‘It’s over’: World Cup kiss becomes Spanish football’s #MeToo moment
the Guardian
‘It’s over’: World Cup kiss becomes Spanish football’s #MeToo moment
Jenni Hermoso receives ovation at Madrid match as hashtag #SeAcabo is embraced on social media in wake of Rubiales scandal
They are really making a big deal out of this in Spain.
>Hours earlier, Luis Rubiales, the embattled head of the Spanish football federation, had lashed out at “fake feminism” and bemoaned what he called a “social assassination” in the reaction to his grabbing Hermoso by the head and kissing her on the lips during the medal ceremony at the World Cup. On Saturday, Fifa suspended Rubiales for 90 days, ordering both him and the federation to stay away from Hermoso and those close to her.
>The backlash against Rubiales’ conduct was swift. The World Cup champions said they would not play for the national team until the federation’s leadership was removed. More than 50 other female players said the same. On Saturday, nearly all of the coaching and technical staff for Spain’s women’s team resigned, joining the seven members of the Spanish football federation who reportedly responded to Rubiales’ speech with their resignation.
Guy is getting roasted.
>“In six days, feminism swept Rubiales away,” the El País journalist Isabel Valdés wrote on social media. “In six days #SeAcabó has replaced the kiss that Hermoso never consented to.”
>Condemnations of Rubiales’ behaviour cut across political lines. The country’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called the kiss an “unacceptable gesture”, while the country’s acting equality minister, Podemos’s Irene Montero, described it as a “form of sexual violence that we women suffer on a daily basis and until now has been invisible”.
>The conservative People’s party, criticised by women’s groups for allowing the anti-feminist far right to gain a foothold in local and regional governments across Spain, also weighed in.
>“Spaniards don’t deserve this,” the party’s Cuca Gamarra told broadcaster Antena 3. “It’s a global embarrassment for the whole country and is tarnishing the incredible victory of a group of women who should be the only protagonists.”
You know you are onto something when the alleged regressives are in on this.
>Across Spain, many sought to broaden the conversation. No longer was this only the story of a team that had long wrestled with the perception that the federation saw them as less worthy than their male counterparts; what had played out on the world stage was a power imbalance that hit home for many.
>“To all the guys who are stunned by the reaction against Rubiales; it’s because this has happened to all of us,” the journalist Irantzu Varela wrote on social media. “With our boss, with our client, with our teacher, with our friend, with a stranger, with you?”
Honestly, I have no idea about Spanish culture, but it sounds like change could be appropriate.
