• Shakira, deluxe greengrocer
  • Why you're never thin enough (or the opposite) and why everyone has to weigh in on it
  • Beyoncé encourages people to stop working. Of course, millions of Americans have already done it.

Addressing this report is not exactly going to party, so, as I do not give to masochism, I decide from minute zero to entrust myself to Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom, but above all to recognized experts in the rugged matters that I am going to deal with and that between them only have one thing in common: if they appeared in Harry Potter, all would be in the Forbidden Books Section of Hogwarts.

The first wise man I am going to question summons me to his office in the center of Madrid, capital of Spain. Upon arrival, he almost struck a black woman leaving the office. But it turns out that she is not a black woman, or yes, I do not know, since she is a transsexual athlete (as I guess from her clothing and the number on her back), which makes me think about the slim possibilities that her opponents will have in the races where she participates. But these thoughts soon dissipate, because my four-year-old son, who I had to bring to the interview, bursts into tears. He wants me to buy him a Kinder egg, but he's already eaten three this morning, so I say no, and as he insists on bellowing louder and louder, I slap his ass and threaten to go to bed without dessert that night. "As you continue like this, you're going to get fat as an Easter egg," I shout. Perhaps, I think, the fault of his fondness for Kinder eggs and gypsy arms comes from some childhood trauma caused by having given him to breastfeed three days and goodbye, that I was not there to walk with the child all day hooked to the. At that moment, the transsexual takes me out of my musings by addressing me in perfect Spanish, which surprises me, because in reality, he tells me, he is Russian. What a joy, because I love Russian, salad and Putin included. And it's great; the black, not Putin. But of course, she is transsexual, and I am a woman to rage. And I like very male men, even if they're ugly like Woody Allen, my favorite director, by the way.

If you have come this far in reading without turning green in a social network, I invite you to tell how many atrocities there are in the previous text and for which this humble journalist could be canceled forever. Or not. Because look at what happened with Erostratus, the first cancelled in history. In 356 BC the pot went out and set fire to the temple of Diana in Ephesus with the aim of becoming famous and going down in history, so the Greeks decided to erase it from the idem, prohibiting under penalty of death any written mention of his name or work. As can be seen, it did not help.

In our time, the spark that unleashed the fire was identity politics, at first tools to make minorities visible and that have ended up becoming, says Caroline Fourest in her essay 'Offended Generation', in "a new morality that censors and categorizes". The Introduction to his book opens with a nostalgic appreciation: "In May 1968 young people dreamed of a world in which it was 'forbidden to prohibit'. Today, the new generation only thinks about censoring what offends or offends them."

To this censorship from below, individuals, institutions and media respond with self-censorship and euphemisms. José Manuel Errasti, professor in the Area of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatments at the University of Oviedo and co-author of 'Nobody is born in a wrong body' (ed. Deusto), believes that the self-censorship to which we submit so as not to 'make mistakes' when giving our opinion "can be more harmful than explicit censorship. If one group feels intimidated to express its opinion and another, on the contrary, is emboldened to do so, it is easy to understand that public opinion will be increasingly artificially biased." Let's try to address the trickiest of proscribed topics. No offense, if that is possible today.

Transgenderism

If there's one topic you can be canceled for (tell J.K. Rowling) that's any dissonance about some aspect of trans. "Everything related to transgenderism has become a very delicate issue that people are afraid to talk about," says José Manuel Errasti. How did we get here? "On the one hand, the transgender agenda has been able to associate its cause with the issue of sexual orientations, implying that the issue of gender identities – whether someone is a woman or a man because they feel that way – is linked to the issue of sexual orientation – that someone is attracted to people of the other sex or their own. People believe that disagreeing that sex is chosen or can be changed at will means being against gay, lesbian and bisexual rights," when it is not.

But, according to Errasti there is one more element: the substitution of argumentation for moral proclamation. "If in a classic discussion you risked being wrong, now you risk being evil." It is inevitable to wonder if Errasti himself has not also been attacked for his dissent. "Little thing. We had a couple of incidents that required police presence. One in Palma de Mallorca, where the rector bowed to the threats of a violent group and suspended our conference, and another in Barcelona, where the presentation had to be finished prematurely due to threats to burn the bookshop with us inside!"

Breastfeeding

The journalist Eva Millet has just published the book 'Madres mamíferas' (ed. Plataforma), which she describes as "an analysis of the movement of natural or attachment parenting, increasingly present in Spain". This movement, says Millet, "is becoming hegemonic at the media level – and especially on the internet – although on a practical level it is already something else, because the vast majority of Spanish mothers cannot afford such an intensive upbringing."

Natural breastfeeding enters that pack. "Of course it's a great and healthy option and if you can or want to breastfeed, fantastic. The problem is that today it has become the only acceptable way; the bottle, which has saved lives and was a respectable and healthy option, has been demonized." As has also demonized any idea, opinion or comment that suggests even remotely that we do not accept that route as unique. "We live in a time of tribes, and in natural breeding the idea of tribe is idealized. But tribes can be dangerous, there is a risk that a single thought will be imposed on them," he says. Are she prepared for the 'tribe reactions' your book may receive?" I don't know, really, but if it helps to make a mother feel better when reading it and choose to live motherhood in a calmer way, it will have been worth it.

Early childhood education

Defending traditional education, punishment or slapping in the ass no matter how light, has become another reason for excommunication. The most recent case of storm in networks on account of this matter has starred Tania Llasera (paradoxically, great connoisseur of the mechanics of digital conflict, since she is an active vigilante of fatphobia), who in recent statements to YO DONA said: "I have grown up with a clean slap and I do not have any trauma". He also said that "I also yell at my children, or take them by the hair – without pulling – because it is impossible to always be your best version." Of course, they then crucified her in the nets.

Body weight

The reaction against fatphobia has acquired such intensity that it has even begun to question what is considered scientific evidence. In an article published in 'Athenea Digital' and entitled 'You should lose weight, I tell you because I love you', Nina Navajas, researcher and professor of Social Work at the University of Valencia, accuses the WHO of being alarmist and its warnings about the existence of an obesity epidemic. "My argument is that the war against obesity operates in the name of health, but produces a significant renunciation of physical and psychological well-being for the sake of achieving thinness," writes Navajas, who comes to read in the newspaper '20 Minutes' statements such as "if there is a war against obesity there is a war against fat people."

What do doctors have to say? Dr. Inka Miñambres, member of the Obesity Area of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN), affirms that "nobody would say that fighting cancer is fighting cancer patients, but in obesity this does happen and it is a shame". The expert, however, is sympathetic to this type of reaction that, she says, "arise as a result of the great stigma suffered by people with obesity, who have lived and still live blamed for their situation both at the family level, friends, by professionals in the health system and even in the media or the Administration. " In any case, he says, "obesity is a disease (and we have fought hard for it to be recognized as such, so that the necessary resources can be allocated to address it)."

Aesthetic operations

Last February, the designer Eduardo Navarrete was in the program 'El hormiguero', where he talked about all the aesthetic interventions that had been made. The nets were thrown on him for what they considered a bad example for young people who suffer for their body, in the middle of the era of body positive.

What happened highlights the stigma faced today by the culture of artificial rejuvenation and aesthetic operations (paradoxes of life, because being imperfect is also stigmatized). The president of the Murcian Association of Aesthetic Medicine and great expert in the field, Virtudes Ruiz, believes that in these matters "we have fallen into double standards and hypocrisy that we have criticized for years to other countries. On the one hand we all want to be well and on the other hand it is forbidden to say that it is with help, everything has to be natural. Of course, the followers of the body positive can put pressure on public opinion whatever they want and that people do not say what they think publicly out of fear, but that will not change the reality that most young people want to look good (following fashions), even if they do not say it and even participate in those lynchings in networks. "

The annoying words: Spanish, cancer...

In recent years we have experienced campaigns that sought to convince the RAE to change the definition of offensive words for certain groups, forgetting (or perhaps ignoring) that the RAE is a dictionary of language use. It has been requested, for example, that the fourth definition of the word cancer disappear - "proliferation within a social group of destructive situations or events" - or that the definition of old age be modified (on the initiative of the Permanent University of Cantabria, according to which "it is loaded with contempt and prejudice").

In the case of the word Spanish to refer to the language we speak, for some time now this part is being systematically replaced by Castilian, above all, so as not to offend the autonomies where there is another official language and certain Latin American nationalities that do not feel 'comfortable' with a term to which they attribute a nationalist bias. Lola Pons, historian of the language and professor at the University of Seville, author of the essay 'El español es un mundo' (ed. Arpa), is inclined to the use of Spanish leaving aside any historical-political argument: "I use Spanish to name the language; I understand that the way of naming the language is very personal and oscillates between very widespread denominations such as Spanish or Castilian and others that appear in demolinguistic surveys: there are people who say they speak Peruvian or Cordoba or Toledo. But mutual intelligibility confirms that we use a common name for what we are talking about; among the two that are more popular, Castilian and Spanish, I prefer Spanish because it better represents the historical enrichment that it meant for the Castilian of Castile to leave its site of origin. I am Andalusian, and in Andalusia it is very common to call our language Spanish."

Skin color

If there is a scourge against which there is a quorum meaning, it is racism. Any racist expression, such as those that are uttered every so often on a football field, is automatically answered by society with vehemence. Being anti-racist has led us, however, to have real problems with the words we use to refer to those who do not share our skin color. And because we are polite we made almost the worst of mistakes. Calling black people 'people of color.'

Luis Magrinyà, author among others of 'Rich style, poor style' (Debate) believes that in these cases it is best to "give the floor to the affected groups and call them what they prefer. To me it seems a clean, precise, quite neutral solution, with no other connotations than historical ancestry and also proposed by the group. The term colored, taking into account that it was the one used in the most segregationist states of the southern United States, I believe that, despite its desire for euphemism or for that reason, it is equally marked and above with a paternalistic touch. But of course, African-American only applies to America. Afro-Spanish is not said... Surely there is no choice but to specify, if necessary, with formulas such as Guinean, Nigerian ... or of Guinean and Nigerian descent...".

  • Trans Law

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more