Letters to the Editor

Not girls, not women, not women!

I'm tired of the "women" label being used before any cultural, sporting, artistic, or other activity when they are the ones actually involved. Look, the "three women on Sirat's sound team" are Sirat's sound technicians, period. Sound professionals, period. Let's use proper terminology! Mr. Lluís Llach proudly says that when the female leaders, the activists Muriel Casals and Carme Forcadell, emerged, he called them "the girls." Very wrong. You've set a bad example. The women on the Barça women's football or hockey teams are the players. Women in science are the scientists. Women in business are staff, managers, entrepreneurs, depending on their position. Women in film are the directors, the actresses, the filmmakers. Women in government are the councilors, the members of parliament, or the presidents. Do you really think it's necessary to put "women" first? Why? Perhaps she still clings to the false belief that men's productions are universal and women's are merely representative of women, but this belief is a colossal error. Women are people first and foremost, and what we do and say is just as, if not more, universal than men's discourses and productions.

Notice that you'll never see expressions like "male scientists," "male politicians," or "male sound engineers" for this or that film. Why is it that when a program is 100% male, you'll never see "male gaze" on the poster, and when it's 100% female, it's always made clear that it's a "female gaze"? Exactly. Language is one of the traps of patriarchal power, and it's up to us to turn it on its head!

Rosa Vendrell Miret

Saint Paul of Ordal

The right to sleep

Sleep is not a luxury: it is a fundamental right. A right so simple and so essential that we only truly appreciate it when it is taken away from us. And yet, in too many places, the night has become the domain of machines, engines, and maneuvers that respect neither silence nor people. It doesn't seem very reasonable that while a city sleeps—or tries to—some industrial parks, supermarkets, or nearby businesses operate with deafening noises as if the night were a mere extension of the day. People's rest should not be subordinated to the logistical convenience of a few.

Economic life is necessary, undoubtedly; but so is coexistence. Sleeping without these noises is a matter of health, but also of civic dignity. A society that does not protect the rest of its citizens can hardly boast of being very civilized. If we accept that there are schedules for many activities, there should also be schedules for noise.

And there's yet another detail, often forgotten: we pay taxes. Not on a whim, but so that institutions can guarantee minimum living conditions. Among these conditions should undoubtedly be the possibility of sleeping at night without the clanging of other people's machinery.

Cesca Barti

Banyoles

Strikes in education

The recent strikes in Catalan secondary education are neither an exaggerated nor a self-serving gesture. The proposed salary increase falls far short of the loss of purchasing power. Added to this are the broken promises of the Department of Education. There are also no concrete measures to reduce class sizes, improve the curriculum, or address the demands of teachers in various specialties; in other words, the discontent is not solely economic. Furthermore, the negotiation process has been perceived as opaque and rushed, with decisions made without genuine representation of the teaching staff and involving only two minority unions in Catalan education.

David Rabadá Vives

Barcelona