Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'
Covid
Good news: An artificial finger has been created to help scientists work out how long the coronavirus can survive on surfaces. The silicon prosthetic will be used to touch different materials contaminated with the virus for varying lengths of time to see whether particles linger.
Living La Vida Loca in Galicia/Spain
Will Spain's right-of-centre PP party finally end the long-standing dominance of the left-of-centre PDSOE party down in Andalucia? Politico Europe poses the question here. Inevitably, it's all about subsidies - in the context of a hugely complex national payment system, one of the most obscure and archaic in the EU. Not to mention EU 'convergence' rules. Which may or may not be largely ignored. In the Continental way of things.
The terrific cityscape I have from my salón window is a great comfort to me in these confined-to-the-house times. But it does raise a a query or two. Like, why is money being spent on illuminating two bridges? Not only with necessary light but also with showy green, blue, red or bright white lights. As in this (inevitably) poor foto from my phone of the adjacent Corrientes and O Burgo bridges:-
My cleaner has the answer; someone's getting commission. I should add I've no idea if this is right or not. But it's probably a view quite widely held.
Yesterday, I was rather suspicious of a possible phishing 'Prenotification' email alleged to be from DHL, as I couldn't recall ordering anything. An internet search endorsed this possibility and it worried me that no one in the UK had sent me anything. After scouring my laptop for malware etc. and checking with the DHL webpage, it dawned on me it was the wine I'd had so much trouble paying for last week. Duh . . .
María's Tsunami: Days 7&8
The Way of the World
Did you know that there’s a Galentine’s Day? February 13. Last year, it's said: Pre-pandemic, parties were thrown, trays of red velvet cupcakes – frosted with lipsticks and high heels – were bought, and goodie bags handed out. Because what better way to tell your ‘bestie’ she’s the “free therapist I don’t deserve” than with a preposterously pricey “pamper pack”? Teachers, we are told, should also be showered with heart-clutching teddies and helium balloons, alongside neighbours, who now have their own card section: “Not everyone has a neighbour as wonderful as you!” Which leaves us stuck with a whole new conundrum: what to buy the DHL guy this Sunday?
Rather more seriously . . . The UN has a new slogan - There is no wrong way to be a woman. One British female columnist opines: This is a ridiculous mantra that wants to diminish women’s experiences and feelings in the name of 'inclusivity’. See her (very) angry article below.
Tesla is worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford put together, despite Toyota alone selling 20 times more cars last year.
Finally . . .
A nice quote from a high level US financier, talking about how Jeffrey Epstein operated and became a multi-millionaire: Have you ever met someone of great wealth who didn’t think they were a terrific judge of character?
THE ARTICLE
The only wrong way to be a woman these days is to stand up for women’s rights: The United Nations's new slogan is a ridiculous mantra that wants to diminish our experiences and feelings in the name of 'inclusivity’: Suzanne Moore
I was a bit worried, I must admit, that I was doing this womanhood thing all wrong. For my whole life I haven’t really got the hang of it. There are many things that women are meant to be interested in: shopping, baking programmes, thrillers in which other women get tortured that leave me cold. Ditto: weddings, dating, baby showers, celebrity gossip about torsos with pouts. And that’s just to start with.
But I shouldn’t have worried because the United Nations has come up with a new slogan and tweeted “There is no wrong way to be a woman. There is no wrong way to be a woman.” They actually said it seven times, but I don’t want you to pass out with boredom. Maybe if you chant it you reach nirvana or maybe women are just so thick they need telling over and over.
The right way to react to this ridiculous mantra is surely to feel murderous. What is this slogan for? Who is it for? These endless attempts at inclusivity mean that being a woman can now even be a feeling in a man’s head. Eddie Izzard, I saw the other day, had been voted the best female comedian. Sorry, but I am not laughing.
There is no wrong way to be a woman. Are they serious? Let me list the ways. I and many women live with them every single day.
One of them is to live in fear. One woman is killed every three days in this country – a figure which has become much higher in lockdown. Being old is also seen by many as the wrong way to be a woman. Another is wanting sex. Or not wanting it at all. Both of these things can be regarded as “problematic”. Also it is wrong to moan about having children because you didn’t have to have them, although getting an abortion would also have made you very wrong too.
Another wrong way to be a woman is to refuse to stop talking about what it is like living in a female body: periods, endometriosis, childbirth, miscarriage, infertility, menopause and that icky stuff. Speaking of this apparently excludes those women whose bodies don’t do those things.
You see, in recent years, it has been mostly wrong to be a woman in public life who stands up for the sex-based rights of other woman. Standing up for trans people is decent and right, but standing up for the rights of women apparently makes one a transphobe. If you start talking about the female experience and think it’s not just different to men’s but different for women of different ethnicities and classes, you will be called a bigot. Your job as a woman, unlike a man’s, is to include everyone, all the time.
Self-sacrifice always. Don’t speak for oneself ladies! Even if you are thick skinned enough to go into politics, questioning the idea that women should maintain legal right based on biological sex is a no- no. This is most definitely the wrong way to be a woman, and it is apparently not welcome in the Green Party, the SNP or the Labour Party. Joanna Cherry, a lesbian who has fought for women's rights all her life has been pushed out of the SNP for “unacceptable behaviour”.
Another very wrong way to be a woman is to think of yourself as more than a collection of body parts: lactators, menstruators, birthers, cervix havers. You do have to wonder what the word “woman” even means now that some organisations have banned us from saying it altogether.
One thing is clear though – if you are a woman the message you receive from birth is that you are pretty much always doing it wrong. That you will never be good enough.
Of course we can unite around all kinds of differences, and let them flourish. But these are differences that need to be acknowledged and talked about. Not brushed away in a simple ‘inclusive’ virtue signalling slogan. Otherwise we are left with a regurgitation of patent nonsense and the denial of women’s embodied experience. Womanhood becomes reduced to just an individual choice.
I sure as hell don’t need the UN telling me that I am doing OK. I will keep challenging this utter gibberish because doing womanhood “wrong” is my absolute right