Vitória

“Me acuerdo de las primeras noches otoñales y de mis primeras inquietudes en la casa, avivadas con ellas. De las noches de invierno con sus húmedas melancolías: el crujido de una silla rompiendo el sueño y el escalofrío de los nervios al encontrar dos pequeños ojos luminosos —los ojos del gato— clavados en los míos. En aquellas heladas horas hubo algunos momentos en que la vida rompió delante de mis ojos todos sus pudores y apareció desnuda, gritando intimidades tristes, que para mí eran sólo espantosas. Intimidades que la mañana se encargaba de borrar, como si nunca hubieran existido...”
― Carmen Laforet, Nada

“I remember the rules, rules that were never spelled out but every woman knew: Don't open your door to a stranger, even if he says he is the police. Make him slide his ID under the door. Don't stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble. Keep the locks on and keep going. If anyone whistles, don't turn to look. Don't go into a laundromat, by yourself, at night.

I think about laundromats. What I wore to them: shorts, jeans, jogging pants. What I put into them: my own clothes, my own soap, my own money, money I had earned myself. I think about having such control.

Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles.

There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

“Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale