mujer pelota

In her 2013 book La ridícula idea de no volver a verte (The ridiculous idea of not seeing you again), Rosa Montero wrote:

Simone de Beauvoir llamaba mujeres pelota a aquellas que, tras triunfar con grandes dificultades en la sociedad machista, se prestaban a ser utilizadas por esa misma sociedad para reforzar la discriminación; y así, su imagen era rebotada contra las demás mujeres con el siguiente mensaje: «¿Veis? Ella ha triunfado porque vale; si vosotras no lo conseguís no es por impedimentos sexistas, sino porque no valéis lo suficiente.» ¿Fue Marie Curie una mujer pelota? No te equivoques: el hecho de que viviera hace más de un siglo no la exime de ser consciente de las injusticias de género. Ya en la Edad Media hubo mujeres que escribieron textos protofeministas, como Christine de Pisan y su Ciudad de las damas (1405), y en concreto en la época de Marie las sufragistas eran tremendamente activas. Así que si no mencionó en absoluto la cuestión feminista no fue porque el tema resultara invisible. Sí, es posible que Marie fuera un poco esa mujer pelota de la que hablaba Beauvoir. Era orgullosa. Sabía lo mucho que le había costado todo. Y, en temperamentos así, creo que hay una tendencia a considerarse distinta a las demás. Distinta y mejor. De hecho, dijo una vez sobre las mujeres: «No es preciso llevar una existencia tan antinatural como la mía. Le he entregado una gran cantidad de tiempo a la ciencia, porque quería, porque amaba la investigación... Lo que deseo para las mujeres y las jóvenes es una sencilla vida de familia y algún trabajo que les interese.» Guau. Paternalista, ¿no? ¿O habría que decir maternalista?

I was intrigued by this term, “mujer pelota”. What term did Simone de Beauvoir use? Quick web search brought me this snippet from the French translation of Montero’s book, L’Idée ridicule de ne plus jamais te revoir:

Simone de Beauvoir appelait femmes-alibi ces femmes qui, après avoir triomphé avec de grandes difficultés dans la société machiste, se prêtaient à être utilisées par cette même société pour renforcer la discrimination. Et ainsi, leur image était renvoyée aux autres femmes avec le message suivant: “Vous voyez ? Elle, elle a triomphé parce qu’elle en est capable. Si vous, vous n’y arrivez pas, ce n’est à cause d’un empêchement sexiste, mais parce que vous n’en êtes pas capables.” Est ce que Marie Curie a été une femme-alibi?

Here! Femme-alibi is translated to English as “token woman”.

“Token women”: that’s how Simone de Beauvoir called those who, after triumphing with great difficulties in the macho society, lent themselves to be used by the same society to reinforce the discrimination; and so, their image was sent back to the other women with the following message: “See? She has made it because she is worthy; if you lot do not succeed, it’s not because of sexism, it’s just you’re not worthy enough.” Was Marie Curie such “token woman”? Make no mistake: the fact that she lived more than a century ago does not exempt her from awareness of gender inequality. Already in the Middle Ages there were women who wrote protofeminist texts, for example Christine de Pizan with her City of the Ladies (1405), while the suffragettes were tremendously active exactly in the times of Marie. So if she never addressed the feminist question, it was not because of its invisibility. Yes, it is possible that Marie was a bit of a “token woman” that Beauvoir was talking about. She was proud. She knew what it had taken to get where she was. And I think, with temperament like that, there is a tendency to consider yourself different from the others. Different and better. In fact, she once said about women: “It is not necessary to lead an existence as unnatural as mine. I’ve given a lot of time to science, because I wanted to, because I loved research... What I want for women and girls is a simple family life and some work that would interest them.” Wow. Patronising? Or shall we say, matronising?

But of course Mme Curie was different, and yes, she was, and probably still is, a “token woman”. Only three other women were awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The only other woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics was Maria Goeppert-Mayer. (Originally, Marie was not even nominated for her first Nobel Prize. It was only after the complaint by Pierre Curie that her name was added to the nomination.) And no woman or man ever won a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. If you tell women scientists, “you see, you have to be as good as Marie Curie to get a Nobel” (I’m reasonably sure nobody says that to men), this is the same as to say “forget it”.