World Cup kiss: feminist progress is always met with backlash, but Spain's #MeToo moment shows things are changing
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Thursday, August 31, 2023
Male, Royal Spanish Football Federation, Global, EU, Democracy, Female, Violence, MeToo movement, Speech, World cup, Anxiety, Yolanda, Woman, Statistics, Rubiales, Vilda, History, Jennifer Hermoso, Movement, Machismo, Man, Editorial, Feminism, UN, Euphoria, Backlash, City, Assault, Textbook, Nuclear family, Letter, Mental health, Solidarity, Legislation, Nightclub, Management
Spain is now one of only two teams who are world champions in both the male and female competitions (Germany is the other).
Key Points:
- Spain is now one of only two teams who are world champions in both the male and female competitions (Germany is the other).
- In a society where feminist progress has historically been met with backlash, it shows how far Spanish society has come to reject rancid machismo instantaneously.
- Read more:
Luis Rubiales: these seven tactics made his speech excusing his assault on Jenni Hermoso a textbook case in silencing women
Machismo, on and off the pitch
- The kiss was not the only moment of such machismo that this team has had to contend with.
- In the autumn of 2022, 15 players demanded better working conditions, because they feared for their physical and mental health.
- These legitimate concerns made in private were leaked to the press and spun as a revolt of spoilt, female brats against the head coach Jorge Vilda.
Backlash to progress
- While there was slow but steady progress for women’s rights in the 1980s and 1990s, it was not until the administration of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (2004-2011) that progress accelerated, and the longstanding machismo culture began to face a real challenge.
- Two landmark legislative changes were made to combat gender violence in 2004 and progress gender equality in 2007.
- The most recent new legislation, passed in October 2022, strengthens criminal charges for sexual aggression, among other advancements for women’s rights.
- Even during the dictatorship in the 1960s, the slightest progress for female rights was perceived as a danger to a male-dominated society.
Solidarity
- Female and male feminists from all walks of life took to the streets demonstrating in Spanish cities, showing Rubiales the red card.
- An editorial in El País is brutally frank in its judgement of this powerful man who has behaved like a textbook perpetrator.
- No country can control its lunatics, but how it deals with them is a sign of its maturity.