Macarena Olona: A Photo and the Chorus of Comments About Her Body

A photo of Macarena Olona and the usual noise about someone else's body

One image. No statements, no proposals, no position. That was all it took for the conversation about Macarena Olona, one of the political figures with the greatest media presence in recent years, to fill with comments about her body and age. No one was discussing a policy, a vote, or a statement: they were discussing how she looks in the photo. The pattern is old and repeats every time the protagonist is a woman with public visibility.

What gets discussed when politics isn't discussed

Reviewing the trail of reactions left by the post, the result is monotonous. There are labels about her state of mind, comparisons with other adult entertainment figures, references to her age —one of the replies attributes 47 years to her— and jokes about supposed devices she would be wearing. Zero references to her public activity. The photo works as a blank screen onto which each person projects what they already thought.

The cost of unfiltered opinion

Criticism of a public figure is legitimate and protected. Another thing is the systematic shifting of the subject: when the subject is a woman, the argument is replaced by aesthetic judgment. There's no need to insult for the effect to be the same; it's enough not to talk about anything else. And that informative silence —noisy, but empty— is what ends up setting the day's agenda.

With these wickers, the basket weaves itself. What's striking is not how many comments a photo generates. What's striking is that there isn't a single one dedicated to what she says or does.