The writer Alana S. Portero and the communicator Nerea Pérez de las Heras participated this Wednesday in a meeting with members of elDiario.es held in the newspaper’s editorial office during which aspects such as vulnerability, pressure from networks or the theatricalization of masculinity in events such as Rafael Nadal’s farewell to the tennis courts.
This last meeting at the editorial office of elDiario.es, moderated by the genre editor-in-chief, Ana Requena, began precisely with vulnerability, an issue on which they agreed and on which the writer, playwright and activist too as the communicator discussed in her writings and conversations.
Nerea Pérez de las Heras made it clear from the start that class vulnerability “is at the center” and left some details about how she faced her accident and her own disability as something “political, collective” after having lived with others. disability and dependence of their parents or in a situation of economic vulnerability.
Alana Portero added that the vulnerabilities of both are “very political” and explained that their way of meeting social expectations was also a matter of fatigue: “My closet is glass. “My closet doesn’t exist,” she described before saying that she understands that others can find “meaning” in the way she shows herself vulnerable.
One of the consequences of publicly showing this vulnerability is public exposure, which Portero says he has given up on in spaces like Twitter (now X): “Because I can’t stand it.” “Entering Twitter is like entering a Nazi bar,” said Pérez de las Heras, who defined this type of sexist attacks as “sterile violence”: “They are organized in these spaces to undermine you” .
The author of The bad habit and the “We will be better” podcast co-host agree that they are going through a successful moment in their respective careers, which even led to Alana S. Portero meeting and, as detailed, establishing a personal relationship with the singer Dua Lipa, who describes herself as “a charming person”. Of course, he insisted that his self-esteem was “unsalvageable” and left some advice: “It is dangerous to entrust your self-esteem to public recognition.” »
Nerea Pérez then proposed extending imposter syndrome to the entire population: “Let us first democratize it and then we will provide therapy for everyone.” And he explained in counterpoint the history of the advertisement for the oil tanker which, on one occasion, had some of the staff of his magazine “kidnapped”. But not before leaving to the imagination the possibility that there exists “a Pérez-Reverte with the little inner voice of a 30-year-old from Madrid”.
Writer Alana Portero has suggested that the characters in her novel are “distillations of many people” she has met throughout her life and denied there is a second part: she is now working on a Spanish Civil War scenario.
There were also moments for feminism, in addition to Nerea Pérez de las Heras recalling that the American feminist poet Eileen Myles had recommended her partner’s book during her last visit to the Reina Sofía Museum, to defend the approach of feminism from the acceptance of the sexist education that we have.
It was precisely in this conversation that the tennis player Rafa Nadal appeared, who retired from the courts just a few days ago and who Alana Portero recommended “since you make a farewell video of six minutes, devote three of them to the people he sacrificed for you.
The activist described this type of behavior as a “theatricalization of masculinity” which “is an instruction that is taught through these examples” and admitted that to write her novel, she had to ask everyone around her. her to “support her life”.
There was also time to address mental health and the difficulty and loneliness that teenagers sometimes face when dealing with their issues, particularly LGBTI+ issues, which they both reminded the younger girls that they have something that they did not have: being able to “seek their community outside their class” and that they have “better possibilities for communication” than previous generations.
