellas, por alguna extraña razón, no puedan hacer lo mismo. He oído todas las excusas que pueden inventarse las mujeres: No tengo talento. No soy importante. No tengo estudios. No tengo ideas. No sé hacerlo. No sé qué. No sé cuándo. Y la más ofensiva de todas: no tengo tiempo. En tales casos, siempre experimento el impulso de colocarlas boca abajo y sacudirlas hasta que me prometan no volver a decir mentiras. Pero no es necesario que yo las sacuda, pues eso ya lo hará el hombre oscuro de sus sueños y, si este no lo hace, lo hará el actor de otro sueño.

Mujeres que corren con los lobos, CLARISSA PINKOLA (1992)

Guerrilla Girs. Tate Modern Museum of Lodon (2017)

We should all be feminists

 

– Are you I worried that men would be intimidated by you?

– It is exactly the man I would have no interest.

I feel you. I have been there thousands of times, and precisely asked that question. My intelligent feminist side sometimes can’t help falling for the basic cultural instinct of perceiving my purpose in life as finding a man, getting married and laboring children. And I have noticed that in the country I leave, the way my brain works and my personality (sometimes marked by «masculine» adjectives such as rational, harsh or direct) might be an obstacle for that goal.

This is why I smiled so sincerely listening to the answer Chimamanda Ngozi gave to her friend, because even though I had never phrased it like that, her answer is so right for me as well! It makes no sense to polish my girly-personality in order to pretend to be someone I am not. That would never ever last. Maybe I am the one cherry picking here. And it might take me some time to find the right guy for me. For sure he must be smart, not intimidated by the true-me at all and have a couple more aesthetic attributes on my wish-list 🙂

The Argonauts

To devote yourself to someone else’s pussy can be a means of devoting yourself to your own. But whatever sameness I’ve noted in my relationships with women is not the sameness of Woman, and certainly not the sameness of parts. Rather, it is the shared, crushing understanding of whatever it means to live in patriarchy.

The Argonauts, Maggie NELSON

From Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf.

Even though I consider myself an open-minded person, Maggie’s book has shaken my structured brain. It was terribly confusing at first. I may justify it with the fact that I chose to read it in its original language, and that I am used to Spanish’ gendered nouns and adjectives. You have to add up my ignorance about the writer and her story, and you get as a result that I was totally perplexed by the presentation of the characters, and it took me more pages than I would like to admit to realize what kind of relationship Maggie and Harry had. Then I felt ashamed for my own surprise, and for letting my subconscious set the grounds of normality on behalf of myself, like I couldn’t think beyond the «normal» type of relationship unless I am specifically told about it.

After going back to read some pages again, which now finally made sense, I was totally committed to the story and the cause. I did not feel guilty anymore by my initial reaction, but like someone that still has a lot to live and comprehend about life. In the Greek mythology, the Argonauts were heroes sent in a dangerous and impossible mission of finding the Golden Fleece who, despite all the obstacles, rise victorious thanks to the support of unexpected allies. Not only some of the romantic passages were eye-opening for me, but also the ones about motherhood and purpose fulfillment. I had never empathized with life stages in this way before, and just the courage that implies exposing both her mundane and complex situations makes her deserve the title of Argonaut.

 

Mom & Me & Mom

Why did they change their ways of treating me? I came to the realization that it was because I had a mother. My mother spoke highly of me, and to me. But more important, whether they met her or simply heard about her, she was there with me. She had my back, supported me. This is the role of the mother, and in that visit I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe and eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap.

 

Mom & Me & Mom, Maya ANGELOU.

From Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf.

HeForShe

It’s been a while since this speech went worldwide. No one saw it coming, and it was certainly admired by many, and criticized by some.

I choose to post it now since HeForShe movement keeps moving forward, although many would have forgotten the once shocking speech. This Sunday will take place a new HeForShe event in London with Facebook livestream. Emma Watson will present it, and answer to the questions that can be submitted to her through this link.

Will you answer the call?

Elena Ferrante

Better late than never, I have just heard for the first time about Elena Ferrante, the annonymous Italian writter who is publishing soon her third Naples novel «Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay”.

The two other titles that complete the series are “My Brilliant Friend” and “The Story of a New Name”, and they all approach the rich and complex lives of women.

Certainly the mystery of a feminist novel written from the shades, and not allowing more comments further than the book itself has caught my attention. I think I already have some Christmas reading entretainment.