Sunday, June 24, 2018

familista: supporter of so-called family values

The newly elected right wing vice-president of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez, (Colombia's first woman VP) says she is a feminist because she believes society needs more of the 'feminine' - but her views are actually deeply anti-feminist. She openly expresses a profound anti-gay bias, disguised as support for so-called family values, known in Spanish as being familista.

It turns out that the word familist actually exists in English (thanks to Carlos Gonzalez (@carlosrealm) for pointing this out to me on twitter). It means "relating to or advocating a social framework centered on family relationships rather than on the needs of the individual" - but I think that this would be a false cognate in this context (aside from simply not being widely understood in English). Instead I suggest translating familista as 'supporter of so-called family values'. I add the so-called since people who call themselves family values supporters generally only support heterosexual families, and actively attack other types of families.

(On a side note, I tweet at @spaceforpeace)