Hijas de Violencia, Sexista Punk

Jasmine Garsd took the words out of my mouth. After reading her comment about independent journalist, Andrea Noel, it hit me how was it that I could be having the exact same train of thought as her. Jasmine was born and raised in Argentina until she migrated to the US just after high school.

While I was living in New Orleans I got used to wearing short skirts and dresses all the time. Nobody ever said or yelled anything to me while riding on the bike or walking on the streets, no matter what neighbourhood I was in. The only times I got yelled at, were by fellow Latinos that were drinking beers in the afternoon, under the shadow of a big tree, around Bayou St. John.

After my first year back in Mexico it never crossed my mind to wear a short skirt to the subway, much less to take a bus with something tightly fitted. I found my wardrobe no longer fit the city I was living back in, and more than a climate issue, it was something I had learned since I was a kid. In Jasmine Garsd title: "What did you expect?" one can find all the information needed for this behaviour.

I learned to cope with it when I was forced to, after some party one had to take a cab, or walk somewhere. I was always fierce and confrontational: "What are you looking at, asshole?" I remember flipping my finger if by any chance I happened to walk by a construction site or yelling "Pendejo" to guys that mumbled or made sounds with their mouths. 

Although I appreciate some efforts (which then led to some parodies) that shed some light into these matters, there is something terribly dismembered, threatening or in the less worse cases, edited in the ways a Latin American woman expresses her femininity and the freedom of expression through her body and mind.

My reflection is not merely about people supporting or rejecting any kind of ideas through social media, what concerns me, is the polarised Mexican environment we are submerged in. This country has become (and sadly written in some other posts of mine) a violentscape, more so for the most vulnerable ones. One where some men (or so-called pigs "Porkys") in power are privileged creatures above the law, cleaning their teeth with human toothpicks and stashing away profits from illicit businesses through shadow companies.