My junior year of College I took a class about Feminist Bioethics, taught by a woman named Julia Pedroni. I needed a ¨writing intensive¨ course to fulfill a requirement, and this was the only class that fit my schedule. Plus, my friend Louisa was in the class, and she jokingly told me that a class about feminism would be a great way to meet girls…which turned out to be true enough. I sat next to some smarty pants named Emily who I would always ask what the readings were about before class started. I think that really impressed her.

In all seriousness, I learned a lot in the class. In a class that regularly discussed things like the philosophical implications of vaginal reconstructive surgery with a bunch of girls and one guy, I got used to being out of my comfort zone…which has been helpful down here. I also learned a lot about women’s medical issues that I would have never even thought about otherwise, which will probably end up being more valuable than two semesters of organic chemistry if I end up being a doctor. Now, If I’m part of a situation that propagates a double standard for woman and men, I think WWJD (what would Julia do?).

This happens frequently in Ecuador, a particularly machismo society. Guayzimi just had a 5 day fiesta celebrating the anniversary of when it officially became a city…21 years and still going strong. The first day, they crowned a reina (queen) of the city. It was one of the most gender (and culturally) biased things I have ever seen. WWJD? She´d probably write up a philosophical discussion.

So here goes, if you´re interested.

First of all, they had some really messed up ways to deal with multiculturalism. They had separate (but equal…) competitions for a mestiza, shuar, and saraguro queen. The competition for the mestizos was basically soft core (and underage, mind you) porn while the competition for the indigenous crown was like a trip to epcot. The mestizos got to go on stage twice, once wearing rediclous bikinis and once wearing the most extravagant evening dresses you´ve ever seen. The indigenous went on stage once wearing modest indigenous garb. The mestizos enterered through a smoke screen and walked around seductively, while the indigenous entered to traditional music and danced. The mestizos wore so much makeup they looked like hookers, while the indeginous didn´t wear any. The mestizos were nothing more than a parody of westernized female image, while the indigenous girls were parodying ther culture from earlier years.

So that was ridiculous…to me anyway. Especially because the MC tried to play it off like this was good for the culture. They are a multicultural nation, so why not have a queen from every ethnicity? Imagine in the states not having a Miss Florida and Miss California, but rather a Miss White, Miss Black, Miss Asian, Miss whatever… that would be absurd.

So they have some cultural issues, but those were overshadowed by the obvious (again, to me) gender issues. The fact that the mestizos were so sexualized made it hard for me to watch. Admittedly, there was a time when I truly enjoyed looking at half naked 16 year old girls. But that was when I was 16. Everyone else seemed to really love it. People made signs and cheered. The mother of the winning mom bragged to me as a soccer mom would brag if her daughter had scored the winning goal in a championship game.

In Latin America, a woman´s place is in the bed and in the kitchen, so they definitely had these poor girls trained for the bed part. In a Shuar household, a major part of the woman´s daily duties is to cook Chicha, which is always prepared by women and served to men…the women never actually drink it. To make the drink, they chew up the ingredients before spitting them into the pot to be cooked… So they literally get a taste of this male power symbol, but never actually get to consume it. One of the Shuar girls did a dance where she cerimoniusly carried a bowl of chichi to a male counterpart, thus completing the bed and kitchen service motif in the pageant. When I pointed out the symbolism to Corrie, a female volunteer who had come for the festivities, she laughed and said, ¨I think you´re reading too much into this.¨

I disagree. I think everyone else wasn´t reading enough into the situation. It´s this kind of crap that contributes to my host parents not letting my host sisters leave the house for fear of them getting pregnant. Literally, they can´t leave the house. If they need to do a favor for their parents like buy eggs, the dad will say, ¨You have 10 minutes. 5 for walking to a from the store, and 5 to buy the eggs.¨ And he’s not an ass, he’s actually a really good guy, but he has reason. The culture here is such that 16 year old girls are fair game to dirty old men. I´ve seen it, both figuratively in pageants and literally in the streets, and it´s disgusting.