I mentioned on several posts that I read Spanish language media daily. I might need to stop reading some of it, at least for a while, because I don\u2019t think I can take some of the linguistic insults thrown at me. With physical distance between me and Latin America (an ocean in between), I also sort of developed a critical eye towards the language, probably due to the fact that I stopped speaking it daily as I used to. Now, I only read in Spanish, which means words pop up in my radar like eyesores.<\/p>\n
For the past ten years or so, I\u2019ve noticed that the Spanish speaking world, or at least a good chunk of it, has introduced a new expression to police women: cuidarse<\/em> or, in English, taking care of oneself<\/em> as a synonym for dieting. Women are not asked if they are dieting, they are asked if \u201cthey take care of themselves<\/em>\u201d (te cuidas?<\/em> in Spanish). The most wretched and strict diets are presented under title banners of \u201cTake care of yourself this summer\u201d, followed by the ever present restrictive and dubious calorie counting regimes.<\/p>\n Now, the social pressure on women to be beautiful in Latin countries is extremely high and violent (did you know that Brazil and Argentina tail the US in number of cosmetic surgeries per year?). What I find appalling is that for the past decade or so, they\u2019ve been sold the idea that giving in to these standards, at the expense of their health, well being or joy is equivalent to \u201ctaking care of themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I mentioned on several posts that I read Spanish language media daily. I might need to stop reading some of it, at least for a while, because I don\u2019t think I can take some of the linguistic insults thrown at me. With physical distance between me and Latin America (an ocean in between), I also …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":2179,"loftocean_coauthors":"","alpaca_post_content_reading_setting":"","alpaca_reading_speed_per_minute":0,"alpaca_reading_speed_unit":"","alpaca_single_post_template_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[266,1229,2291],"class_list":["post-3428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beauty-standards","tag-language-matters","tag-word-matters"],"yoast_head":"\n