2024-02-08 05:50:24
María Bas never thought she could win the Benidorm Fest. Not even in his wildest dreams was representing Spain in Eurovision an option. She showed up to the appointment like someone flipping a coin. And she came up heads. Yours. That of a star who, at 56 years old, has had the courage to tell all the times they called her a bitch. Without shame, without fear. Because she knew that, like her, there are still those who feel missed for the fact of being. With the poise of a diva she walked her wounds across the stage and, amidst cheers and applause, she began a battle to redefine a word that today is beginning to hurt less. “This song was born because I have felt marginalized, underestimated, humiliated… An emotion that I have always carried inside. “It has been my particular therapy,” says the leader of In Nebula. Together with Mark Dasousa, he has raised the Bronze Microphone that opens the doors of Malmö. There, in May, he will shout again for those who still do not dare to do so.
“Age has helped me to have things clear and, above all, to banish prejudices. The discrimination against women It has been allowed and perpetuated since our ancestors. There should not be any type of inequality,” says the artist, who could not hold back her tears after being crowned last Saturday. It is the greatest milestone in her professional career, but also in her personal one. Singing unapologetically to herself was the most important lesson in her life. And, perhaps, the definitive slap to so many unwanted questions: “Music has the power to change injustices. Being a picture-perfect slut has given me freedom. Now I can shout what I feel from the four winds.” A mission that Las Vulpes inaugurated in 1983 and to which, step by step, they have joined Rigoberta Bandini, Zahara, Mala Rodriguez y La Zowi. They are the tip of the iceberg of a movement that wants to reappropriate bitch, whore, witch… and slut.
Her bravery has become a symbol of empowerment. The shield that those who seek to stand up to fear have clung to. “Zorra is a sexist insult that singles out and belittles only women for the fact of being one. When Nebulossa adopts the term, it immediately becomes a provocation to the patriarchy. If we can’t avoid being called that, let’s turn it around with pride,” explains Candelaria Sánchez. For the Semiotics professor at the University of Alicante, this song is a great achievement. Especially because its success has been developed in a space as popular as the Benidorm Fest: “Music is a tool that strengthens feminism in broadcasts for large audiences. That it has emerged within Eurovision, which is a safe place for diversity, demonstrates the capacity of art as a transformative and identity agent.”
That María and Mark spread their message throughout the Old Continent is, to say the least, revolutionary. Faced with the rise of the extreme right, they are going to sing zorra in Slovak, zorra in Italian, zorra in Finnish, zorra in Latvian, zorra in French… In Spain, they are facing a antifeminist reaction who seeks to undervalue his feat. And, furthermore, the Feminist Movement of Madrid has requested its withdrawal considering that the song insults them in a sexist way. “We have to congratulate ourselves for the existence of a growing tide of sisterhood in the industry that is uniting women in activism,” Sánchez continues. Even so, in the midst of a wave of protests, there are few singers who have dared to speak openly in his compositions. “The reason? It hurts on a social level. What can happen to them in terms of criticism, misunderstandings and image is tremendous,” says Sara Morales, music journalist and co-director of the magazine Worship.
politically incorrect
Hence, then, many think a lot before sharing confessions, testimonies and opinions. Therefore, when one dares, as has happened in the case of Nebulossa, the response is so extreme. “Almost no one raises their hands anymore when a woman talks about sex, eroticism or sensuality, in a friendly or visceral way. However, there are certain social classes where there are still offended and, therefore, censorship,” continues Morales, who gives as an example the hunting that Las Vulpes suffered after acting on the program Beatbox. In some way, the market and the public have pushed artists to be politically correct. They could not bother or get in the way. Hence any rebellious attitude ended up being vetoed: “That’s how it has been until, suddenly, other Vulpes arrive, put the issue back on the table and the mental progress (or not) of our society becomes evident.”
A step forward that usually comes from independent projects that do not have to be accountable to record labels or promoters. Only when freedom is real does the truth come to the surface. The great handicap is that they will have to work twice as hard to obtain results similar to those of their peers. If the fox wanted to run, she had to have autonomy. The previous step to any reappropriation process. It will be slow, but necessary. “Resignifying an insult is tremendously difficult. They are bad words and foul expressions that are stigmatized. And the effort to lose this nuance is titanic. In the case of slut, in addition, the sexual taboo and gender stereotypes are added in a patriarchal community that denigrates them. It has not yet been achieved that, for example, public woman be used as equivalent to public man in the political sphere,” explains Ángeles Calero, professor of Spanish Language at the University of Lleida and expert in linguistic sexism.
This happens because we get used to hearing derogatory expressions towards certain people from the moment we are born. And we do not question them: “The dangerous thing is that, when using them, we tend to think badly of them and feel uncomfortable around them. In the case of tacos dedicated to sexual relations, we find terms that express violence and show a masculine perspective: the man as an aggressive actor and the woman as a victim (stabbing her, stabbing the rifle, going through the weapons…).” Although language is a cultural product that reflects the mandate over them, there is room to break down this barrier that prevents achieving parity. Calero maintains: “We can stop tolerating compliments o create a vocabulary that includes feminine expressions. Grammar can change. “If I hadn’t, we would still be speaking Latin.”
An unfair system
To become a bitch, Nebulossa has had to champion what delegitimized, disavowed and disqualified her. Reversing the meaning, as has been demonstrated, has made him free. A gesture that for many has turned her, in practice, into an enemy. “When someone exhibits a tendency to feel aggrieved by the victories of equality, his reaction is present women as supremacists and aggressors”, points out Luisa Martín, sociolinguist and discourse analyst at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Therefore, what would definitely contribute to this word being redefined is for society to evolve: only if it changes, so will the language. However, past reminiscences still survive in her that could stop social progress and, consequently, ruin the efforts of María and company.
“The resistance of certain sectors, such as teachers who penalize the use of new forms of feminism or the Royal Spanish Academy that rejects certain linguistic changes, acts as a brake,” underlines Martín. The new generations, in this sense, play a crucial role. If they are able to break with the archaic conception of gender relations and, likewise, transmit it to his predecessors, then the reappropriation could be consolidated. That is why the success of The debt within the Benidorm Fest, which attracts a good handful of young people, is so important. He has put on the table that songs like this can be a pitch and, why not, raise awareness. Something that, until today, was not common to see in the charts. Because? Laura Martínez, researcher in feminist cultural studies, gives the key.
“On the one hand, in the heat of Margot Robbie’s non-nomination at the Oscars, the cultural industries, artistic circles, media and canon continue to be Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. No matter how much they paint it pink, purple or green, the socioeconomic system is unfair. And, on the other hand, those women who express their rage in art are singled out as excessive and closed in a kind of velvet ghetto in which ideologized voices are confined. This penalty is even greater for those who, in addition, subvert the normative patterns of femininity due to their origin, ethnicity, class, age, appearance…”, he points out. At the close of this article, The debt It accumulates nine million views between Spotify and YouTube. A triumph that goes beyond the strictly musical. “I’m in a good moment,” María sings in it. Quite right.
However, as Martínez emphasizes, we must not make the mistake of placing all responsibility on the song. Otherwise, it runs the risk of producing the opposite effect: “It can serve as a speaker, even as an anthem, represent the experiences of different women, move us… But be careful with the representation overload. We are so thirsty to recognize ourselves in the culture that we pour our desires, hopes and claims into the few non-normative bodies, voices and identities that have visibility… placing them in a role of superheroes that, sometimes, not even they have claimed.” Hence, it is essential to take his claim seriously. We did not choose Nebulossa to make fun at Eurovision, but to light the fuse of a inexcusable change. She has already made it clear: “Changing for you makes me lazy.”
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