Hembrisma
por Emilia S.*

After a year in Panamá of sidewalk hisses, nudie newspaper centerfolds and having tools taken out of my hands, I have finally discovered a positive counter-effect to the cultural phenomenon of machismo.
    I'll, call it, naturally: hembrisma . This concentrated "femaleness" can be found throughout Panamanian culture. Hembrisma could be defined as a fortunate repurcussion of the concentrated "maleness" whistling and strutting around everywhere.
    Hembrisma is not femininity and sex-appeal, nor is it "marianismo." This little exposition of campo-inspired philosophizing will not attempt to ponder whether or not the advantages of hembrisma are worth suffering the associated negative social aspects of it's machismo corollary. (I would say they are not, and I would like to think, however, that the positive attributes of hembrisma can be maintained in a gender egalitarian society.)
    Nor will I get into any negative aspects of hembrisma (although I do not deny their existence). Basically, hembrisma is my way of looking on the bright side of society completely divided by gender.

It probably took me a year to realize hembrisma existed because I was so desperately trying to prove that I was "as good as the next man," and too caught up in being frustrated and repulsed by machismo behavior. So I ignored the hembrisma surrounding me, feeding me, washing my clothes.

One of the places I found hembrisma was on fingernails: on my own, manicured with media lunas, and on the immaculate flowered, bowed, flourescent uñas de mis amigas. Nails done simply "por el gusto" and in demonstration that even female toes are prettier!
    I watched hembrisma in action as a tía and abuela laboriouly tucked and pleated to alter a dress to the mature feminine curves of a cuñada.
    There were none of the attempts to hide the bulge of her nalgas or the matronly roundness of her abdomen that would be the obsession of a gringa seamstress (not to mention the baby-girl-pink color further proclaiming the femalesness of the wearer).

One sees hembrisma everytime a mujer breastfeeds her baby on the chiva or at a reunión without even a flicker of shame. After all, what should be hidden about the most basic maternal function of nurturing a new life after having performed the uniquely female act ofdar luz, giving sunshine?
    I encountered a roomful of hembrisma at the WID-GAD Conferencia Nacional de Mujeres when a roomful of over 30 mothers cried together, echando menos a their far-away children.

*an essay of Hammock Philosophy written by an hembra with no intentions to offend any machos.