Until the (ephemeral) feat of cloning Dolly the sheep, it was believed that, among the infinity of snowflakes that fall from the sky, there were and could not be two alike. Not flakes or anything else. That each thing was unique and unrepeatable. Of course all noses, ears or buttocks look alike; all goats, wasps or leeches; each plate of tripe, garlic soups or French omelettes. But no matter how much they look alike, there are not, and cannot be, two alike. Fortunately.
But if it is accepted that no two things or beings are exactly alike, because nature or, if you want, the Great Maker has decided so, how do you explain the existence of a Ministry of Equality? Equality of what? Of whom? What’s more, well thought out and without hesitation, perhaps the unappealable individuality of each object, of each being, of every work of art, of each sunset is not so execrable. Aren’t it totalitarian systems that want to make us equal in order to erase our individuality?
This issue of equality presents us with endless dilemmas, one might say, that are unsolvable. Although it may seem obvious, desirable and even essential that a woman earn the same wages and enjoy the same rights as a man who performs the same job, this is rarely the case. Should elite female soccer or tennis players earn the same as their male counterparts? Hopefully. But the one who decides is not a sports federation or a ministry, but the market, the audiences, and advertising. Because it is one thing to promote and promote equality, a laudable task, and another, very different, to achieve it.
At the beginning of this month of September 2023, the Ministry of Equality presented an application called Me Toca whose purpose is to promote the distribution of citizens and tasks at home, in the event that they have such a thing, since there are statistics which show that women dedicate 12.5 more hours per week to domestic tasks than men, a figure that rises to 30 hours more in the case of women who have partial employment contracts.
So far, good. The acting Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, stated that the new application aims to vindicate the right of women to have free time that allows them to live and not assume the majority of care tasks and household chores alone. “This application,” she says of the minister, “will make tasks that were previously invisible visible.” […] “Tasks will emerge that we had never considered the other person doing and that we had never thanked the other person for.”
Now, citizens interested in signing up for the invention will have to register as a coexistence unit and, once the group is established, distribute tasks such as laundry, cleaning, food or taking the dog for a walk, without forgetting who the handsome one is. It is dedicated to filing the tax return or taking care of carrying out repairs or, where appropriate, the procedures, always onerous, for a professional to come to the house to repair something broken.
Laudable initiative of the minister. However, as far as is known, the application in question makes no reference to the quality of the contribution of each of those who register as members of a cohabitation unit.
Nor does it explain how a couple, whoever it may be, will be able to withstand the demands of an app that aims to account for the work of each of them.
But hey, there are apps for everything, like one that tells you that the products you use every day are of mediocre or simply bad quality. And in these complicated post-covid times in which coexistence is faltering both at home, at work or in politics, how can the Me Toca app help in the search for the long-awaited equality that may be non-existent or perhaps unattainable?
