argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Daily microrevolutions
June Fernández @marikazetari 2013ko irailaren 05

Hair removal. Bra. A bestial smell. Menstrual taboo. Clitoris. I like to talk about that. Because it is also possible to work in feminism by raising issues that condition the relationship we have with our bodies every day because we are women. For many, these are superficial, petty bourgeois issues. They say that if I lived in El Salvador I would have more concerns, not the feminists of El Salvador (who also fight against the oppressions linked to the body), but the arrogant left-wing men. They know what the real problems of women are: murder, ablation, rape in conflicts. When we talk about our experiences, they say we're stupid vultures.

But it's not them, it's the feminists, who are fighting extreme male violence. The aim of feminists is to defend all the rights of women, and in this fight we are clear about all serious and minor violations of rights (is there any small violation?). They're united, that the same source is a heteropatriarchal, capitalist, racist society, and that we can't destroy it if we don't expose all its faces and consequences.

The right to abortion is constantly wandering, because in this society it is not clear that only one owns his own body. Hair removal seems like a light topic, but then, why is it so weird to see a woman with furry legs down the street? If it is a personal decision, why does it produce violent reactions – pressure at home; jokes in the group of friends; aggressions on the street –? By expressing a political message, the same one that defends the right to abortion: “The orders of femininity to the pit! My body is mine.” Luis
Bonino’s concept of “micromachismo” has become fashionable, which serves to identify everyday mistreatment. Gender-based violence within the couple is not just a beating or an offense, but persistent contempt gestures, control (e.g., looking at phone messages), stabbing against self-esteem: “You’re fat.” “What are you going to know?” “It doesn’t work at all.” Male violence is not a sequence of isolated attacks, but a complex process of domination.

But who measures the micro and the macro? Women know that there are many ways of violating our will and that when a man humiliates us “softly”, it often does more harm than a slap. And that the “small” aggressions that we live every day with despair (when they touch us the ass on the subway, when they tell us obscenity on the street, when they discriminate against us at work...) accumulate in ourselves, leaving a mark that is not “micro”.

If we talk about micromachismos, a response to microrevolutions can be a possible path. It is an excessive responsibility to destroy the patriarchal system of the millennium, but in my hand it is to live, woman, as free as possible; gradually break the rules of the sexist society (assuming my contradictions) and share that process of empowerment with other women. In the case of men, this can also be the sincere reflection of an equal commitment, to put aside “rebellious” attitudes, to give up the privileges of masculinity without waiting aplausos.En feminism feels that we
are increasingly the ones who care (with us and with our colleagues), humor and pleasure in the center rather than a demanding militancy. Because the best solution and revenge against machismo is to be free and happy men.