Cellulite: a ruse to skin women

[Inkriql]

It may be that a men's magazine (ICON) is not the ideal place to talk about cellulite, but even then the times are changing. Maybe neither is a dinner organized by an art gallery (Travesía Cuatro), but it was like that too. A couple of weeks ago, I was seated next to the Brazilian Hispanic artist Sara Ramo, who doubled these days: in Reina Sofía, with the Lindalocaviejabruja exhibition, and in the Alcalá 31 room, with a proposal entitled The Fall and other forms of lifetime.

In front of those who applauded the display of Anitta cellulite as a feminist gesture, others accused her of a 'marketing' operation that concealed a strong sexism

We ended up talking about the orange peel, that cheesy euphemism to refer to cellulite, and about that new wave that claims it from feminism. Ramo said that in Brazil there is a strong current, driven by black women, who sees in the demonization of cellulite a metaphor of how much the female body has been harassed. "How is it possible that something that, according to statistics, affects at some time in your life 90% of women is considered a problem or a defect?" He asked himself, before adding that it is not just an industry millionaire who skinned women of all social classes and ages, but in a way to have us frustrated and oppressed from a young age, wasting time and money in fighting ourselves. Grow up hating your body. That is what silently instills the system through the beauty and fashion market. The same market that, after joining the car of profitable feminism, flies the flag of the fight against climate change with similar cynicism.

In 2017 a video clip, Vai Malandra, of the Brazilian pop star Anitta became famous. He started with his ass in the foreground and without Photoshop. In a few days, the musical piece reached controversy and 60 million views. In front of those who applauded the display of her cellulite as a feminist gesture, others accused her of a marketing operation that hid a strong sexism (the director was Terry Richardson, pointed out by alleged sexual abuse).

However, since the rise of Jair Bolsonaro the Brazilian feminist movement is not for nonsense. The murder a year and a half ago by councilwoman and activist Marielle Franco, shot stitched after an act for the rights of black women, has made clear the extreme vulnerability of the collective.

With assumed frivolity and a couple of wines I admitted to Ramo that, as much as I try, I can hardly see cellulite as something horrible. I remembered a New York model friend with whom I lived as a student in London and Paris. Student of the prestigious Vassar, Sarah came to see me in Madrid a while later. In his first university year he had developed a firm aversion to his model times. Moved by a fury that I did not understand, had stopped shaving and gained weight. Given his insistence that I join his new habits, we distance ourselves. It has been too long for him to understand better than under that stubborn effort the idea was that, as now in Brazil, in a liberated body are power and vanguard.