With an already immense and Basque weariness towards the subject, I read that these days Mr. Juanma Bajo Ulloa –a film director who, some time ago, mesmerized me (at fourteen years old I went to the Fantasio cinema three times to see Butterfly wings) but which I later abandoned completely – goes around the world whining and saying that if you're not a woman or don't follow certain rules woke You're in a very difficult position in the film industry. I haven't seen the interview, nor will I: I'm speaking from hearsay. Some have come forward to refute Ulloa's claims with data, especially Javier Zurro: in short, we could say that, in terms of subsidies, there are a few extra points (very few) if some of the main positions are held by a woman. This is a measure that exists to correct the historical and ominous bias that films made by women have suffered. However, Zurro tells us that, despite the very small amount of support women receive, in 2023 only 36.5% of the projects that received funding had exclusively female directors, and in 2022, 37.8%; the same is true for the films in which RTVE invests: between 2020 and 2023, 63.7% had male directors. In other words, we continually hear the annoying refrain about poor men being left out, while the data confirms that men are still the majority in the industry.

A few years ago, I had a creative writing professor who, on the first day of class, solemnly declared, "I won't accept romance or fantasy novels in my course. You can change your project if you come with these ideas." This statement, unbecoming of someone who should be guiding the development of new voices, goes beyond a mere literary preference and encapsulates an old legacy: the idea that there are serious and lesser literatures. It's no coincidence that this disdain tends to fall from the corner of genres traditionally considered feminine: romance, fantasy, and autofiction; while thought, culturally associated with the masculine sphere, has been considered the emblem of serious literature.