call when you come

It was August when I opened the garage with the remote control. Inside overwhelming silence From a town square, the irritating noise of the blind creeps in like an uninvited guest at dinner. Also, who wants dessert? Blind for ten seconds, put the car on and lower it for ten seconds. Twenty seconds of thoughtless metallic interference. Post-mechanical is something so ancient that it can always be said to be something attached to the umbilical cord at birth, heard with every sip of breast milk, or heard in every lullaby sung in the darkness of the bedroom. What did the author do? as many women doMany times, in many places, and in many ways, it was self-protection, alertness, and activation of all biological defense systems.

I looked this way and that, seeing if there was a shadow lurking behind the children’s games or the new benches the city council had set up, I sharpened my ears to detect any noise from footsteps and promptly and with the necessary key. Earlier in hand, I ran to the portal. Without giving anyone else time to sneak in. And in the elevator I breathed: I won again. One more day.

This is how it is and this is how it happens. She looks curiously. From a very young age, girls, family and the system prepare you to deal with an environment where you have to take care of yourself. Always. Between you and your friends, in a priceless, wonderful relationship, full of complicity, but without forgetting the reason for this mutual interest. ‘call when you get home‘, you tell your friend when you take a taxi; ‘send me a message that everything is ok‘ if either of them has to walk a few streets home alone one night; ‘let’s go‘, when you encounter a stranger or several strangers at certain times in places with low traffic; ‘wait a moment’, you say, while touching your friend’s arm so that someone moves away; ‘accelerate‘ when you hear footsteps behind you; ‘watch my trophy‘, so that they do not throw your nose at you; ‘come with me to the bathroom‘, to prevent sexual assault. And now, ‘Do not leave me alone’, when I feel that someone has done me to my body, my body, which I don’t know what it is but with the intention of hurting me physically and emotionally. Attack. One more.

In each era, with its new social and technological uses and customs, new violent behaviors emerge, are produced and polished to harass and intimidate women, forms of torture more subtle but equally harmful than the previous ones. What their ideologues don’t know is that they will never win. They will never win. And they won’t, because this process is already unstoppable. I see those girls in those crowded festive environments where they are the real risk areas, and I see them shining with power, presence, joy and courage. Because life is yours and no one can stop you from living it fully. You are late. We are the herd too… and long ago.