Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

"My novel is an exercise in reparation and revenge."

  • In her book "What Will Be Left," Continta Publishing House has enveloped me the process of cutting off the mistreatment of her ex-husband with reports of everyday Machian violence and a delightful present that she has built together with the women of her life.
 June Fernandez eta Irantzu Varela La Sinsorga kulturgune feministan, Bilbon. Argazkia: Esel Fotograafía. June Fernandez eta Irantzu Varela La Sinsorga kulturgune feministan, Bilbon. Argazkia: Esel Fotografía.
June Fernandez eta Irantzu Varela La Sinsorga kulturgune feministan, Bilbon. Argazkia: Esel Fotograafía. June Fernandez eta Irantzu Varela La Sinsorga kulturgune feministan, Bilbon. Argazkia: Esel Fotografía.

Irantzu Varela (Portugalete, 1974) has raised awareness of male violence and the right to self-defence in eleven formats: The blog Faktoria Lila (which brought together I am no longer that in fanzina), the documentary He never hit me, the videos of El Screw, the articles of Pikara Magazine, the humor monologists Villana and Señoricidio... He has now used the autobiographical novel, although he has stressed that it is "the first thing he has created without a pedagogical purpose".

You've called your novel "Autopornography." What makes you most embarrassed?
I only feel shy when it comes to expressing love. My main concern is that people who love me suffer from reading certain things. But the intention of the book is to show that, if all of this happened to me, I'm happy, happy and quiet. I've tried to turn pains into patrimony, creating something that reaches people. I wrote some passages when I was hurt, but I couldn't publish the book until the wounds were closed.

How have you managed to close the wounds?
I separate the wounds and the scars. Time does not cure anything; I have needed a lot of feminism, tertulias, friends and therapy. The keys are to offend and understand the context in which I explained why I stayed. I wrote the book when I guaranteed that I would not go back to ocurrir.Mi mother reminded me once of the suicides

of Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf to argue that feminism makes us unhappy. What would you answer? Designer
Zuzu Angel stood up against the Brazilian military dictatorship after his son’s forced disappearance, and said: “How good we live simulating that nothing happens.” For many women, an individual survival strategy is to pretend that they don't see what's happening to them. I often say that when a woman does not obey a man, she reminds other women of her obedience. Feminism gives you clarity and the most painful thing is to review your life: friendly, family, sexual relationships... That creates a lot of anger, but I think we're learning how to manage rabies well.

How is the stigma of the victim deactivated?
Fortunately, our way of talking about our experiences of violence has taken a dramatic turn over the last eight years. We used to do it with shame, in spaces of intimacy, now we're able to share between laughter. I used to write about it when I was drunk or especially agitated. I was embarrassed to recognize what happened to me as an adult, even though I had a feminist background. Today I have learned to share reflexively, rather than vomit, and many reply “It has happened to me too”. If it hasn't happened to you, you've had extraordinary luck or maybe you haven't made a critical reading of your life. Two psychologists told me that the protagonists of my documentary spoke as victims of torture. In both cases, we have built a society that has delegitimized these violence, so it makes us less embarrassed to bear witness to the victims. It has been personal and collective work.

Ana Requena explains in her book Intensas that women socialize us in the sense of guilt and men in anger. You claim rabies.
It's the most revolutionary emotion because it forces you to react. On the contrary, sadness and guilt sink you. The book is an exercise in repairing and venganza.En the book

tells that it had two husbands: one good and one bad. Why don't you talk about the good husband?
Do you really think the world needs more original type stories? Can you imagine a feminist gypsy writing a book about non-gypsy men? Trying not to be an exploiter does not do you well, but human and dignified.

On the contrary, the men of your family feel good.
I have some great men around me, I have mentioned them in gratitude. My father has done a great job of understanding what his daughter, his wife and his sister-in-law say. In 40 years, like other parents of their friends, it's changed a lot. There are others that have not changed or that are going to get worse.

The book shows the famous Señoro. In particular, easily identifiable tertullians. Have you had any doubts or fears when pointing them out?
I wanted to make his name and surname a footnote, but fortunately my lawyer has not left me. These are stories that I can support anyone. Someone who did something punctual at the time called me to take responsibility, and I was happy. If someone reads the book, they feel challenged and think, “How was I so wrong!”, great. But the insects that pop up matter to me a little bit. One policeman told

you that half of his colleagues hated you and the other half would touch your skin with you. I've seen a dynamic of attractiveness and hatred towards many feminists. At
the time, I was younger and leaner. Surely it was an attractive villain for them, yes. Now I've come out quite a desirable way for a straight man and they continue to hate me. The hypersexualization of women is a way of deactivating us politically. If they do not classify us as “fucking” they take us from the category of woman. I've been told I'm not violable! But it's a lie: rape is not about sexual desire, it's about power. There are insects that rape children and animals.

Do you think Me too is more attentive to harassing them?
Yes, but I don't think the turning point was Me too, but a much broader political context of feminist consciousness. Many women have developed the ability to point out these attitudes and many men have reflected. Others are fascinated because they got used to doing with impunity what they wanted: from sexist comments about our bodies, to touching and to violating without leave. Beyond patriarchal justice, what other

means do you see to denounce the Machian violence?
I believe that we must organise collective self-defence, not punitive and fair. It's hard, but we're all learning. In addition to organizing the reaction, we must think about safe spaces. I like a concept by Rote Zora: contrabiolence. They didn't kill anyone, but they did sabotage. I like the idea of forming groups of women, but we must try not to repeat the patriarchal forms, to care for the people who denounce, to avoid lynchings...

But is it possible to carry out a fair and non-punitive counterpart?
I don't know, we can at least change rhetoric, like when we go out in torches at night demonstrations. First of all, I believe that all women, nonbinary people and LGBTBI should learn feminist self-defense to begin to respond to the assaults by setting aside fear. The aggressors, in view of their confrontation, communicate with each other. I would say that to some extent the night dynamic has changed: In the 1990s, we were shocked and we were shocked, but now we rebuke, if not a punch. However, every night we have to defend ourselves, and it is annoying that the feminists and the loggers feel straight about juerga. Will the day come when we will be able to laugh among ourselves in a hetero bar?

Some believe that the rhetoric of contradiction is dangerous because it strengthens and harnesses young men.
Assata Shakurre explained it perfectly: “In history, there is no one who has achieved freedom by calling for the morality of his oppressor.” They say that we have gone too far. Where are the aggressive feminists? Where are the men scared? There is a machist reaction on the part of those who want to live above our rights. They wanted to follow the path of their parents and grandparents, but today's girls are standing up. The Ku Klux Klan was born with the abolition of the esclavitud.En

book as part of a lineage of strong and rebellious women.
Yes. My great-grandmother threw her husband home in 1923. She was 25 years old and two sons and one daughter. My husband, at stake, was playing the sewing machine on the cards, and that was the source of money for my great-grandmother. From there I come: the revolts of mistreatment, housewives without education (with infinite curiosity), salespeople of sardines walking from Zierbena to Santurtzi or Bilbao… I have grown up surrounded by a salsa of women who have maintained their capacity for pleasure and enjoyment in front of the patriarcado.La class consciousness is

very present.
Inevitably. My father was a factory worker, and my mother was a housewife. I understood that I had to take advantage of all the possibilities of life, because those of my class did not rush them. Now I think it is legitimate to have a desire to improve life, but without exploiting anyone. In college, I realized that not everyone lived like us, that there are people with two bathrooms and a summer house. It is the responsibility of these people to understand that the conditions they have had are privileges and to use them for the benefit of all.

It claims lesbianism as a political option. Do you think it's a real solution for most women?
I mean my subjective life experience, of a woman who tried to be heterosexual until she had two husbands. The women drew me from a young age and when I had the opportunity to have a lesbian relationship, it gave me great peace of mind and great liberation. The best thing about my life is to get out of the orbit of heterosexual male desire. To say that I am a lesbian publicly seems to me a matter of responsibility, given my visibility. I believe that women who would like to carry out lesbian desire are more than we present ourselves as lesbians. What is the solution to everything? No, of course. Furthermore, I would say that political lesbianism belongs to a particular generation. I see a lot of bisexual young people who think of monosexuality as a horrific.

Allegations of hate messages he received from social media have been filed. It's discouraging.
Well, I think there's more awareness and that advancement is the law of 'Just Yes'. In any case, I have seen that the answers are triggered when it happens to obvious women who are not feminists. When a Facebook user wanted a multiple violation of Ines Arrimadas, the next day he was fired from work. However, as I have not been admitted to the proceedings, even when I have been sent videos of young girls performing felations, and that is a crime [child pornography]. You'd have to do an experiment to see what happens if, for example, a politician from the PNV picked up the messages that I get.

It highlights the phobia in the hate messages it receives. On the back of the book, you've named yourself a fat activist.
After participating in the fat book (H)love, I realized the scarce political space we give to that oppression. I just went from “I am afraid to get fat” to “I am considered fat”. Now I call myself fat and people feel inced moda.Recomiendo the book Hunger by

Roxanne Gay, is black, back and very fat. My consistency is portable, I get into the chairs, I have no trouble moving, I am attractive to many… But if I am politicized, I would change my cuerpo.En a

chapter honored to Madonna. Is aging liberating? At
age 65, he just gave the greatest concert in human history: two million people on the beach of Copacabana. It tells us: “Then I settle, I am a free old woman.” Finally, aging does not seem liberating in itself, if not because learning opportunities accumulate. You've grown up attacking patriarchy, then you disobey it, and aging is the greatest disobedience. I'm disturbed by body changes, but I know I can't fight time. I hope that your whole life will not suffer behind an ideal.

It makes it clear that from the beginning to the end of the book it is friends who save us.
Fortunately, thanks to feminism, the LGTBI and queer struggle, we have valued the chosen family or, as Violeta Assiego says, the logical family, which is not biological. I honor my friends, but also my lifelong friends outside the queer feminist bubble. They land at me because more than Irantzu Varela cares about Irantzu. Thanks to them, I have not become a mere snob.


You are interested in the channel: Indarkeria matxista
2025-01-28 | Julene Flamarique
I. Sexual Violence against Young Women in Navarre The study
They propose to focus on men to combat radicalizing machismo
Most of the sexual aggressors belong to the social environment of the victim and it is necessary to distance themselves from the “idea of the phantom rapist in the street” I on Sexual Violence against Young Women in Navarre. The exams. The study has focused on young people... [+]

2025-01-24 | Julene Flamarique
Burlada denounces the eviction of a woman victim of gender-based violence and her five children
The Socialist Housing Union explains that the social services have not offered any alternative, even if the person concerned has made more than one request. “Before the law, the aggressor and the institutions” denounce the total helplessness that this woman suffers.

2025-01-23 | Euskal Irratiak
Erizainen erdiak genero eta sexu indarkeria jasaten du lanean

Bi erizainetatik batek lanean eraso sexistak jasaten dituela azalerazi du Erizainen Ordenak joan den urte bukaeran egin ikerketak. 21.000 erizainek ihardetsi dute, sektore pribatu, publiko eta liberaletik. Hauetan 2.500 gizonak dira.


2025-01-17 | Oihane Artetxe
Vulnerable children: institutional violence in our context

Today, the voices of women and children remain within a culture that delegitimizes their voices, silencing their experiences, within a system aimed at minimizing or ignoring their basic rights and needs. A media example of this problem is the case of Juana Rivas, but her story... [+]


2025-01-14 | Leire Ibar
Gernika’s feminist movement supports the complainant on the first day of the trial against Mario López
The former coach of the Gernika basketball team began the trial at the Provincial Audience of Bizkaia on Tuesday. The Prosecutor's Office has requested 14 years in jail for the defendant and the private prosecution, 18 years in jail for sexual abuse. López's defense states that... [+]

Instagram account 'Euskal Herria Complaints' collects nearly 500 testimonies of sexual assaults since November
In November 2024, a group of anonymous women launched the Instagram account to collect testimonies about male violence. In the Spanish state they have based themselves on the #Cuentalo project launched by journalist Cristina Fallaras. Women, through anonymous testimonies, have... [+]

2025-01-13 | ARGIA
The trial against former Gernika coach starts on Tuesday
The Prosecutor's Office is calling for fourteen years in jail for former basketball coach Mario López, charged with a crime of murder. The particular accusation, for its part, calls for a sentence of eighteen years in prison. The Feminist Network of Gernika-Lumo has called a... [+]

2025-01-07 | Leire Ibar
Calls for mobilizations to denounce Barakaldo's machist murder
The 84-year-old woman was murdered by her son on 3 January at her home in Bilbao. Several sources have indicated that the man died as a result of his neck injuries. On Tuesday afternoon, concentrations will be held in Barakaldo and in the four capitals of Euskal Herria.

2025-01-03 | ARGIA
A surfing teacher asks for 85 years in jail for child sexual abuse
The Prosecutor’s Office of Gipuzkoa believes that Hondarribia’s 40-year-old professor sexually abused eleven minors between 9 and 17 years of age between 2011 and 2021. He was imprisoned in 2021, after being denounced by six of his students.

2024-12-31 | ARGIA
Arrested in Zarautz a man on therapy for sexually assaulting a woman
The young woman has been assaulted at a home in Getaria, as reported by the Basque Department of Security. The woman went to a natural therapy clinic every week and the Ertzaintza investigates whether there are more victims of acts similar to those that occurred in the Basque... [+]

2024-12-31 | Julene Flamarique
The indictment calls for eighteen years in jail for former Gernika coach Mario López
Sexual assaults began in 1998, when the victim was 13 years old and had no police history. Although in 2003 she left the club, last year the woman reported sexual assaults, as Mario López continued to be a coach at the club. The indictment seeks an 18-year prison sentence, four... [+]

The Feminist Movement estimates that there could be hundreds of cases and 15 complaints of aggression related to the case of the Llodio physiotherapist.
Dozens of people have concentrated this Sunday in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Laudio, under the motto Ez zara physioa, harassing zara.

2024-12-27 | ARGIA
This year, the CAV has a total of 5,212 complaints of assault by the Holy Father, 8 per cent more than last year.
As of November 2024, 683 sexual assaults have been reported, 16.7% more than last year, according to data from Emakunde. There has also been an increase in the number of women who have reported domestic violence (975) and the number of women who have been assaulted by their... [+]

2024-12-23 | Julene Flamarique
They detect in Germany a Telegram channel with 70,000 participants to share tips on how to rape women
Over 70,000 men around the world participate in a chat group to talk about how to drug and rape women. Two journalists from the German public radio ARD have carried out an investigation for a year and have shown that in some cases the victims were their partners, their sisters... [+]

They condemn a man to prison for attempting to rape a woman in Donostia
The Gipuzkoa Hearing has sentenced a man to one and a half years in prison for a crime of attempted rape of women. The trial was held on Wednesday and, before starting, the man acknowledged the facts and reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office and the particular... [+]

Eguneraketa berriak daude