This is an anonymous message from an ordinary student. Good read.
You know that feeling you get when…
They ask you for your average and then turn up their noses because it's low by their standards? Or do they jump to the last minute to study in groups because they consider themselves smarter and therefore would only waste time with you? Poor people… Or are you the last to choose when it comes to forming working groups for a project and in the background to the embarrassing silence you can hear the crickets that are in Leo Square? Or do they take your interests in music, film or subjects of study for granted? Or they are surprised because you are interested in literature, politics, philosophy, thermodynamics, or certain directors, singers, politicians… why not very suitable for a person like you? But please
Have you ever felt uncomfortable…
For your physique? Too muscular or too little muscular For the amount of hair on your body? Too many or too few on the face, back, chest, legs, arms… Why did you have tears in your eyes one day and just want to cry? Or did you want to hug someone? Or to fuck him? But you didn't do it because it wasn't "decent for a person like you."
How annoying prejudices can be, right? To me personally comes the urticaria when they take for granted that I am not able to do this or that based on the silly idea they have made of me. I realize that it is even worse when these preconceptions are so ingrained in the collective imagination that they undermine an individual's expression, career, or freedom.
"But what do you care about having a job? She stays at home to take care of her children so she feels fulfilled and I don't even have to pay for her motherhood!" "What do you want me to know about politics, come on!" "What a bastard the practitioner of solid mechanics, that you return to do ***" insert at will the comment little stylnovistico that you want 😉 " Why do you keep studying engineering?! It's a man's thing…" "But what masterful?! Close at the triennale and then think about starting a family, work is a men's thing!"
Today is March 8th, today we fight against prejudices, against people who tell us what we can or cannot do.
I could talk about women's wages, how women are not masters of their own image and a thousand other concrete cases in everyday life in which misogynistic prejudices limit a woman's freedom.
But then I thought, what's the point of talking about it if I often get sweet phrases like:
"Feminism wants women to prevail over others" "You're feminists but when you're a gentleman you don't mind, huh?" Which is sometimes replaced by a very sleazy "you like to enter the disco for free on Saturday night though, huh?"
I address these people in particular, who I hope we have not already closed the page and have moved on to fucking in their safe hortus conclusus where they can thrive their phobia of feminism and inability to understand it.
Feminism, although the term may be misleading, concerns everyone. It is a movement that fights against the annoying labels that limit the being of both women and men, its purpose is GENDER EQUALITY. Do you understand? So not only for women, BUT FOR ALL LIVING BEINGS OF THIS EARTH, male or female.
Dear fearful of feminism, if you have come this far, I am already satisfied.
Generally, I also recognize, it is easier to classify people as "types" to whom "certain behaviors" correspond than to go and talk to them to know their true essence. How many times do we talk to our classmates and make jokes about that colleague who asks a thousand questions? Or that girl who comes to class to do the parade? It is normal, it is in the nature of man; because we are lazy but also because we want to somehow protect ourselves from comparison with others that could highlight how petty and cowardly we are, but this is another pair of sleeves.
I don't feel like being a perbenista in the chair who dogmatically and repeatedly says "Do not judge without knowing" "stop joking about stereotypes" as a memento mori.
But I would invite you to reflect on the use of words, on how thin the line between joking and acting is. Speech is a very powerful medium that influences the formulation of our thoughts and behaviors. It is important to be aware of making jokes, because it is natural, but to limit them to goliardic bar conversations, being careful that they do not cause suffering and discomfort.
There are cases in which this foresight is lacking. Indifference and laziness do not lead to anything good, we have historical testimonies that confirm it. Feminism is no different from all those movements that are against racism, bullying, homophobia and so on. The common denominator of these movements is the fight against indifference that fertilizes the ground to hatred, gratuitous violence (if it suits us) or people convinced of their "unopened" ideologies. Because it is from indifference towards others that problems arise much more serious than the luxury tax on sanitary napkins, such as psychological or physical violence, black children who are ridiculed in front of an entire class with the consent of the teacher, singers who are targeted on the public square with comments on their sex life just because they have allowed themselves to oppose a decision of a minister …
In our society we absorb daily from radio, television news, online news, the violence that there is in this world, so much so that we are addicted to it and consider it as a normal routine. We are no longer surprised by the husband who pours acid in his wife's face, or the homeless man who is beaten. We are there, inert spectators, without the desire to react or even the interest, because it does not concern us, and our silence is filled by the words of people whose intentions are neither transparent nor the best. And we should not be surprised when we reach the point of no return. Yes, it sounds very catastrophic, but this is a warning to invite you to be amazed now in the face of injustices, because now and only now it can be remedied, not when it is too late.
I conclude this sentimental pippone with a sentence
"The world belongs to those who have the courage to be amazed"
I wish you to be amazed by the bad things but also by the wonders that there are in this world, continuing to observe life with eyes lit with curiosity.
Peace
