Why Spain’s Victory in the World Cup Showed How Much Sexism Still Exists

Spain is officially one of the two countries that can say, it has won the male world cup and the female one. August 20th was a day of triumph that unfortunately was stained by the Neanderthal behavior of both the team coach, Jorge Vilda, and especially by the President, Luis Rubiales, who not only grabbed his genitals in front of the Queen and the 16-year-old Princess, he also grabbed the captain’s team, Jennifer Hermoso by the face and gave her a nonconsensual kiss in the lips.

That behavior has caused a lot of controversy (for obvious reasons), and Rubiales made an official apology that was going to lead to his resignation on Friday. However, that ended up not happening, and he even had the audacity to threaten Hermoso for lying because, according to him, she agreed to the kiss. And let’s pause for a second here. Even if that was the case (which wasn’t), it was something out of place. Kissing on the lips is not like kissing on the cheeks; it has an intimate connotation, and he should respect the boundaries. It’s corporate abuse from the top to the bottom, and it should not have happened. I’ve never seen Rubiales kissing a male player in the mouth; why would he do it with her? Because she is a woman.

As of now, Rubiales is suspended for 90 days from all his functions, and all the players are demanding him to go, or else, they won’t play. The news has taken a weird turn now that his mom has declared she is on a hunger strike and won’t leave the church day or night until justice is made. Well, sorry to say, señora, but if justice is really made, it won’t turn pretty for your son. His actions are despicable and we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Luis Rubiales also lost the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) support this week, which reportedly canceled his pay and asked him to return his mobile phone, as the country’s high court investigated whether the kiss could be grounds for sexual assault charges.

“What we’ve seen at play in recent days is twofold; one is the huge reaction of Spanish society to the changes wrought by feminism,” said political scientist Cristina Monge. “And the other is how deeply rooted machismo is in some power structures, such as the Spanish football federation … It’s an example of how machismo is absolutely permeating and contaminating the power structures of Spanish society at a level that we no longer thought possible.”

The sentiment was echoed by Verónica Boquete, the Spanish superstar footballer and veteran of the female football team’s long quest for equality.

“What Rubiales did is part of the society that we all want to change. And year by year, it is changing,” she told Newtral.es. “It’s a reflection of a part of society that we want to make smaller and smaller.”