Beyond Feminism

Confessions of a Rich Girl VI: A New Gut Intuition?

For Nanna

Asombro, sí. Más
bien, te veo grandiosa.
My beautiful friend!

---

El otro día, intenté socializar como si mi cabeza no me estuviera dando vueltas y piruetas. Quería estar presente, quería pasarla bien con las personas que quiero, escuchar la mejor banda de rock del Puerto Rico contemporáneo (ZATO, duh) y olvidarme de los asuntos que aun me quedan por resolver.

Sin embargo, ese día, regrese temprano a mi casa. Como de costumbre, ZATO partió. La Parroquia, con su encanto místico-religioso, es el escenario de la velada. Me complació ver a mi hermano, Giancarlo, quien llegó impromptu. Esa noche, me vio llorar. Cosas que pasan, supongo.

Estar vivo supone el desespero y la espera. Más allá del bien y el mal, sigo existiendo en consciencia de mis emociones, tambaleando entre el yin y el yang. Tratando de caminar la cuerda floja sin ahorgarme en uno de los dos lados. Life is probably like this forever, until it is not. And then, it might be again. La infrecuencia de los sentimientos menos favorecidos puede que sea la única posibilidad de esperanza verdadera. Cada vez que supero una tristeza, cobro una fe en lo positivo. Desbloqueo nuevas maneras de virarle la tortilla a la angustia. It’s a power thing.

I have strong women around me to show for it. Cada una con un superpoder distinto. As creators of life, art, music, and beauty, they hold power.

Regarding Feminism and the Woman

Logically speaking, the most popularly taught definition of feminismo is that women are equal to men. When confused people misinterpret that and take it for misandry, the patriarchy is reinforced. However, I realize that we live in a desolate desert with an information drought, where audiences cannot necessarily be relied upon to rationalize or do proper research on the definitions of feminism. We may live in bubbles where wokeness works, but my personal truth on the matter regarding sexism and the patriarchy leads me to conclude that, at best, feminism is an important stepping stone necessary to ignite wider empathy between sexes and deconstruct social norms that have intersectionally disfavored women and the feminine in humanity. As good as a stepping stone as it can be, it’s also still dangling in the hands of an unstable, violent man’s world. And, ironically, we call nature our mommy.

We may be able to vote and have a bank account, and that’s lovely. I’m eternally grateful for feminism. In fact, it has been my anchor in my fight towards change. An oasis of agreement, at times. Yet, it has kept me running in circles of complacency. People who truly uphold moral values, rooted in feminism, altruism or other philosophies, are not the one’s making the global, exploitative capitalist system rape mother nature. Feminism attacked a critical gear in the system. But when the definition of feminism becomes un chicle estira’o, a buzzword to pray on the attention that vulnerability can attract like honey… what ensues are scandals. Monica Lewinsky y Ocean Pabón son dos cuyo dirty laundry’s airing summoned perspectives from creeps and feminists alike—with the feminists usually holding the more compassionate values of right to privacy and opposition to abuse of power. Whatever the perspective we may agree is more ethical or not doesn’t strip the fact that feminism must participate in the spectacles to survive and matter in the court of public opinion. Feminists must yell. And that strains our voices. It can bring victories at the cost of a soreness that is less worth it on some days.

Feminism gets sensationalized too often, misunderstood fatally in essential journalism. Everything is always just news story… I’ve never seen a reporter talk too certainly about anything, without it being a fucking advertisement for someone else’s point.

My take is that women are not equal to men. To be equal means to BE IT. Thats why two plus two is equal to four. Si el colchón del feminismo es que la sociedad carece de igualdad entre géneros es porque, efectivamente, tratarnos uniformemente entre todos reduce la violencia machista, pero ella persiste con consecuencias reales y dolorosas para todos. A woman can’t equal a man because that would, at the bare minimum, mean that woman and man are synonymous. In reality, we can strive to be opposition in agreement.

We could always rest on basic human decency to fight against abuse and rape. Fuck men and women are equal! Humans are equal to humans… that is more like it. Pienso que estar en contra del maltrato no debería ser un gendered issue. Advocacy for justice in the patriarchy should not be limited to the feminist movement. Maybe I myself am being reactionary. A contrarian. Some will say feminist, too. I mean, sure. Feminist then, feminist now… but also, something else, something that feels new and different. A New Idea that is worth listening to.

At least, that’s how I felt as I listened to Sophia Faustiana. I was also shocked to hear her deny her feminism. She is so empowered… more empowered than me, an, at-the-time, strong-willed feminist. The idea of postfeminism that she has presented to me has piqued my interest. I hope I’ve piqued yours, too. I’m open to be wrong about this one though. Convince me, if you can.