{"id":206,"date":"2025-06-16T00:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T00:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/?p=206"},"modified":"2026-04-30T23:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:39:36","slug":"spanish-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/?p=206","title":{"rendered":"Essay: Spanish World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Created: October 6, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n

On August 20th, 2023, the Women\u2019s Spanish Soccer Team defeated England 1-0 to claim their first World Cup title in team history. What was supposed to be a completely positive, celebratory moment, would soon be remembered for the incident that happened during the celebration. While embracing the Spanish players with hugs and kisses on the cheek (which was already slightly off putting), head coach Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso right on the lips, without consent, on national television, for millions to see. What made matters worse was how Rubiales refused to hold himself accountable for his actions, he also disrespected the female fans, and even insinuated that Hermoso was to blame for the act. Many viewers and media outlets abused concepts such as gender, race, and even culture in attempts to support Rubiales\u2019 actions, but there was nothing appropriate about what he did and how he handled the situation afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After receiving an immense amount of backlash for inappropriately kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips, Luis Rubiales released an initial apology the following day. However, in that same week, he would deny all claims that he did anything wrong. He even went on to tell the Spanish soccer federation that \u201che was a victim of a hunt led by \u2018false feminists\u2019 and that the kiss was \u2018mutual and with consent,\u2019\u201d (Stump & Wood). I feel this is what upsets people the most. Rubiales immediately tried turning the situation into \u201cmen vs. women\u201d. It seems like he said this thinking that only the \u201cbig and powerful\u201d men would understand and join his side in supporting him, when in reality it only dug him into a deeper hole. Spain as a country has made some big strides in the last two decades when it comes to gender and equality legislation. As Spanish college professor M\u00e1riam Mart\u00ednez-Bascu\u00f1\u00e1n puts it, there was a \u201c\u2018generational and gender-based\u2019 fault line, but\u2026most Spaniards understood why the kiss was inappropriate, and those who did not understand \u2018were not the majority at all,\u2019\u201d (Chaundler & Horowitz).\u00a0 I can\u2019t help thinking that if the roles were reversed, would there be the same amount of outrage? It\u2019s great to see that most of the public agrees that what happened was wrong, but there are some people that believe a woman cannot sexually assault a man. In some weird, twisted way, this way of thinking supports the theory of hegemonic masculinity. The idea that men are so dominant, nothing or no one could ever take their masculinity away from them.<\/div>\n
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In Latin\/Hispanic culture, there is a term widely used to describe strong or aggressive masculine<\/a>\u00a0pride known as \u201cmachismo\u201d. Some people have blamed the Luis Rubiales incident on the Spanish culture, leaning to this word as a basis for the argument. A Spanish resident downplays the incident by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s like a kiss I could have given to a friend,\u201d and that it \u201cwas just a gesture of affection,\u201d (Chaundler & Horowitz). It\u2019s clear there is some blame to be placed on how citizens like these were raised, as it is common to kiss friends on the lips in Spanish culture, however times have changed and if the other person is not comfortable with it or has not consented to it, then that is assault, plain and simple.<\/div>\n
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Spain\u2019s sports minister has called this Spain\u2019s #MeToo<\/a> moment of soccer, as \u201call 23 members of the Spanish women\u2019s team are refusing to play unless Rubiales resigns, and the entire coaching staff except for the head coach (at the time) has quit in solidarity with Hermoso,\u201d (Stump & Wood). I want to be sure to note that on September 5th, 2023, Luis Rubiales was officially fired as the head coach. It\u2019s refreshing to see a country really stand up for what\u2019s right. Especially when it comes to important political figures, organization leaders, and more. I feel that in America, it\u2019s a lot more common for politicians to be so clearly discriminatory against their own country’s people, while still having millions of followers\/supporters. It seems as if Spain as a whole has done an amazing job at creating a new foundation of leaders that will continue to push the country forward in terms of equality.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chaundler , Rachel, and Jason Horowitz. \u201cA Forced Kiss, and a Reckoning with Sexism in Spain.\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, The New York Times, 28 Aug. 2023, www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/28\/world\/europe\/spain-kiss-sexism-rubiales.html<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stump, Scott, and Becca Wood. \u201cSpain\u2019s Women\u2019s Soccer Coach Fired amid Backlash of Sport\u2019s President Kissing Player.\u201d TODAY<\/em>, 5 Sept. 2023, www.today.com\/news\/sports\/luis-rubiales-jenni-hermoso-spanish-soccer-kiss-controversy-rcna102297<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Created: October 6, 2023 On August 20th, 2023, the Women\u2019s Spanish Soccer Team defeated England 1-0 to claim their first World Cup title in team history. What was supposed to be a completely positive, celebratory moment, would soon be remembered for the incident that happened during the celebration. While embracing the Spanish players with hugs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-essays","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dequiraparker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}