again
every aspect of life has good and bad, including places. so, for as much as i love Cuenca, i do not like all the cars or buses that leave a cloud of dirty pollution in your face when they pass. may this not deter you from visiting. it is a wonderful place. there are 4 rivers that run through it, and it is surrounded by beautiful mountains. the rivers usually sparkle from the sun, contain dozens of rocks strewn about at random, and there are various bridges, so that it often appears like a Thomas Kinkade painting.returning to a place means returning to it´s bad aspects as well, namely machismo. as the poet Cavafy says, we carry our cities inside us, meaning that wherever you go, you are there and you can not leave problems behind. i say this because i have not changed my physical appearance since i was here last and this gives me problems. last year, i tried to deal with the men in the streets who whistled or spoke to me by trying to understand why they did this. i failed at understanding it.
this time, i still ignore it, but instead of getting pissed off, excuse the slang, i usually end up smiling to myself, because, yes i´ll come right out and say it, i think this habit of theirs is tremendously stupid. i do not mean to be insensitive. if you know me, you know that i love other cultures and i love all people. i am not saying that these men are stupid, nor even that the culture is stupid. but this particular aspect of the masculine culture in ecuador i think is ridiculous. by whistling at me or saying "hola reina" "preciousa" "hola gringita" "hello, how are you" etc etc, what do these men hope to gain? i just do not understand, nor do i feel respected and that is the most important part. i am molested (not physically) simply because i have blond hair. i am from the united states and apparently this makes me more attractive. more often than not, the whistles and comments come after i pass, instead of before, thus i see it as even more pointless. part of what i understand is that i am not the actual focal point, i am only a catalyst so that men can prove to each other how macho they are. again, ridiculous.
don´t be offended if this is your culture. i freely criticize my own culture as well. nobody nowhere no culture is perfect. good and bad is found absolutely everywhere. these are my honest opinions about an aspect of ecuadorian culture that some men choose to participate in. others do not. i have met sincere and respectful men here. but the whistling and the comments contine to bother me, and i think it´s just stupid.
posted by leah v @ 10:04 AM
3 Comments:
Amen, sista. I completely support you in your annoyance at this cultural quirk. Don't be afraid to criticize! We all know you respect all peoples, but I think we should be ready to say that we dislike aspects of other cultures because of the disrespect that can be found in all humans. And, like you did, we should be ready to say that we just don't understand. It's therefore natural for us to dislike certain aspects, like this one, which infringes on our American feminist perspective. So, basically: preach it yo.
I think it's okay to speak against certain aspects of cultures... and anything that would demean people would be fair game in my book. When i went to Honduras, I was shocked to see how they treated women... and that the women didn't seem to mind... or it was just accepted.
BTW, I am a blog stalker of yours. Just decided to finally post.
thank you both for commenting. i like Jaclyn{s choice of words for "cultural quirk."
whenever i think about criticizing other cultures, i always think of the custom of female genital mutilation. obviously, i would critique this, taking into account that it is an inherited tradition from centuries ago and yes, we should "be careful" when we march into somewhere and demand that a culture changes, but i do believe there are practices among humans that are plain wrong.
nice to meet you paul, i appreciate the comments because i like discussion.
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