els peixos a l'aigua i els amos al clot

Photos and short video showing the Dance of the Eagles and Hairy Saint John (Ball de les àguiles i Sant Joan Pelós) parading in Pollença, Mallorca (Balearic Islands).

The most characteristic element in Pollença's procession for the festivity of Corpus Sunday is this dance. The procession walks the streets and squares of the town which inhabitants decorate with palm and pine leafs, and is met with flower petals that the inhabitants throw from the windows and balconies.

What does the dance represent?

There are three characters. First, Hairy Saint John. He's a barefoot man with long hair wearing the Saint John costume, a wooden mask, with red lines drawn on his feet and legs to represent sandals, and carrying a wooden cross and a shepherd's bag with a lamb inside it. He represents Saint John the Baptist, a preacher who lived an austere life and lead the ritual of baptism in Jesus's times. He dances for the whole time the procession lasts.

He is followed by the eagles: two girls who have the figure of an eagle attached to their waist. The girls are selected to look as similar to each other as possible, with twins being preferred. They perform a very simple dance while playing the castanets (they will perform a more complex dance in the church and in the houses of important people of the town).

These girls wear a dress with many embroidered jewels on the head, torso, and hands. These jewels are given by people from Pollença as offerings some days before Corpus when the girls go house by house performing a dance. The jewels then are embroidered on the clothes and will be returned to their owners after the holiday. As a result of these jewels, the clothes the girls wear weight up to 5 kg.

Why so many jewels?

This has to do with the origin of this dance. Originally, this dance used to be performed on the festivity of Saint John (Midsummer) instead of Corpus. Around the Catalan Countries, it used to be common to lay coins and other gold objects under the sun on the festivity of Saint John, which was said to propitiate the wealth to multiply. It's thought that the eagles wear all these golden jewels because of this.

Fountains decorated for the ou com balla tradition in Barcelona, Catalonia. Photos from Cultura Popular Barcelona.

On the festivity of Corpus, some towns and cities in Catalonia have a curious tradition. Fountains are decorated with flowers and cherries, and then an empty egg is placed on top of the water source to make it spin. In the Catalan language, this tradition is called l'ou com balla ("the dancing egg").

It's unknown how this tradition got started, we only know for sure that it started in Barcelona. The oldest written proof of it is a document from the year 1636 where the Barcelona cathedral buys eggs for the Corpus festivity. Some historians claim another source from 1440 could also be talking about it but it's unsure.

There are three theories on what it could mean. Take into account that the Feast of Corpus Christi is one of the most important Catholic religious holidays, celebrated in May or June (moves according to the moon calendar) to celebrate Christ's presence in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a part of the religious service where believers eat a bread and drink a wine that is believed to be Christ's body and blood, respectively. Here are the three theories:

The most widespread interpretation is that the egg represents the sacramental bread and the fountain with water represents the cup with Christ's blood. The cherries and other fruit that decorate it would be Christ's blood.

Others believe it's a representation of the fullness of spring, because the egg, the water and the abundance of flowers and fruits are a symbol of the fecundity and regeneration that takes place in spring.

Abandoned Ming dynasty rural graveyard, Zhejiang.

i’m not talking about gender affirming posts for trans guys designed to offset actual dysphoria. i’m talking about the more general ones like “you’re still Manly if you have depression” or “taking care of your health/asking for consent/cooking/etc is actually Super Masculine because xyz”

it’s the same phenomenon as people reassuring straight men that Physical Affection Isn’t Gay, like yes you’ve identified the symptoms of the problem, that men won’t discuss or do certain things bc they are terrified of not seeming Manly Enough™ but it isn’t getting to the root of the problem

which in this case is that patriarchy draws a line around women and anything associated with women and calls it tainted, lesser, weak, foolish, crazy, worthless. And so men don’t want to be associated with those terrible Womanly things because maybe that would mean that they were just as tainted, lesser, weak, foolish, crazy, or worthless as women are.

and insisting that some of these ‘tainted’ things are actually Manly After All doesn’t solve the root problem. even if you succeed there will always be other important things men are cutting themselves off from because they don’t want to be tainted by the association with women.

so like even if your only priority is men being whole and healthy people, even if you don’t give a shit about women, if your goal is to make it okay for men to cry and be vulnerable and seek help and live full and happy lives as complete human beings who aren’t constantly dividing and subsuming and destroying vital pieces of themselves they don’t think are Manly enough –

if you want to let men just live without the pressure to constantly prove themselves Manly Enough –

targeting misogyny is just the only viable way to do that.

hegemonic masculinity requires a ‘lesser’ thing to set itself up in opposition to, something that’s hated and despised and demeaned that men have to be trained to try to not be like. Without misogyny the whole thing collapses. There’s no pressure to be Manly™ if there’s no shame in not being a man.

That seems fairly pointless from a liberation standpoint; it challenges nothing, and adds very little. Men in this perspective are still entitled to power over women, but the things they must do to maintain that power are slightly different and perhaps a little less violent.

The idea that men are and must be masculine, the concept of gendering certain traits as Manly and others as Womanly, is inherently a patriarchal construction and any attempt to expand these categories or salvage some kind of healthy way to use them is doomed.

Courage, integrity, kindness, all these things people are currently championing as “healthy masculinity” - these traits can and do exist in people of all genders. When we urge men to be good people, it’s ultimately counterproductive to appeal to their desire to identify with hegemonic masculinity, because we’re still, in that case, working with and upholding the gender hierarchy.

Men are capable of doing good without being rewarded with the power that comes with a higher station in the gender hierarchy, and it is both unnecessary and counterproductive to promise this reward by identifying good behaviours as “masculine”.

It is unnecessary and counterproductive to gender the traits required to engage with others in a prosocial way. And it’s ultimately more useful to think of ourselves as human beings trying to live our values, instead of trying to redefine divisive and hierarchical gender roles into something healthy and progressive.

Protect asexuals seeking asylum. Asexual asylum seekers still aren't accepted because asylum laws only include the strict l, g, b and t letters. Many asexual people around the world are forced into marriage, threatened, subjected to corrective rape and pseudoscientific conversion "therapies". Include the A in the acronym and it will save lives.

Affordable housing. Many asexual and aromantic people do not establish romantic relationships with a partner. The current housing model is a disaster for all the working class, but even more so for people who want to (or have to) live alone. People should be able to afford their own housing with 1 person's wages.

Housing for households outside the nuclear family. Many asexual and aromantic people decide to live with friends, QPRs, or other structures outside of the amatonormative nuclear family. Some real estate agencies and residential area regulations don't allow housing to be rented or sold to people who aren't living with a romantic partner who they are married to or intend to get married to, designating certain areas "for families" with a strict definition of what a family is. (The podcast @theacecouple talked about it in this episode)

Asexual people should be included in anti-discrimination laws.

Training for medical professionals should include education on asexuality and its experiences, same way that their training in many countries already must include training on L, G, B and T care. "How often do you want/have sex", "how often do you masturbate", and questions related to libido are routinely used to diagnose patients. This can be a helpful element in some cases for people who aren't asexual, but medical professionals should stop misdiagnosing asexual people out of ignorance or pressuring them for their orientation.

End conversion therapy. When a person explains to a medical professional that they don't get sexually attracted to anyone or that they don't want to have sex, the official course of action in most countries is for the medical professional to tell them they need "treatment". That is conversion therapy and can be extremely traumatising and anti-scientific. Sexual orientation doesn't get changed. If our asexuality causes us distress, it's because of how we are treated by society and made to feel abnormal.

Right to healthcare. We should be able to say the truth to healthcare providers without fear that we'll be put in conversion therapy, misdiagnosed, taken off necessary medication, that the medical staff will try to fix our sexuality instead of whatever problem we actually have, or other forms of discrimination. End the medicalization of asexuality (especially when the medicine given to "cure" women of being asexual is often just making them sleep so their boyfriend/husband can rape them and has been found to have other negative secondary effects).

Sex ed in schools should take asexuality into account. This doesn't only mean mentioning that asexuality exists (which already isn't being taught, leading asexual young people to feel pressured, out-of-place, alone, and can lead to putting themselves in dangerous situations), but including asexuals in the creation process of these curricula, too. Sex ed must take into account all its students to offer enough information for their safety, health, and well-being. For example, including asexuals in the creation of the course will mean stop assuming that there are things that don't need saying because "everyone knows". In my case, I would most importantly have liked to be taught that having sex is something people should do because they and the other person(s) involved want to, not because it's mandatory. It's not "everyone knows that", because it never crossed my mind that it's something people want, and I've read many others share the same experience.

Acceptance from family. Many asexual people, myself included, get forced to come out to their families because of their families' obsession with the asexual person's lack of sexual and/or romantic interest. The answer to coming out is often insulting and humiliating. I was told that if I don't like people it must mean I'm a zoophile and sexually attracted to objects, I was repeatedly called a liar and brainwashed by Catholic moral (I'm an atheist), I was pressured into going to a psychologist to fix my sexuality, that it's unnatural and unhealthy, that I'm repressing myself, and I was told that I must go out to party and let any young man have sex with me "doesn't matter who it is". When I answered that I don't want to and that to me it would be rape, I was told it would be worth it to fix me. Judging by what other asexual people explain online, and what other non-asexual friends who weren't interested in doing it were told by their parents, this is not uncommon.

Being believed by friends. Many asexual people explain their friends don't believe them when they say they don't find anyone attractive like that. This can go from openly direct hate speech to little things such as teen games like asking everyone who they like or have a crush on and not accepting "I don't like anyone" as an answer, accusing the person of lying, of not trusting the other friends, "everyone said it so you must too", often pressuring the asexual person until they end up making it up and lying to their friends by picking someone they're not actually interested in, making the asexual person feel like there's something wrong with themself and that they must hide in order to be accepted.

Acceptance and support from social movements. For example, sex positive movement further stigmatises us when it says things like "there's two kinds of people: those who say they masturbate and those who lie", or base acceptance of sexuality on arguments of "everyone does it". Subsets of the LGBTQ movement often also engage in hate campaigns against asexual people online, from spreading false rumours that asexuality is fake and it's straight people trying to infiltrate the community, to spamming asexual tags with porn to cause distress to asexuals and make the tags useless so we can't find each other and have spaces to talk about our experiences —in conclusion, so we can't have an online community.

Get rid of consummation laws. Most legislations say that for a marriage to be valid, there must be consummation, meaning that the couple must have had sex. This discriminates asexual people in their marriages, which are considered invalid. (Again, @theacecouple covered this very well in this episode).

Consent for being exposed to sexual material. It shouldn't be considered childish to not want to watch certain material or hear about certain topics because it's explicit. Events like Pride should explain what is going to happen and what the expectations are, so people can freely take an informed decision on whether that event is for them or not. Social media should have labels or tags that individual users can choose to blacklist. Tumblr users should actually tag the nsfw posts as such and use the mature community label. This way, everyone can still post what they want without censorship but we're not forced to see it or can choose when to see it.

End objectification and over-sexualization, particularly of girls and women who are most affected by this. End cat calling!!!

Educate on a more developed concept of consent. Make everyone understand that consent is a must, and that pressuring someone into saying yes, making someone feel like saying no isn't an option, or like having said yes to one thing also includes other things or the same thing other times, is not consent. Marriage or being in a romantic relationship also doesn't equate consent for sexual acts (end marital rape).

Stop making fun of people for not having sex. Stop using "virgin" as an insult. Stop spreading the idea that being a "virgin" means being a loser, ridiculous, childish, or a failure in life. Stop using the "virgin vs chad" meme. Stop insulting someone saying "this is what someone who doesn't have sex sounds like". Stop equating the number of sexual partners with success, particularly for men. This only pressures people against their will or possibilities, creates mental problems and incel mentality for people who want to desperately get out of the "loser" category that leads to rape, causes other people such as asexuals to self-hate and putting themselves in dangerous situations, and makes other people associate asexuality and not having sex in general with negative characteristics (aka bigotry).

Public libraries and library apps including books about queerness and asexuality. For many people, particularly young people and other people who live with their families, it can be difficult to buy books on asexuality, since they're often not found in physical bookshops and must be ordered online. Living with possibly aphobic parents or flatmates, libraries and library apps are an important resource. A small percentage of population is asexual and asexual people often don't come out, so the internet and literature are often among the few ways we can feel like we're not alone and learn how to navigate a life outside the norm from other asexual people.

does not recognise marital rape

does not recognise no fault divorce

courts can mandate marital rape of women or "restitution of conjugal rights" as part of divorce proceedings

I’m Australian. Sure, we do have those doors, but the vast majority of places in Sydney are automatic sliding doors or old-fashioned manual push/pulls because we don’t need to block out the cold and wind the same way here.

So every day I experienced a culture clash with something as basic as what doors were normal for me.