Public spaces are as ours as anybody''s (of any man, that''s what I mean). We have as much right to occupy them with tranquility and security as anyone (any man, again). It should be something distinct and straightforward, but it is not.
As women when we go down the street, we are in danger; in danger of someone else (usually a man, but not necessarily) deciding that by being in a public space, we also become a public entity, which they have the right to occupy, to increase, to touch and to violate. It also turns out that women, even if we go in pairs or groups, when we are in public spaces, we go "alone" if we don''t go with a man. The male marks and protects the females of the pack, "these are mine; nobody touches them". The same happens when being invited to a drink at the bar, and a "no, thanks" is insufficient, but the "I have a boyfriend" causes immediate withdrawal. The"engaged" woman is not touched; it is the "single" woman who is public, who belongs to everyone; it is the one with the lowest cunning, the one who catches her first. If she didn''t want to be hunted, she wouldn''t leave her house, where she belongs.
It also turns out that women, even if we go in pairs or groups, when we are in the public space, we go "alone" if we don''t go with a man.
It is in the house, in the private space, the family and cozy space where the woman should exist, they remind us. Inside that social womb where there are only two possibilities: the woman-mother and the woman-daughter. Where the role and function are clearly defined: care, love, femininity, nurture, stamina, self-denial.
If your husband hits you, indeed, it''s because of something you did. The problem is theirs, do not get into couple matters; its domestic violence; it is not our problem.
The women who keep quiet are more beautiful, but suddenly and incomprehensibly for all those good men (and good ladies) decide to leave home and go outside, occupy spaces that, they say, do not belong to them. Those women who are provoking and then see what happens to them; They are looking for "it," they wanted it. If they didn''t want to be harassed, touched, raped, why would they be in men''s offices, in men''s factories, in men''s bars, in squares, on the streets, in men''s spaces?
There is only one type of woman who feels comfortable in the streets, the Bad Woman. And the Bad Woman doesn''t deserve respect because she doesn''t know her place, you have to teach her. A woman''s body in the public space is always scandalous, and it is political, it is powerful. A woman occupying a space that society tells her does not belong to her, and by holding it is risking her life is always resistance and activism. To resist with our bodies in public spaces is to fight against the violence they impose on us.
Arent our bodies, those who touch and rape and torture and murder?
Are not our bodies that should occupy everything?. Bodies that tremble with rage and not fear, bodies that take care of themselves, bodies that heal, free bodies occupying the space to which they are also entitled. A woman''s body in public space is always scandalous. It''s political; it''s powerful. On March 9, who can stop, stop. But I do not want to see a country without a woman in the streets. I want to see a tide of bodies in the streets, of "solitary" women, of female tribes, of a sorority.
Let''s occupy the streets to raise, to heal, to tell us our stories, and get to know each other. Let''s take back the squares to move freely, to listen to ourselves, to discuss what we can do and what we are no longer willing to allow. Never again let them tell us that this is not our place, that we are out of place, that we do not belong in the public sphere, that our space is inside, invisible, irrelevant, silent, dead, never again, not one more.
(María José Pardo/Traducción: Valentina K. Yanes)