For more than a week now, the world has been focused on Spain, not just because its National Women’s Football Team won the 2023 World Cup, but owing to the subsequent maelstrom, events at the centre of which is President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales. His first impropriety – enthusiastically grabbing his crotch while watching the World Cup final – might not have been given as much global attention, were it not for his second. During his overly-exuberant greeting of the members of the winning Spanish National Team, Mr Rubiales grabbed the head of the team’s star forward Jennifer ‘Jenni’ Hermoso and kissed her on the mouth. Apart from the kiss being non-consensual, Mr Rubiales’ grabbing and holding the head of Ms Hermoso made it impossible for her to avoid it.
Since then, calls have been made from several quarters for Mr Rubiales’ resignation including by men and women footballers and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, investigations have been launched, FIFA has suspended him, and the Spanish government has initiated legal action to have him suspended from the RFEF. At first, Mr Rubiales hotly denied that he had done anything wrong; he claimed that the kiss was “mutual, euphoric and consensual”. While euphoria was no doubt being experienced by every team member, Mr Rubiales’ expression of this feeling was his own. If indeed he had asked permission to kiss the player, the split second within which it occurred offered no opportunity for consent. However, his half-hearted apology which came later, was not directed to Ms Hermoso, but to “those who were offended” by his action. This was after he had publicly referred to the people who chastised him as “idiots”.
Deepening the imbroglio, even as Mr Rubiales fiercely refused to resign, the RFEF issued a statement purportedly on Ms Hermoso’s behalf, which echoed Mr Rubiales’ claims that the kiss was mutual and spontaneous. The player later released her own statement, blasting the “manipulative, hostile and controlling culture” of the RFEF, which she said had been pressuring her as well as her family, friends, colleagues to speak in favour of its embattled president. The federation’s response was to accuse Ms Hermoso of lying and to threaten her and others with legal action. It has since backtracked from that position to the point where its delegate for sexual violence protocol has initiated an internal investigation into Mr Rubiales.
In Mr Rubiales’ hometown of Motril, his mother locked herself into a church and proceeded on a hunger strike over the “unwarranted, inhumane and bloodthirsty hunt” of her son. In addition, according to the Guardian newspaper, a few dozen of his family, friends and supporters also came out in protest against his “persecution”. One of his defenders summed it up for the newspaper thus: “We are talking about a little kiss, he didn’t kill anyone”.
Unfortunately, it is this kind of attitude that contributes to men like Mr Rubiales believing they have the right to do whatever they like, whenever they like, especially to women. The Spanish even have the perfect word for it: machismo. While the word itself has both positive and negative connotations, most dictionaries define it as an exaggerated sense of man’s right to dominate, coupled with a minimal sense of responsibility and disregard of consequences. It is a word rooted in gender inequality, one that lends itself to violence against women and therefore should have no place in a modern society.
The issue of consent goes back hundreds of years to a time when women had no rights. One might imagine that it has now been settled given the global reach of the #metoo movement. Not so. Tropes such as ‘true love’s kiss’ glamorised by the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” as told by the Grimm brothers, and perpetuated by Disney, continue to fuel the misnomer that women can be kissed and groped without their tacit agreement. In the story, Prince Charming kissed a sleeping woman who woke up, thanked him for it, married him and they lived happily ever after. The obvious caveat that should be clear here, is that life is not a fairy tale.
That being said, the disrespect, harassment, and assault against women in sport by men who fail to see their worth, regardless of the work they put in, has been relentless over the years. A famous case in point is that of sports physician Larry Nasser, who sexually abused more than 150 young girls and is currently serving time in prison. However, he is not the only one and though there have been scores of other reported cases, many more fail to see the light of day. In addition, misogyny and sexism are so deeply ingrained in sport culture that they themselves are practically spectator sports.
In the local football arena, the national women’s team, Lady Jaguars (a name rife with sexism, by the way) has had to complain about “the unfair and inequitable distribution of resources and support” and being “relegated to second-class citizens because of our gender even though our records and accomplishments are amongst the best across the Caribbean region”.
Perhaps the Rubiales incident will mark a turning point, not just in football, but sport in general with regard to women’s contributions and rights. Maybe even as this is being published the RFEF president will finally do the right thing and resign, even if only to spare his mother’s health. One can only hope.
