P.er who does not know María Hesse, Bad Girls it is a surprising book. It is difficult to define it: it is an essay, with some autobiographical references, which traces centuries of women’s history through myths and culture shaped by men. And she does it with a feminist cut and with the informative tone of someone who knows how to grasp the essential by telling it in a simple way. At the same time it is also an illustrated book: the author is also a designer, known for the illustrated biographies of Frida Kahlo, David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe and for The pleasure (all published by Solferino).
Bad girls by María Hesse, Solferino, pp. 200, 20 euros.
Bad Girls Against Prejudice
His female figures with large and restless eyes, a tiny nose and bright colors accompany the reading with drama. From Penelope to Yoko Ono, what Hesse tells us in Bad Girls is a story full of prejudices, hostility and social condemnation towards women who have not accepted to re-enter the stereotype of the submissive girl. Woe to wanting to live like a man, as for example Emma Bovary dreamed. Witches, scheming and cursed have been the bad girls who defy the preconceived order for centuries. As the author says, it was necessary to wait until 1979 with the film Alien with Ellen Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver, to have a female figure who is not the hero’s woman, but is a real heroine. Spanish, born in 1982, María Hesse adores Patti and Leonora, her cats. We don’t know anything else. About her private sphere of hers, she says, “I tell some things in books, but only when there is a precise reason.” Her surname is a nom de plume, a tribute to Hermann Hesse (“I loved Demian when I was at university”). Drawing has always been her passion. “I have no memories of me without a pencil in my hand, I started as a child and I never stopped.”
Who are the Bad Girls and how did the idea for this book come about?
In reality, any woman is because it is impossible to carry out all the tasks that are assigned to us. We have all been called “crazy” or “whores”, at the very least. This book was born from the need to understand where the labels that charge us with guilt come from and shame, and which end up acting as the best means to oppress us. To understand where this narrative comes from and who wrote it.
It begins with a fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, which gives the idea of a passive femininity: it only matters that she is beautiful, and she will be saved by the prince. What are the most common stereotypes present in fairy tales?
The real problem is that the labels given to women are not only present in fairy tales, but we find them in every narrative: literature, music, cinema and also in scientific and humanistic texts. Crazy, hysterical, bad mother … They are endless.
In mythology, Medusa is raped by Poseidon but she is the culprit. The goddess Athena takes her revenge and, as she writes, “reinforces the belief that a woman’s worst enemy is always another woman.” There are still those who justify the rapist as being tempted. Will we ever get out?
What I try to do is break with this belief. If all the fiction has been built around this, which is the only message that comes to you, you take it as true and act accordingly. There is no innate nature that makes us enemies. For patriarchy, keeping us apart is the perfect strategy, because together we are stronger. On the other hand, we tend to take responsibility for all evil, even if we suffer violence. What were you doing around alone at night? You were drunk? Such questions are not asked of a man if he is robbed. I hope that sooner or later we can get out of it, but the road is long.
Before Eve, there was Lilith, Adam’s first wife who refused to obey him. What does it represent?
A woman who has not accepted submission and has been punished, as happens to many women in the narrative when they step off the path laid out for them. The end that touches those who transgress is tragic, there is no salvation. If this fear is instilled, it is easier to abide by the rules, but we are tired of complying with them.
For centuries the idea of the feminine has been shaped by the Church. Who were the main thinkers who shaped it?
There was not only the Church. Greek philosophers like Aristotle, psychiatrists like Freud, in general the men who were allowed to construct the narrative and the rules.
Good mothers and wives, docile to the will of husbands and fathers. What happened to those who were different?
There have always been tools to control us, such as religion and the inquisition, called into question even if a man got tired of a woman, or if he wanted to take away her possessions. Another method was to lock her up in a psychiatric hospital saying she was insane. The point was to be able to make ourselves a danger to society and thus justify the violence. Now we are afraid of loneliness. If we behave in a certain way, nobody will like us.
His female figures are colorful and lively. Do strong colors have a particular meaning?
They are colorful, but not as vibrant as they may seem at first glance. The palette changes depending on the book, but I don’t think about it much, it comes by itself.
She is a writer and illustrator. Which activity is the most difficult for you?
Without a doubt, write. But every time I buy more security. Each book has a different complexity. The process of creating the image and the word is very intense and makes me grow a lot.
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