If i were a boy original

Intro

Now, we are not talking about what you would call a “touristy” English trip to the best beaches in the country. We are talking about Spanish if I were a boy or Spanish if I were a girl. Both of these phrases are taken from the title of a song which was very popular in Spain when I was a kid. It’s called “Amor y Soledad,” and it is sung by one of my favorite artists, Luis Miguel, if you know who that is.

The point here is to show how many words there are (over 30) in every phrase. The meaning depends on what you want to say and how you want to say it.

However, this list includes some tips for remembering:

If i were a boy [because i am a girl]

If i were a boy, I would be speaking Spanish. Don’t forget that when you start a new language, it takes time to learn and practice. Don’t rush it. And don’t force yourself to speak Spanish when you can say “hi,” “hello,” and “bye bye.” Each day, as you speak more and more, your grammar will become more natural — as if you were born with it.

Pop culture references [lady gaga]

This is a great example of an illustration of the power of a context-free sentence. When you read something and realize you’re reading about a boy who dresses in drag, there are two possibilities: Either you’re okay with the idea that people dress as women and consider it entirely normal, or you’re not. Which would be fine if we had only one or two options to choose from. But since there are so many “boy-dresses-as-woman” stories, we have to pick one and see it through to the end.

Since this is on a blog called The Lingering Unicorn , I wanted to mention another page on the site with some great pop culture references:

“tears in heaven” [elton john]

As I’m sure many people have noticed, the official title of John Legend’s new album is “tears in heaven.” Whether you are reading this from an iPhone, iPad or laptop, the song title itself (the second word) sounds like a beautiful way to describe life — and the album itself. That’s why I think it would be great if John Legend could write his own version of the song title on a sign in English (something he did once in his career).

Classic love song lyrics [chris brown]

There are many reasons why we love this song. It is a great example of how to use the power of repetition to build a memorable quote and it is also an example of how to use something that is universal to us, such as culture, language and so on, in our marketing efforts.

Pop music references

This is not actually a new theme, but it is commonly known. There are many ways to create a pop culture reference in Spanish, and this is one of them.

The Spanish word for “if I were a boy” (if i fuera un hombre) literally means “If I Were” or “If I Were A Man”. The word begins with the letter “i” and ends with the letter “hombre”, which means man.

Female empowerment or feminism

I blogged this last week, but it’s worth revisiting. I was curious to see how the English-language usage of “feminism” had evolved in recent years; I was also curious about how it was evolving in Spain. So, here is a reprise.

The first time I heard “feminism” used in Spain, it was used to refer to the feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s (i.e., “feminismo”). This use made sense to me when I was young, and even more so when I moved to Spain (where, as a Spanish-speaking American woman, I came across the term only briefly once or twice over the years). But it no longer does.

In the meantime, what has happened is that feminism has become synonymous with all kinds of political activism and movements aimed at ending gender inequality; and that activists have taken that word and applied it across a whole range of social issues ranging from reproductive rights (especially abortion) to sexual equality (which includes everything from gay rights to women’s rights). And this is obviously great news for anyone who identifies as one of these categories; but not so great news for those who don’t — which is often feminists themselves.

I should clarify something right now: feminism is not a political ideology. You can be an orthodox Christian feminist or an atheist feminist or any other kind of feminist or simply not care about gender inequality at all [1] . Feminists have their own political ideologies which relate to both female empowerment (e.g., reproductive choice) and male oppression (e.g., misogyny); you could call them post-feminist instead of post-marxist [2]. And that really should be understood as a post-Marxist position: marxism didn’t just happen because Marx wrote on gender equality; marxism did indeed advocate equal rights for women — as well as abolishing class society through revolution — but did many other things too [3], including gender equality.

Anyway, back to feminism itself: its evolution in Spanish society over the last decade has been extremely interesting and productive for me personally – some good things for women; some bad things for men – but these are different from feminism itself: “femalismo” can mean any kind of activism anywhere on the spectrum from libertarianism via traditional patriarchy through gay liberation etc.; feminism can mean any form of