According to the RAE, proteins are molecules formed by amino acids, they are fundamental for the balance and proper functioning of our organism; they are multifunctional, as they control various vital activities, such as creating, regenerating and repairing tissues and oxygenating the organism; as well as protecting the body from infections. In short, protein would be like gasoline for a car, or oxygen to breathe, or water to survive.
When we look at the etymology of words, we can understand many things, the essence of their creation, what they wanted to explain, what knowledge they wanted to summarize in 7-8 letters. The word protein comes from the Greek "proteos" which means "fundamental". So, if something is fundamental, it means it is part of the foundation, of the base, of its primary function. Come on, without that, the thing doesn't work, it doesn't survive.
This month of March is being very intense, so much so that it seemed ironic to me to title this column with this word that a priori is linked to the world of food. And so I will. I started the month participating as a jury for the Innoval Awards for the Alimentaria Fair in Barcelona. In this work, I was surprised that almost all the products we were evaluating and tasting had the word protein on their packaging, that there was added protein to a dairy product, to a fish, to a meat, to a sausage, to a legume, and I was surprised by the need to emphasize it, to highlight it not only in its technical characteristics, but in the product's own name and in its advertising. I was concerned about this need to put the word protein on the food agenda in such a blatant way.
The month has continued with four conferences, and four interviews, where I have been able to explain, as I have been doing for twenty years, the importance of brands with a gender perspective and the importance of speaking in feminine terms to seduce 80% of the market's purchasing power. It must be because it is the month of March 8, the violet month, the month in which the world remembers that women exist, work, buy and care. It is the month of the year where society realizes that women are and exist.
And this has always generated a dichotomy for me about whether I should say no to this whole purple and feminist boom of March because, for us, March is all year round. And in the end, I think that we are still in P3 (preschool) of feminism globally and it is necessary to reinforce the month of March with more debates, more interviews, more street, more podcasts, more conferences, more discussions, more in-company workshops, and more articles. It is necessary because there is still sexist violence in controlled environments and this March has taken Nuria López, the head of the kitchen at the Mas d'Enric penitentiary center, in Tarragona, murdered by an inmate. We also have the media-savvy, millionaire, and rapist Dani Alves who, by contributing one million euros in bail, has supervised release despite a sentence that convicts him.
And this has made me link protein and feminism. It has made me return to the fundamentals of human rights, to the essence of feminism, to the base, to the protein of freedom, equality, and democracy. And yes, perhaps we have to add more protein to all foods so that the market knows that this product is good for them. And perhaps, we have to add more feminism to everything, to business, to education, to family, to relationships, to love, and also to sex. So that we become aware of what is fundamental.
Feminism is not negotiable.