You have messed up.
I have only written one book.
The men of my life.
They are the men that Sonia, the twenty-something protagonist, sleeps with.
Without naming them: he lists them.
I didn’t want to romanticize the dates. I narrate naked, raw, objective facts.
How many men parade?
Forty-eight men. And two women.
More than powders, judicial reports.
Like legal documents.
Are you a jurist?
Yes, and I advise humanitarian NGOs on international reception and asylum for political and economic migrants.
She is Swedish, and speaks good Spanish.
My mother is from Barcelona. When she was young she worked at a campsite, she fell in love with a Danish boy and they went to Sweden: that’s where I was born.
Do you know Spain?
We came to Catalonia in the summers.
Tell me a story from your childhood.
With the help of my grandfather, a Sephardi from Thessaloniki exiled here by the Nazis, we went to the kiosk to buy La Vanguardia.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
He dreamed of improving the world, saving it from injustice. And today I dedicate myself to defending the human rights of people.
But novel personal relationships…
I don’t sleep with someone who doesn’t respect human rights. Not even with someone who doesn’t read. Without books, there is no sex.
“The Swedes”, we Spaniards used to say…
Repressed Spaniards before free Swedes.
Are Swedish women still free today?
Swedish women are more left-wing, and men are more right-wing.
Does that affect relationships?
Yes. Every day there are more women without a partner. It happens throughout the West… and there must be a reason!
Why is it, Sofia?
We women realize that we dislike what happens in heterosexual couples.
And what happens in the heterosexual couple?
That the relationship is unequal: the man abuses the woman, mistreats her.
Give an example.
A woman says “yes” to sleeping with a man… but that is not “yes to everything”!
What do you think of with “everything”?
If you don’t feel like sex at the last minute. Or not feel like having sexual practices.
And the man doesn’t respect that?
Often. Or she remains silent, so as not to annoy. And the truth is that he doesn’t want that!
What is wrong in the relationship?
Fail the conversation about sex, the most important conversation! The heterosexual couple still lacks a clear language, an accurate and unmistakable code.
It seems unbelievable, at this point.
But that’s how it is. We should learn from queer couples: in that case the codes are crystal clear and adhered to by both parties.
Well let’s learn.
But in the meantime, and just in case, many women avoid heterosexual couples.
Pity.
A statistic reveals that there are much more and better female orgasms in lesbian couples than in heterosexual couples.
What should heterosexual men do?
Listen to the woman instead of mentally competing with other men, supposed and imaginary sexual athletes.
I take note, I take note.
The sphere of the heterosexual couple is still insecure for women, who also blame themselves too much for this or that.
Sure, sure, but know that many men… also blame themselves.
Less, less. After casual sex, he is validated as a macho and she is invalidated as a whore. When a heterosexual video is leaked, what do we say about him and what about her?
You just said it. It’s true.
And I’ll tell you something else about that female disadvantage.
Say.
If a woman goes on a first sexual date with a man… she almost always informs a friend where she will be.
Fear floats in the air…
Well yes. And is it true that this man does not feel any fear on that first date?
No reason. What is his character looking for by sleeping with those 48 men?
Orgasm, company, love… That combination in variable doses, depending on the day.
And by sleeping with the two women?
The same… but much safer and calmer. The clarity is so much… that in the end she gets scared… and she ends up with another man.
And you, are you like your character?
I am bisexual. I am sexually attracted to a person for something. Something that is not her gender. Bisexuals… we are invisible.
Yeah? And why aren’t they shown more?
Because they tell you that you’re still looking for yourself, that you don’t know what you are… Go ahead! Enough! Of course I know what I am: I’m bisexual!