The Words (2012) Not a review

The film serves as an excuse to reflect on the role of women, and how culture — through cinema, music and literature — creates stereotypes and, perhaps through sheer repetition, models of life.

In the film, the secondary female lead, wife of the protagonist in one of the stories, is an example of everything feminists fought against.

She doesn't work, she has no life outside her husband's orbit — who initially doesn't work either, since he aspires to be a writer — so both of them live parasitically off the writer's father.

She is the perfect example of a woman whose contribution to the relationship is to provide sex and keep the house clean and tidy for her husband, even though in this case he isn't even the breadwinner.

This portrayal of the character is not far removed from the reality of less than a century ago, though even today I still see many cases like this.

Given that women have fought hard to obtain rights as basic as voting or working, I find it disrespectful that a story or screenplay would once again confine women to such a limited role.

Or perhaps this was not a scriptwriting oversight, but rather a reflection of a vision of women's place in society that certain sectors still long for.

This is most visible in movements such as the Tradwife trend, which has been gaining notoriety on social media for several decades now.

What is curious is the double standard of Western society, which seeks to impose its freedoms on other cultures it deems archaic, yet fails to acknowledge that within its own borders there are women who actively defend that traditional female role and embrace life as a wife and homemaker.

The big question then is: did women fight for equality simply because they didn't have it and wanted it — and now that they have it, they no longer want it?

Is a Tradwife's desire to be one the result of cultural conditioning built over centuries, or is it something innate to female nature?

Although these kinds of stereotypes in art are frustrating, I suppose that as long as a lifestyle is chosen freely, no one should feel entitled to judge whether it is right or wrong — after all, as the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a bad itch if you enjoy the scratching."

La película es una excusa para reflexionar sobre el rol de las mujeres, y cómo la cultura a través del cine, la música y la literatura crean estereotipos y quizás de tanto repetirse, modelos de vida.

En la película, la protagonista secundaria, esposa del protagonista de una de las historias, es un ejemplo de todo lo que las feministas no querían.

No trabaja, no tiene una vida fuera de la órbita del marido, que inicialmente tampoco trabaja, porque aspira a ser escritor, entonces ambos viven parasitariente del padre del escritor.

Es el perfecto ejemplo de la mujer cuya aportación en la relación es brindar sexo y tener la casa limpia y ordenada para el marido, aunque en este caso no era tampoco el proveedor.

Esta construcción del personaje no dista mucho de la realidad de hasta hace poco menos de un siglo, aunque hoy día sigo viendo muchos casos de estos.

Y dado que las mujeres han peleado mucho para obtener derechos tan simples hoy día, como votar, o trabajar, me parece una falta de respeto que una historia, o un guión vuelva a encasillar a las mujeres a un rol tan básico.

O tal vez este no haya sido un error de libreto, si no una visión del papel de la mujer en la sociedad que ciertos sectores siguen añorando.

Esto se manifiesta especialmente a través de corrientes como la de Tradwife que está ganando notoriedad en redes sociales, desde hace unas décadas.

Lo curioso es la doble moralidad de la sociedad occidental, que quiere imponer libertades a otras culturas, que para ella son arcaicas, pero que no asume que en occidente hay mujeres que defienden ese rol tradicional de la mujer, y adoptan la vida de esposa y ama de casa.

Ahora la gran pregunta es, la mujer ha peleado por ganar espacios de igualdad sencillamente porque no los tenía, y por eso los quería, y ahora que los tiene ya no los quiere?

¿Es por asimilación cultural que una Tradwife quiere serlo, o es algo innato de la naturaleza femenina?

Aunque me molesta este tipo de estereotipos en el arte, supongo que siempre que se elija libremente un estilo de vida, nadie debe sentirse con el derecho a juzgar si está bien o si está mal, después de todo como se dice vulgarmente "sarna con gusto no pica".