Spanish / Mexico
Nosotras – Nosotros
(We – We)
Romero, Ana
(text)
Gallo, Valeria
(illus.)
Ciudad de México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2019. – [44] p.
(Series: Colección Los Especiales de A la orilla del viento)
ISBN 978-607-16-5908-8
Gender role | Gender equality | Stereotype | Emancipation | Freedom
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2020
“Nosotras – Nosotros”, whose title contains the female and male Spanish pronoun for “We”, is about two sides of the same coin. What does it mean to be a woman, or a man? The answer is: to be human and to not face pressure to conform to gender stereotypes and role expectations. The book is divided into two parts and can be read either from the front or from the back. The part on being female considers things sometimes still denied to girls and women: education, free choice of profession, social participation and visibility. Men, on the other hand, have always had these opportunities available to them, and – this is what the second part focuses on – are usually pressured into playing the role of the “strong” man, who is not allowed to show emotions like love, grief or weakness. Trenchant and assertive in both word and image, this thought-provoking book reveals the unnecessary restrictions of traditional gender ascriptions. Both book parts meet in the middle across a double-page that shows free people living without such constraints. [JW]