Sandra Sabates (Granollers, 1979) presents one of the most-watched TV shows, El Intermedio, every night, Monday through Thursday. Between current affairs and humor, Sabates carries the informational weight of the program, and his work has earned him considerable recognition: in 2018, he received the Ondas Award for Best TV Host, in addition to other awards such as the Meninas Award or CIMA TV. Victorian Festival Award. Equality and feminism The journalist raised one of his flags in the show, on social networks as well as in books.
Sabates has just published Do not tell me the news (Editorial Planeta), a book based on traditional fairy tales, tells the true stories of several women who have experienced various forms of sexist violence. Rape, chemical subjugation, father abuse, trafficking for sexual exploitation, genital mutilation … Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White have real names in this book, but their identities are hidden behind the names of the heroes. Protect your anonymity.
The story you choose to start the book with is Little Red Riding Hood, why?
This is one of my favorite stories and you do not have the same vision when you are told it as a child as when you grow up and read it with a different eye. There you think what they were telling you was actually rape. Like Little Red Riding Hood, other stories hide a story that is much more perverted. The idea of the book is that we will stop the naturalization of this violence. We have changed a lot, we no longer want to be princesses, women have other personal and professional aspirations, but gender-based violence still exists, it is still part of our reality today.
Exactly uses the story of Little Red Riding Hood about a girl who suffered a “herd” disorder. Is this a turning point in our country when it comes to talking about sexual violence and broadening the social vision of sexist violence?
Undoubtedly. This is a very mediatic case that we have talked about a lot. The book, which all the characters emphasize, is to send a message about the importance of condemnation so that they can help and know what is going on and fight this sexist violence. It was very important when people took to the streets during the storm to ask them not to focus on the victim and we all felt safe. The first two sentences of “Herd” did not work for all of us. We knew it would happen to him, but it could have happened to any of us. And then there is media responsibility. In some cases, the victim felt very questioned, or saw that the defendant’s lawyers were voting a lot and their conversation was somewhat legitimized, although they also felt very supportive, were these two faces.
He talks about the role of the media, which has also been an area where citizens have been calling for change in recent years to put aside clichés and stereotypes and use a gender perspective. Did the media justify that moment and social demand?
Yes, we have to do a lot of self-criticism and improve a lot. We saw both sides: on the one hand, a debate broke out in which the victim was interrogated and tried to discredit him, and a version of the aggressors was voiced through their lawyer. And then the opposite face, sympathy with the victim that “I believe in you.” In general, I think we are taking steps, albeit slowly. To some extent, I think we are more aware when it comes to introducing this gender perspective, it shows that the more we care about language, the more women are present, as well as in decision-making positions, the more we turn to experts. … We also know that the achievements of women’s rights are slow and costly, therefore it is important to protect them because we know that their achievement is difficult and very easy to seize.
In one of the stories, he mentions Pamela Palenciano, who was condemned by ultra-groups for her monologue “not only does the blow hurt”. This is a paradigmatic example of how attacks on many feminists take place. Legal harassment or harassment and attacks on networks are some of the strategies. As a publicly committed journalist dedicated to feminism, do you experience this harassment?
Networks are where this is most noticeable. You become the target and you see how these attacks multiply, more and more lately. When we give one of our interviews “should be a woman”, insults, all kinds of explanations, attacks, constant denials begin. It is those denials that are endorsed by the far right. Lately I have noticed that these types of messages have grown exponentially, messages that are also full of hate that spread and are very dangerous.
Do you think that coming to the institutions of the extreme right has increased this climate of harassment and controversy?
We are in a moment of extreme polarization, and instead of dialogue, we choose confrontation, controversy, whether you are with me or against me, this constant “go for them.” It is a discourse permeated by repetitive arguments that are completely wrong. It is also an attempt at intimidation; What you have to try is that they will not get it. What worries me is that these discourses extend to even the most vulnerable age groups. When you look at the data and see that the number of young men who believe that sexist violence is an ideological invention is growing … Therefore, the book is “Do not tell us stories”, it is a reality, today women continue to live in our country.
One of the “table tops” – the moments when he sits at the program desk to make small speeches on key issues – he has dedicated to the trance law approval conflict. He defended that the main thing was that the rules came out and not who followed them. How do you position yourself in the open conflict in this regard?
I believe that feminism fights for equality and we are talking about human rights. Feminism is transverse, it encompasses different ways of its interpretation and all of them are valid and aim to continue to take steps towards equality. There will be some things we agree on more than others, the main thing is to move forward on the common issues they agree on and the issues on which there is not much agreement or dispute. And listen to other poses. I am not an expert on anything and I have no absolute truth about anything, so listening to ways of understanding that are different from mine will also give me a lot and enrich me. I consider feminism to be a transverse and inclusive movement. We are on the tail of Europe with legal recognition of gender. The fundamental thing in any chaos is dialogue, escaping from a gratuitous attack. Conversation is what allows us to reach meeting points, and understanding others is something key to moving forward. The fight only gets noise and gets nowhere.
To conclude I would like to ask you about picture and television. There is criticism of the media, advertising, cinema … about the models of beauty and the laws of the body that they reproduce, but it is also an inverted idea that puts many journalists working in television into question. They seem to be there beautifully. How do we make a critique of this normality that still reproduces not to fall into compatible arguments that violate his experience and talent?
I get a lot of comments in this regard. Comments that fascinate your physique, so you are there, in the line of discredit or discredit, regardless of your abilities, talents, doing the job. I remember just taking Onda and receiving similar messages, it did not matter if I had Onda, they were discussing whether I was more beautiful or less beautiful.
We a lot have justified a woman with gray hair on TV, I think, more and more, and that we want to celebrate our birthday and continue to work on the image, why not. We also come from a tradition in which he played with a leading male girl who accompanied him and that was it. The role of women in the media has changed a lot, although the changes are very slow, so we must continue to insist on these messages.
Source: El Diario
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
