The vagina is the organ of the female reproductive system that connects the uterus to the outside of the body. It would be the exit and entry door, that is, the place one must pass through. Both for birth and for pleasure, it is also where menstrual fluid exits and where sperm ascend to fertilize the egg. Come on, it's the queen of the mambo.
The vagina is also the object of the aggressor's desire when he rapes and when he mutilates the genitals in female genital mutilation. This was made very clear by the American playwright and feminist Eve Ensler in 1996 with the play The Vagina Monologues, translated into 45 languages and performed in 120 countries. In this interpretation, monologues of three women are heard explaining experiences of pleasure from masturbation and sexual relations, also going through aggressions and rapes experienced. In these almost 30 years, this play has not stopped being performed, thus confirming that the vagina, as a female organ, is a cause of inspiration, pleasure, and aggression.
Today, November 25 —International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women— I wanted to look at the world from here, from this powerful six-letter word. This instrument of power exclusive to women, which some men think belongs to them. That we are only carriers of this organ for whoever wants to enter and exit, whenever they want.
This autumn in Barcelona I visited the exhibition of the Catalan artist Mari Chordà at the Macba, who in 1964 painted the first vagina, and during the exhibition you can simulate entering a vagina and feeling its embrace. Normalizing the power of the vagina and by extension of women is important, and associating it with feminism and education even more so. I learned firsthand about the work of the Sorli foundation, which works to eradicate gender violence and aggressions in the workplace. We have learned about the case of Gisèle Pelicot, who has suffered rapes for years and is empowering other victims to report and speak out.
The politician Errejon has shown himself to be an aggressor and has left all progressive and feminist people who work every day to make equality visible perplexed. We have had breakfast many days with news of religious people who have abused their students and sent them to other missions to remove them from the spotlight and minimize the trauma. I have learned about the work of filmmaker Gala Hernández who analyzes the community of incels (men who hate empowered women because they cannot have relationships with them) and I attended the presentation of the documentary Bonita by the Catalan publicist Eva Santana who masterfully explains the fear we all feel in the face of a threat and possible aggression and how we have normalized it. And the French filmmaker Agnès Varda comes to mind when she was surprised to be asked, "Are you still a feminist?", as if it were a disease or something fleeting.
When they tell me that feminism takes a step back when these things still happen, I answer no. Feminism is more present than ever, because it is denounced, it is talked about in the street, it encourages all of us to denounce aggressions and abuses of power and vagina. Indeed, shame must change sides, and it will only change sides by being brave and denouncing the aggression and the aggressor. It will only change by not being accomplices of the aggressor with silence and turning our heads. This is also feminism.