Good bye everyone!

Today will be my last entrance of your lovely blog, Woman + Confidence= Power. I have to say it has been such a wonderful experience sharing all my investigation and ideals with you about this beautiful topic, Women. My ideals, should not be only “my ideals”; they should also be everyone ideal in order to recreate a better world. It is not easy to tolerate any discrimination from any sector to any sector. Discrimination because of gender (as other discriminations) is an aberration. That is why we should all work together in order to chance the minds of those people that have a wrong mentality or ideology. Feminism is the acceptation of equal right between both sexes. So, why don’t we just fight for that? ...I think the world would be a better place to live. That’s why I think that “we should all be feminist!”.

Boiling water from her to him!

Here is the new about a woman (Julia Camilo Lorenzo) which threw boiling water on her boyfriend and on the ex- girlfriend of him because she found them together sleeping on her bed while she was outside. Camilo told her boyfriend that she didn’t wanted that woman (his ex- girlfriend) in the house, but he kept her, so that occurs. She is now being processed because of this crime and it is expected to be in jail or to pay a huge amount of money in order to reverse the damages to the “victims”. Knowing that we can think that Julia has committed a really bad crime, but, what makes her do that thing? I am not in favor of the cause but she had her reasons to act in a way similar to that.

But now, how is she going to do that? Are she crazy? That is not the way to deal with a situation like this. This is a crime. I think that things like this can put women of her age in totally bad reputation. Julia has 19 years old… does that justify her act? I think that not. I think she just had to think about it, and not act in that way. She could cause really serious problem, worse than those made to their (the victims) skin. And as you can see in the photos of the new, their skin is burned up. Do you imagine yourself sleeping and receiving boiling water on your body? It must be horrible!

Finally, I think people should think before acting. What Julia Camilo made is fatal. She attacked them and we don’t know what consequences could bring to these couple of victims. She made wrong. This is not the way to deal with things. With 19 years old, we expect from her ignorance and intrepid things, but this kind of thing we don’t expect them from anyone. It is horrible and do not have the forgiveness of god. I invite you to see the news and tell me what you think. 

You can get the notice here:

• https://seguridad.gijon.es/data/images/f8/8418/390x225_v1_manoquemada.jpg
• http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/policia-tribunales/nota/causaparajuicioporarrojaraguahirviendoaparejayaotramujer-1056360/

My neighbor- a poor soldier

My neighbor, which is my uncle’s wife, had lived a live with so many difficulties that I would say, she is a soldier. I call her a soldier because she has passed through a lot of situation, such as battles, not only with her husband, but also with her sons and daughters, and also with the society she lives with. She had been in many controversies that putted her in the side of a victim, and in that side she had stay. What I’m saying here is that she consider a totally victim of every problem she goes through, even if she is not the victim. This position in every intrapersonal relation makes her such as a submissive and powerless woman, and she seems to be in totally agreement with this.

For example, since she began to live with my uncle, every day there is a fight of words (discussion); fight by gestures… fight by everything. What he just ask, she is always there for him, but not him for her. So, I would say that she is like the slave of him. Then she start to complain when she is not with him, saying that she doesn’t disserve a life like that; that she is a victim. But in fact, she doesn’t do anything to fight that, she doesn’t go against that. Only she keeps supporting that behavior.

I think this is very frustrating. If I were a woman, I would not tolerate something, like behaviors from a man, like this. I would make pretty clear that I’m a woman and that as a man do, I disserve totally respect. My neighbor should start thinking about her value. And also start to just valuate herself, regardless of an external valuation. I don’t doubt of her intelligence, but she would be more intelligent if she start by that way. She is pretty, able, strong… a woman. And because of that, she disserve better.

A Julia de Burgos: exquisite piece of bravery

“You are only the ponderous lady very lady;
not me; I am life, strength, woman.”

-     Julia de Burgos

Returning to Julia de Burgos, I would like to share what I have found: a precious poem made by her. This poem, entitled A Julia de Burgos, is a sophisticated piece of her mind in which she talks, in form of reproach, to herself. Here are two sides: 1. the side Julia shows to the society: a housewife, resigned, submissive and hypocrite; 2. the Julia she actually is, but in her mind: brave, courageous, with a sense of strength, freedom and justice. In this poem Julia seems to have a kind of discussion from that “Julia fighter” (the protagonist) against the “coward Julia” (the antagonist); only that she don’t have the answers from the antagonist. Regardless of the absence of the antagonist’s answer, the mission of the protagonist is to make a call of action; to make her own enter into conscience, and because of that, do a change. So, according to that, we can say that this is an optation.

Julia made a full use of stylistic figures in this poem, such as metaphors (Tú, flor de aristocracia; y yo la flor del pueblo); antithesis (Tú eres sólo la grave señora señorona;  yo no, yo soy la vida, la fuerza, la mujer); anaphors (Tú); reduplication (contra ti, y contra todo lo injusto y lo inhumano); hyperbole (que en todos mis poemas desnudo el corazón); personification (a mí me pinta el sol); simils (Tú eres como tu mundo, egoísta; yo no); and asíndeton (dama casera, resignada, sumisa). Also, this poem counts with a huge amount of images, for example: viril destello. Actually, there are more stylistic figures in the poem, but those are the most common.

On the other hand, we have to keep in mind that Julia wrote that poem in an era, not so different from ours. Male chauvinism; not equal opportunities at jobs, programs, politic area, and other ambits; more strong believing in catholic religion… these are some of the factors that influenced in the writings of Julia, and this poem is not the exception. Because she served as a member of the “Daughters of Freedom”, her believing are manifested in almost every poem she wrote. That was what she actually was: a strong, fighter, brave, advocated woman. And because of that, her spirit lives among all of us, through her literature and work.

Personally I love this poem because it actually represent not only a huge amount of women; but also a huge amount of men. Some women are joined with a man not because she loves him, but because of appearances. The same thing also occurs with men. The appearances have truly power on a lot of us… I include myself. Many of the time we are acting according with what people or society says, but not with what we actually want. We are not being free at all. And to proof if it is true, ask yourself: How many time do you dress as you really want? Are you happy with what you are doing: your job; your role at the family? Are you working according with your interest? Or is it because the society expect them (your interest) from you? What is the society expecting from you? Is that what you want? …This poem is like a revelation from Julia to Julia. We should do the same, and fight according our brave, advocated spirit.

The "Yal" thing

There is a new tendency of women, and also in men, in being Yal. This is the name that the puertorican society have attribute to those persons that have a really pour sense of education, regardless if they are or not. These peoples act like if they were vulgar persons, like if they do not have education. Most of the time, if you are walking through a street from Puerto Rico, pretty sure you are going to find a Yal. And this is because Yals are everywhere: wherever the government brings money aids or helps, these people will be there. Sometimes they are quiet violent, but most time they are not; it depends on the situation. But don’t worry, if you make friendship with them, you will have no problem. But make sure it is friendship.

Yals are not always people associated with bad conduct; they are also really nice. When they do not try to abuse from the government aids, we can get notice of a less dependent conduct. I’m not saying that they are independent, but they are paying more attention to other stuff, but not money. Here we can say, Yals are less interested, and because of that, more nice. But this do not always have to be completely true: there could be other factors to be considered. The point is, why always the society attribute this behavior or tag to women? Are women the only ones in being Yals? The answer is, obviously, not.

The origin of the word is from the reggaeton music, where the artists called Yals to all those women that do what they (reggaeton artist) want, especially in the sexual ambit. Yal is a country word, created by puertorican to call specifically woman, which I think is a kind of sexism because men also act in that way. But for men, the word is Caco, and its characteristic more important is the listening of reggaeton music.

How pretty those pants!

There was a moment when women could not use pants. It could be because of the reputation of the family; because of the social oppression of attributing this piece of cloth only to men; or it could be because of religious cause. Because there are a lot of religions that do not permit women to use pants, the impact of this practice has arrive to us, I mean, in our contemporary society. Religions as the Oneness Pentecostals; Orthodox Jews; or traditionally Catholics, prohibits the use of trousers because of many reasons: Biblical commands; the sacrament of leaving the space between legs clear; etc. But trousers (or pants) are indeed a piece of cloth without sex or gender predetermined. They were accepted time later the 19^th century, and by the time, women keep using it without any concern. But, how does this practice begun to be accepted by the society?

When the husbands of this women were in armed forces or in war, trousers begun to be a common habit among women which, when working in the outside or in the professional ambit, understood they (pants) could be useful. Specifically, later in the 20^th century it were considered as a piece for both sexes and as a fashion piece too. But there were always the controversy of this practice, especially from the religious sector (the opposition that had been dragged since that time until now). Knowing that, we should also have to know that there were women that fight against that opposition. In our island there was a woman very known by all of us: Luisa Capetillo. Known also as an anarchist, Capetillo used pants in public in many times, and because of that, she was arrested and then liberated (she was arrested because it was considered a crime). But globaly, she wasn’t the unique. Senators as Rebecca Morgan (the first senator to use pants in the U.S.); Barbara Mikulski; and Carol Moseley, were women in favor to the cause.

Lastly, trousers are not intended to be used only by men, although this is not part of the reality in today’s society. I think that religion is a prejudicial influence that go against the liberation of women in many aspect of their life. Religion arrest them in order to continue to be the submissive, without vision, homely women that have been for centuries. Religion should not be mixed with these facts, but sadly it is. Pants do not define how a woman should act or perceive things, nor in men do. This is because pants are just a piece of cloth that should not be adjudicated to only one sex and gender!

Discrimination in its spectrum

As a common practice of the human being, discrimination have been applied from the lowest to the highest level. It is not unknown that people tend to categorized other people, denning them from participate of any social practice or human right, just because of any prejudice. From age, caste, class, color, disability, genotype, height, hair, language, looks, mental type, ethnicity, rank, religion, size, species, weight; to sexuality, race or gender, we can find employed some discrimination. And this is not a joke or something not to worry about: because as serious as it is, it could lead even to the death of the victim. Here I focus on two types of discrimination that really bother me a lot: discrimination because of sexual orientation; and because of gender. It is not a surprise to find all spread in our society these two kinds of discrimination: they are totally alive. But let’s take a brief look on each one of them.

When talking about sexual orientation’s discrimination, we can say that it is unbearable the receiving of the different comments or actions coming from those people who think that homosexuality is a wrong practice. As it is said, maybe homosexuals will go to the hell, once they die. But actually, religions are not something that I get worried about, regardless of their strong influence in the society in order to eliminate or segregate those employers of the conduct. Religious people should expand their minds in order to accept homosexuality, otherwise they will also be segregated, from the homosexual side. But religion is not the only element to consider when talking about sexual orientation’s discrimination; the nationality of the person; the different health agencies; and in the different educational systems, discrimination is employed. For example, there are some nations that can’t accept it as a normal conduct, so they applies punishments to those who practice it. In Iran, Arabia Saudí, and Yemen in Asia; Mauritania, Sudán, andthe north regions of Nigeria and the south of Somalia in Africa, homosexualpractice is punished with the death penalty. On the other hand, there are some health agencies that employ discrimination because of the sexual orientation. For example the American RedCross practice it. I remember when I went to this agency, and because of my sexual orientation, I couldn’t donate any blood. Just because of my homosexuality! This was something really embarrassing at the moment, but now it is a factor that really inspire me to continue fighting, supporting our rights. But that’s not all, in educational systems, discrimination is also buzzing, and it is expressed as bulling. From elementary to secondary school, childrenand teenager tend to bully those victim of any “incapacity” as it could be consideredthe sexual orientation. So, overall, here we can see how sexual orientation’s discrimination cover huge areas of our society, as other kind of discrimination, as the one that state that black skin people are inferior than white people.

Woman has also a serious problem. They have been emarginated and considered inferior than men. Discrimination has taken place in this ambit, adjudicating some rolls to women and other to men. It is said that woman do not have the same capacity that men have; that women, because they are inferior than men, should stay at home, cooking, cleaning the house, managing baby issues, and washing the men’s clothes. On the other hand, the men are who have the power; who bring the money to the house; is considered the brain of the house. In other words, women belong to the private ambit, while men belong to the public one. This ideology is wrong, and clearly there’s discrimination on it. Women, because of their constant battle and sacrifice, now have some space in the society, but margination continue. For example, now we can found womanin politics rolls, when some years ago, they weren’t allowed. So, woman clearly are gaining their space in the society.

Finally, we can get notice that discrimination takes place in many different forms. Sometimes I ask myself: Why people continue practicing this conduct? Why do they feel so comfort employing it? Then the answer comes alone: it could be because of the ignorance they have about the issue; they feel as outsider of the field been discriminated, and because of that, these fields should not exist. Well, I really don’t know, but something what is really true, is that this could lead to a civil war. These wrong management of our differences could have fatal consequences. Not only to the victim of discrimination but also to those who employ it. I have to say that I will not be quite, meanwhile this practices continue.

Julia, a civil rights activist

Today I will be talking about Julia de Burgos. It is not unknown, by all of us, who Julia de Burgos was; but to those who don’t who she was: let me talk to you a little bit about her. Julia, which was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico in 1914, but died on Julie 6, 1953 (the reason of her death was because of a Pneumonia in transit to the hospital, moments later she was found at the streets of Spanish Harlem section of Manhattan), was a poet and also as an advocate of the Puerto Rican independence, she served as a secretary of the Puerto Rican National Party. She was truly a feminist, and because of that, a civil right activist of the women afro-Caribbean writers. But Julia was not an ordinary woman, she is considered as a powerful influence to contemporary writers, just because of her talent to express her feminist thoughts and because of her art in doing it. It is not a surprise to know how intelligent this woman was. Not only because of her poems, but because of her knowledge.  

Julia was also a teacher, and by her first poems we can found Rio Grande de Loiza, which talks about her true love to this beautiful river close to her hometown. Also, in the poems written by Julia, we can find I Was My Own Path, My Death Poem, Dawn of My Silence, and Alta Mar y Gaviota. Among the poems she had written, I Was My Own Path is the one which has had more impact on the society, because it inspire women and men with a feminist ideology, to create or empower their civil right activist sense. But the one that really catch my attention is the one called, A Julia De Burgos, a poem (also written by her) dedicated to herself. In this poem Julia contrast the “real Julia” with the “fake Julia”. This poem is like a speech dedicated from the feminist, free, powerful Julia, to that known by the society (hypocrite, submissive, selfish). I really love this poem because it is like a mirror of herself, and a can assure it also serves as a mirror to a lot of women.   

But Julia has a really interesting history. Regardless of her constant depression because of her separation with Jimenez Grullón, (and because of that she became alcoholic), Julia belong to a National Party, which its objective was a sense of independence of Puerto Rico. Also, regardless of her unemployment moments later she returned to the United State, once she left Cuba because she found an unpleasant situation with that man, Grullón (the man that she really loved); before of that, she was a teacher, a poet and an activist. It is amazing! Julia de Burgos was an activist; a civil right activist. It says much a lot about her.

Marla and our chief

Yesterday, when I was working, my chief told me to please come near his office in order to help my partner Marla. She was cleaning the kitchen of the establishment and when she ended up that task, it was the time of her to throw the trash into the garbage can. I knew that she could do it by herself, and, in effect, she looked at me with a face gesture like “seriously?”. And it was because she also knew that she could do it by herself, and not necessarily with my help. I ended up by giving her my “help”, and she stayed in the kitchen. This kind of things are really frequent. Is there a problem with letting a female throw the garbage alone? Is she incapable? I honestly think that there are other things to consider, but not those, and if so, the answer is negative. A female, like a man, can do it by herself, unless she needs another help, but not because she is female she can’t do it alone. It is an underestimate of her capacity. Actually, that is not all: there are moments when he command us (the male employs) to never come close to the kitchen –that is because it belongs to females-, and the female employs cannot come to our area. Here we can appreciate the segregation because of the “gender role”.

I really think that the problem here is the mentality of my chief. He has a really strong male-chauvinist ideology which leads to these kind of things. It is like if women, by default, are not as useful as men (treating them –the women- like inferiors). My partner, Marla, is kind of tired of this situation, and she also have this right spirit of feminist. She had have told me that there will be a time, when she will not tolerate these wrong decisions made by our chief anymore. I think, when she talk to me like that, that she will yell at him very loud, so I’m scare not to see her again in the establishment, but actually, I’m with her. I agree with her because there is no reason to think like my chief does. Women do not belong to the kitchen, furthermore, no one belongs to a determined task, a determined role.

I must confess, sometimes I think of changing of job. Not only because of that, but because of a lot of more related to discrimination. Now, talking about the discrimination to those females in the establishment, I would say I feel angry, because when the situation occurs, I feel like I need to say something to refute my chief’s order or thoughts. Sometimes I get really mad but I can’t show it; otherwise I could be dismissed. In order to not be a “rebel” employ, I also have to smile to my chief and (not agreeing with his argument) say something like: “Oh, okay chief, it is good to know that, I’ll continue with my job” and give him a smile. But inside my head I’m yelling, wanting to let him know all the things he must improve. But I cannot.

Indeed, we should all be feminist

In my constant searching of feminist videos I found one from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, where she exposes her thoughts and experiences about this theme. But before talking about the video, I would like first to talk a little bit about her. Ngozi was born in Enugu in September 15 of 1977, and is Nigerian novel and short story writer. She has won certain amount of awards from her work, as for example, the O. Henry prize for "The American Embassy". She also won the David T. Wong International Short Story Prize 2002/2003 (PEN Center Award) and a 2007 Beyond Margins Award for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun. Ngozi's short stories and speeches have been used in a lot of academic and educational institutions, and she's also a prominent woman because of her intellectual skills; stronger woman's rights fighting sense, and because of her unstoppable spirit of equal justice. In this video called, "We should all be feminist", Ngozi shows us a little bit of her magnificent spirit.

We should all be feminist focuses in the ideology we must fight for, which is the one that state that man and woman should have the same rights and the same opportunities, in order to create a more equally world, and so, a better place to live. Ngozi start this speech mentioning that regardless of the physical difference (sexes, hormones, force capacity), woman and man should be treated equally, and that the society shouldn't focus on those differences, but in which person is more creative and intelligent. One phrase that really catch my attention is when Ngozi says "humans have evolved, but mentality of sexes and gender have not evolve". According to that, we can get noticed not only that it isn't far from the true, but actually that this true is one that we must fix. Chimamanda says, "a feminist is a man or a woman who says: yes, there is a problem with gender and we must fix it, we must do better". So, what is happening? Why do we still quite? Ngozi also says that "culture doesn't make people, people make culture". So, is it a problem with our culture we must fix? Yes indeed! Because by changing our mentality in benefit to the cause, we become changing agents, and then we will inculcate this right mentally, which is justiciable one. Once this is done, our culture will be more variated, and more equally. For example, the novelist says "what if when teaching children we focus in ability instead of gender?" This is a great suggestion that should be considered.

For me this video is impressive. The way she uses the words and how she doesn't try to persuade the audience, just because the speech itself is persuasive, is really awesome. This woman have become one of my most powerful idols, not only because of her feminist ideals but also because of her promotion of the african culture. I love this kind of humans beings, which try to fight and broke those wrongs paradigms, as for example, the one where it's stated that the woman is inferior than man as black people are inferior than white people. What is wrong with us, people? We need to stop this manner of thinking. If we continue thinking in that way, then there should be some kind of caos, as in Sodoma and Gomorra, which should lead to the extinction of humanity. I can't tolerate this kind of injustices. And as Ngozi, "I am angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. We should all be angry.".

Queen Beyoncé inculcate our ideology!

There is a movement where a lot of artists are going trough, which is feminism. Specially, those in the music industry are really compromise in giving a message that support this ideology, as for example, the Queen Beyoncé, which is presenting herself as a pure feminist. The Queen Beyoncé is the perfect example for this topic, because she use a feminist vocabulary and manners trough almost all of her videos and songs. But, regardless of her today's thoughts about this ideology, I think she didn't showed them before she decided to go as a soloist, even if those thoughts where there. Let's be honest, almost all of her songs are about love situation, which I found wonderful -that's because I am a huge fan of her, and I think everyone have to be fan and slay the queen (but that's not the point)-, but the feminist thoughts arrived to the public light some years ago. But regardless of that, she is perfect in the way she is, perfect in the way of how she transmit the feminist message, and wonderful in the way she interpret her feminist ideology. And I think it was about time that she exploited with that ideology: we needed someone so powerful as her to continue with the fight of ours rights. 

The Queen Beyoncé wants us to know that there should be a balance in the sexes's manner of thinking, and not only there, but also in our perspective of gender. We can get noticed of this, for example, in her last album, BEYONCÉ, which is full of woman's ideals and it is intended to place the woman thoughts where others can see them. The queen says that this album represent her intimates ideals, but i dare to say, that there is a lot of women and men that feel the same way. One song of this last album, ***Flawless, explain clearly her position in the theme. Here, featuring with our powerful feminist friend, Chimamanda Ngozi, the Queen Beyoncé exposes her intention in motivating women to do whatever it costs to fight to their rights. For example, by using the word "flawless" accompanied with the feminist speech, women and men (as I) feel courageous in benefit to the cause. Let's make sure all of those bitches have clear our position in the society!

So, is it bad to use the music industry to spread this kind of message? I really think it is not. It is really awesome to educate people about this feminist ideology, by this medium (music) or what ever other medium. I think the Queen Beyoncé is doing an excellent job by implementing this ideals in her music. And I also think that there should be more and more people in the industries in funding this ideology. Thats because, by educating people about sexes equality, other people can listen to them and continue the objective by spreading the message. Once this suitable  practice continue, the world will begin to be a better place to live. 

Hello fellow!
It's nice to have you visiting this space where woman rights are the leading voice.
Women, as all we know, have been segregated in our society and it is time to fix it out. Some people with a male chauvinist mentality need to implement a very truly thought: women are capable of anything they are propose to. No matter the social field; economic situation; sexual orientation or anything else: just as men do, women can. So, in this blog your going to find some reflexions made by this women believer, and also you're going to be participant of this call of action, by expressing your thoughts. Lets be part of the destroy of the male chauvinist ideoloy, by defeating it and by constructing an equal manner of thinking of the rights we must have. I know it's important to recognize and accept the variety of ideology in the society, but I also know, it is important to respect and make feel the voice of those marginated, in order to make justice, as women do.