Susana Gimenez and Shakira. Each one in its moment, symbols of spite and female empowerment
It was a summer, but in 1998. Susana Gimenez She was already separated from the polo player who since her marriage, a decade before, had been pointed out –with more or less subtlety– by public opinion as a playboy and a keeper. Those were other times, and the question about whether men had the obligation to be providers did not even exist: it was a mandate. But Susana was above the questions and the orders, he had earned every penny in front of the most popular television program, where he had “susanos” as secretaries to shuffle the letters from the public and always say yes, “Yes, Su-sa-na.” She had earned, above all, the freedom to be a sugar mommy or whatever she wanted by dint of financial independence.
That February morning, the press, who had set up a guard at the door of her house in Barrio Parque, recorded the diva’s screams live and direct: “Thief, son of a bitch!” The ashtray in front of that husband who is as useless as he is unfaithful –something almost always incompatible: we can forgive the infidelity of someone who is good for something or the uselessness of someone who at least loves us well– and the more than ten million that Susana had to give him to close the divorce led to a national debate about whether it was okay for women when they were richest to pay for the broken ashtrays of a failed couple.
The famous “ash” and Susana’s insults to Roviralta when they separated, with Jazmín as an involuntary witness
The ashtray –actually a wooden and pewter box that Susana had brought from India and that it was the first blunt object she found to defend herself in the middle of a “humiliating and embarrassing” discussion, according to what she herself recounted at a press conference at the time- she has since become a universal symbol of spite, almost as iconic as Lady Diana’s revenge dress, but with a much happier ending. It is that it also became the certainty that, if we had enough independence, men could be expendable even if it was expensive to get rid of them. Was Susana a feminist, the one with the effortless thinness, photoshop and naivety as a value? The purists will say no, but for thousands of Argentines, her gesture was more empowering than any panel discussion on gender.
More than twenty years later, Shakira returns to spite (that feeling with so much bad press, almost always used in the feminine: we are the spiteful ones, the crazy ones, the trash cans) a value and a debate as global as the networks, and on top of that, unlike Susana, not only does she not lose money but she monetizes it. Since she presented her session with the Argentine phenomenon Bizarrap on YouTube this Wednesday, she has almost 45 million views – and counting, they are going up non-stop as I write this note – and, at least in my case, He finished getting the Muchachos tinnitus out of my head.
Now I only listen to her. A wolf like me is not for guys like you, sure. But above all the part that turns it into a hymn, I don’t know if it’s feminist, but about the strength that gives us independence, the same strength of that ashtray from the nineties, remastered in hyperpop to dance until we feel like suffering for it. “rookie” on duty: “You thought you hurt me and you made me tougher/ women don’t cry anymore, women bill”. And although sometimes we cry the same, what does it matter if now we understood that can we alone?
Taylor Swift, Alanis Morissette (and that fabulous jagged album that was Jagged little pill) and our local cobra Jimena Barón know it, there is nothing more catchy or more susceptible to empathy than breakup songs. In the end, We were all cuckolds or lovers at some point in life. I read somewhere that Shakira’s is a hymn for cuckolds, well, precisely: there is nothing more universal than horns! (And whoever thinks that this is not the case for her, may she live happily and never ever enter her partner’s phone, which is something very ugly and toxic, as well).
All the artists sing about their love: because they are in the best moment, or out of spite after a cheat or breakup. Tayloe Swift (here with her ex Harry Styles) complained that men are not criticized for doing it and women are
Many male artists know it too. I remember, also in the 90s, running out of the bowling alley to find myself jumping and doing the chorus with my friends every time it rang. I feel much better than Charly García. About Swift, however, even statistics have been made: they say that 35% of her songs are rematches against her exes of the moment -of Harry Styles a Jake Gyllenhaalto name just a few of those mentioned–, and they unceremoniously criticize this commercialization of pain.
In 2014, she herself settled the discussion in an interview: “They say ‘She only makes songs about her ex-boyfriends’. And frankly, I find it a very sexist approach. Nobody says that about Ed Sheeran. Nobody says that about Bruno Mars. They all write songs about their exes and their girlfriends and their love life, and nobody raises any flag for that. Of course, in the case of Shakira, there are gentlemen – even political analysts! – discussing the merits of a hit that breaks world records.
Former soccer player Gerard Piqué and his new girlfriend, Clara Chía Martí. Both are the target of Shakira’s darts (Photo: private file)
In the last 20 hours, since Shakira reverted the spite to the four winds, I have also read many women criticizing the little surprise of the matter: to the poor Clara Chiathe new girlfriend of Gerard Piqué – “my supposed replacement”, sings the Colombian –, tells him in Nannis mode that it was like changing “a Ferrari for a Twingo, a Rolex for a Casio”. But, sisters, Are they asking you for sorority with the girl who ate your jam in your own house? (and no, it’s not a metaphor)?
No, of course, the third wheel is never guilty. The fidelity pact that each one chooses is with their partner and no one is responsible for breaking an agreement they didn’t sign. But that the “homebreaker” does not exist we can say it from the comfort of ideas. I came to eat my jam and the least I’m going to sing about you is that “clearly” you’re not good. And it is that Women are not nor do we have to be saints, neither when we cheat nor when they cheat on usAre the men? Measuring the feminist purity of a woman betrayed for years doesn’t seem so amazing either, after all.
Bizarrap and Shakira: with Music Sessions #53 they placed themselves at the center of the world music scene
Shakira considers herself a feminist. She advocates whenever she can for equal rights and opportunities, especially for girls. And yet, she accepted –as we do so many times out of love– that the father of her children dictated her life and her career. “Pique is territorial and jealous. She likes to have everything under control –she admitted in 2014 when she was promoting the song Ca n’t remember to forget you–. Gerard does not let me make videos with men, he is a very conservative person ”. Again, theories are comfortable, but in life we do what we can. In his case, he says it clearly (sorry for the supposed replacement): “I only make music, sorry that it hurts you”.
The truth is that we don’t need Shakira to be more or less a feminist or pay so much attention to that Clarita when the strongest message is spite –especially the feminine one, much more emotional than violent because in general it doesn’t objectify, but is just liberation–, from Lady Di to Susana, and from Taylor Swift to Shakira, can be a phenomenal empowerer for change the anguish of abandonment and, instead, at least, sing and dance. Perhaps this wolf’s is the happiest of possible endings: being able to pay the ex (and guys like him) a tremendous bill and, incidentally, bill with what he knows how to do so well: songs like this, that we can’t get out of. of the head.
