Feminism is a way of life, not a way of surviving

Faking dementia has a limit and appears when we become aware that, so far in 2022, femicide occurs every 28 hours. Yes, this is the reality that happens to us. Unfortunately, neither the State, nor the police, nor education is reaching to stop violations, discrimination, transvesticides, abuses of power and the monstrous inequality that eats us every day. That is why feminism was invented, nothing more or less than a mere need to live and not survive, to end the deaths of cis women because they are cis women, lesbians because they are lesbians, of gays because they are gays, of transvestites because they are transvestites, of people because they are people.

Feminism does not come to overthrow men, we have already explained this a billion times. But here we go again: feminism comes to overthrow an oppressive and aggressive system towards the violated groups of society. It is striking how some people are still so afraid of these words; feminism, patriarchy, legal abortion, militancy... aren't they more afraid of the inexhaustible level of machismo in the streets? Or worse... aren't they terrified of the level of gender-based violence in homes? If you are not challenged to be part of the feminist movement, this is perfect, well “perfect”, I mean... at the end of the day each one chooses for itself (or at least that's how it should be). What happens is that feminism is much more than a personal decision; feminism is the undeniable need for a mattress that protects us, for a shell that protects us, for a sorora network that contains us. Even those who say they don't need all this, unfortunately and unconsciously need it too.

This is what we mean when we say that the struggle of feminism is not about a war against men (just as that of machismo is a war against women), that is the big difference; feminism seeks equality. But, in order to understand that with the obviousness with which we feminists understand it, we must first understand that patriarchy is not a singular entity, nor is it abstract; patriarchy is a system that harms an entire society and that manipulates us with its modus operandi. Patriarchy is much more than an absent father or a brother who bullied us, it is much more than a kid who didn't give us a ball in high school or another one who didn't want to catch us in college. It's much more than waxing or not, than being skinny or fat. It operates in our bodies, in our homes, in schools and on the streets. Ergo, it hurts us as individuals.

Knowing what is happening now and what has happened for years in our society as a result of sexist violence is extremely important so that false information is not shared on networks and in the media, which are the first to generate more stigmas and distortions than already exists. To make it short: we women still don't have the same benefits as men. But, as much as I would love to make this great and extensive story, a summary or a pilot, it's impossible. We are talking about years of history and militancy. Years of deep pain and deep wounds. Many, but many frustrations and some victories. Of hundreds of women and groups violated throughout history around the world.

I often hear people saying things like: why didn't you speak earlier? Are you just saying it now? And I think they can't measure what a victim can live with their abuser. Manipulation and psychopathics can be such that sometimes even the victims themselves think it is normal, such as when it happens with grandparents, parents, stepparents or partners. Many of the women who died and died daily were killed by their partners or exes and, what is worse, one in five victims had asked for help filing the complaint. If that one who did dare (with all that may entail) to report her abuser was not believed or helped, imagine those other four. It is for these same reasons that feminist collectives have been created, to sustain each other. For the “macro” and for the “micro” as well.

We are the ones who teach and educate each other to become increasingly aware of the machiruleadas that surround us. There are those who still say that real feminists should go to work, as if that wasn't happening. As if the fact that we were working was a mere coincidence. Quite the opposite; it was thanks to the fact that these feminist groups encouraged themselves to raise their voices to demand rights that today we have more rights. It is thanks to these women that we can have jobs today. This means that women and LGBT+Q groups work thanks to feminism and, despite that progress, we remain under regimes of gender inequality in the workplace. And yes, at that time feminists gave their lives to be able to work, that's true. And the generations that follow them will be eternally grateful to them for that. But today, 2022, do you think we have to continue with that modality? I mean, aren't we supposed to have evolved enough that working doesn't make us “give our lives”? Because then, if working is putting our lives at risk (if we mean that by “giving it”) we continue to endorse the system so that it does not change, again everything remains in our hands and voices.

How much more do you have to give your life? How many more of us have to die for it to be understood that what is happening does not have to do with a specific and private event but rather social, systematic and political? It is difficult to put a stop to the verborrhagic need to say everything that we have been silent for years, that is why I always feel that my texts are insufficient, which in fact they are. But it is part of everyday micropolitics; to say, to ask, to doubt, to learn and, above all, to unlearn. And here's what I've learned in recent years: there are no true or false feminists, it's not a question of levels or percentages. It is not even a question of “a way of being”, feminism is a way of life, a flag that hopefully one day will no longer be necessary to raise. Because then, that day, we will all be different, but from equality.

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