Love in a Relationship and the Women Right to Free Time
Men have more free time than women. They can rest and sleep more hours than we do, and they have more time to enjoy their passions and loved ones.
They have more time for physical exercise, for playing sports, for engaging in art, music, writing, reading, creating, inventing, and exploring new things.
Time for doing nothing, for enjoying nature, for advancing in their careers, for traveling and discovering new places, for recovering from illnesses, for going on excursions, for learning new things.
They have more time to study languages, pursue master's degrees, prepare for exams, and they have more time to have friends and other partners besides their official one.
Men have a higher quality of life than we do because they have more free time. This is one of the great injustices experienced by women in heterosexual relationships: having to give away our time and energy to men just because we were born women.
If we could negotiate on equal terms, if we had the same rights and the same income, none of us would work for a man for free.
So that they can live like kings, we work twice as many hours as they do at home, and therefore, we have half the free time they do.
This is the case in Spain: according to statistics from the INE (National Institute of Statistics), half of Spanish women in relationships perform the majority of caregiving and household tasks. 32.5% of men do nothing at home.
Globally, women dedicate almost 6 hours a day to these activities, while men spend less than half of that time, around 2 hours a day.
Can we love each other well under these conditions of inequality? Can women enjoy sex and love in abusive relationships?
Obviously, no.
Even though women take on all or most of the caregiving work, we don't do it with a smile. They medicate us so we can keep up the pace and coexist with exhaustion, stress, anxiety, frustration, and anger. They give us pills to activate us and to relax, and to prevent us from exploding.
But even though they want us medicated and numbed, the majority of us protest, demand collaboration, try to negotiate the distribution of tasks, rebel, get angry, fight for our rights, go on strike, and when we've had enough, we separate.
Women are the ones who file for divorce the most, and domestic exploitation is one of the main causes.
Once women rebel against the injustice and realize that care should be mutual and shared, men are left with two options: either start working as a team with their partners or remain alone and pay for the domestic work they used to enjoy for free.
No relationship can function based on abuse and privilege: many of us have already come to the realization that we were not born to serve and that we want to enjoy a Good Life.
As soon as all women in the world become aware that we have the right to have free time, time to rest, and time to enjoy life, the monarchy and male privileges will come to an end.
We have been fighting for this right in the streets for centuries, but above all, in our homes and in our beds—our main battlegrounds.
And we won't stop until the final victory.
Coral Herrera Gómez