Argentine feminist Rita Segato in a 2019 picture in Buenos Aires Ricardo Ceppi (Getty Images)
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Argentinian anthropologist Rita Segato was in Colombia this week, where she first spoke about the concept of manhood mandate years ago. On Thursday, during a meeting with lawyers and human rights defenders in Bogotá, he recalled where this idea came from, to which he returns every time he talks about the Colombian reality or that of another country suffering from armed confrontation. . Segato says it was in Buenaventura without giving a specific year. In the Colombian Pacific, she asked a group of black women how they could end the war. The Argentine didn’t hesitate to reply: “Dismantle the mandate of masculinity,” she said at the time.
The concept is now repeated to talk about why there is no point in thinking about ceasefires or pacts to end violence. “Men are willing to be a part of war, by the mandate of manhood, by obedience to an internal law that tells them it is necessary to be cruel to be called a man. It’s extremely stupid,” says Segato. “If we dismantle that mandate and tell men that they are not comfortable obeying him, that they will run away, that they will annihilate themselves because they will be much happier, then there will be no one to blame for wars could recruit.”
Rita Segato has returned to Colombia when there is a new government and a Francia Márquez that gives her “hope,” she says excitedly. She considers what the Colombian vice president has “unprecedented” and adds some milestones, not as many as she would like, from the region’s women who have managed to create a blanket in politics and on the public breaking the agenda. He talks about the Honduran Berta Cáceres and the Brazilian Marielle Franco. “[Lo de Francia] It’s not easy because other characters like Berta or Marielle, as big as them, have been killed.”
Rita Segato can’t believe what she heard when she arrived in Colombia. The country has been mired in an absurd controversy for weeks because the vice president, who has been the victim of attacks and threats, sometimes takes a helicopter to be on the safe side. “I’m definitely not the size of Francia Marquez. I hate these things but did you see how she replies? Look at the answer he gave to this pseudo-white woman when he compared her to a gorilla, like almost all of us on our continent: he sent her a hug!” Segato recalls one of the many racist episodes with admiration with which he had to deal with the Vice President of Colombia.
The Argentine says she was amazed by the country’s presidential elections. The images of canoes full of people who wanted to vote regardless of rain or distance made headlines around the world – for Segato a sign of Francia Márquez’s power to mobilize peoples who saw themselves represented on an election map for the first time. . “This is France’s great victory,” he assured without hesitation. She believes that a government with a feminist agenda, such as that claimed by Gustavo Petro, would expect women to really have a voice in the decisions that run this country.
“Petro, who describes himself as a feminist, should listen a lot to Francia Márquez,” warns Segato, who insists that feminist debates and speeches must also appeal to men. During his visit to Bogota met with soldiers one afternoon because he says it’s no use just talking to each other.
Our recommendations of the week:
The army is investigating the death of 21-year-old Mexican soldier Ana Fernanda Basaldúa Ruiz. The department has a long history of abuse.
In this interview with EL PAÍS, the Minister for Racial Equality of Brazil and sister of Marielle Franco, who was murdered five years ago, talks about the female presence in politics, racism, abortion rights and the damage Bolsonaro has done.
More than a decade after the murder, a court has sentenced Julio César Hernández Ballinas, a Mexican police officer and the victim’s ex-partner, to the maximum sentence.
The 25-year-old is the world’s best-known Brazilian environmental activist. Her ability to navigate a palatial office as well as an Amazonian village makes her special.
The Young Women’s Association’s “Apps without Violence” report, based on almost a thousand surveys, calculates that 57.9% of respondents felt pressured to have sex with the men they met.
Briton Ethel Smyth composed The Women’s March and pioneered the premiere of a work at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
The cities of the American continent are macho. Territorial planning with a gender perspective is your remedy.