Spain's #TimesUp moment
The verdict is just days away in the gang-rape trial that has gripped Spain for the past year.
During the Pamplona "Running of the Bulls" festival in July 2016, an 18-year-old female from Madrid was raped by five men, all in their mid- to late-20s, (all apparently with beards) and all from the southern resort town of Seville. Prior to the rape, they referred to themselves on an internet app as "la manada", meaning "the pack". The annual festival of Saint Fermin, which includes the Running of the Bulls, is a bit of a debauch, certain neighborhoods spinning off along the lines of an off-the-grid Mardi Gras, with consensual grabbing of random breasts and booty (in the past) fairly par for the course, at least depending on which sex was polled.
The rape occurred in the early morning, after the woman had been out drinking with a friend and prior to her attempts to return to her car, where she planned to sleep. One or more of the group accompanied the woman to a hotel, apparently trying to convince her they had a room. When this guise failed, they escorted her to a nearby alley, where the same or a different individual kissed her, with her apparent consent.
Then, in an open doorway, all hell broke loose. You can Google "la manada" to learn the prurient details (or search darker to see a portion of the video recorded on one of the defendant's cell phones), but three of the five already had videos on their phones of an earlier, similar encounter with a different woman, who appeared drugged, and one of the men (a police officer in Spain's Civil Guard, the most respected Spanish law-enforcement institution) stole the victim's phone after this particular encounter, which would lead one to question exactly how consensual the encounter was, as is the men's defense.
So an 18-year-old female in a patriarchal, predominantly Catholic society is being blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for not fighting back enough (against five men?), for not protesting loud enough (no doubt the defendants would have left that portion on the video), for allowing herself to be entered, eyes closed, passive, from all possible points (instead of chomping off one of their members), worst of all, for being recorded laughing with friends a few days later, by a private detective hired by one of the defendants' lawyers, instead of immediately committing suicide.
If all five rapists get 22 years, prison may finally teach them the ineffectual nature of wishing something different from an encounter where numbers are stacked against you. If any or all of them go free, Spain, and more broadly, Europe, may finally taste fury and what hell hath none like, from a segment of society finally ready to demand an equal measure of "Ys being Ys".
During the Pamplona "Running of the Bulls" festival in July 2016, an 18-year-old female from Madrid was raped by five men, all in their mid- to late-20s, (all apparently with beards) and all from the southern resort town of Seville. Prior to the rape, they referred to themselves on an internet app as "la manada", meaning "the pack". The annual festival of Saint Fermin, which includes the Running of the Bulls, is a bit of a debauch, certain neighborhoods spinning off along the lines of an off-the-grid Mardi Gras, with consensual grabbing of random breasts and booty (in the past) fairly par for the course, at least depending on which sex was polled.
The rape occurred in the early morning, after the woman had been out drinking with a friend and prior to her attempts to return to her car, where she planned to sleep. One or more of the group accompanied the woman to a hotel, apparently trying to convince her they had a room. When this guise failed, they escorted her to a nearby alley, where the same or a different individual kissed her, with her apparent consent.
Then, in an open doorway, all hell broke loose. You can Google "la manada" to learn the prurient details (or search darker to see a portion of the video recorded on one of the defendant's cell phones), but three of the five already had videos on their phones of an earlier, similar encounter with a different woman, who appeared drugged, and one of the men (a police officer in Spain's Civil Guard, the most respected Spanish law-enforcement institution) stole the victim's phone after this particular encounter, which would lead one to question exactly how consensual the encounter was, as is the men's defense.
So an 18-year-old female in a patriarchal, predominantly Catholic society is being blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for not fighting back enough (against five men?), for not protesting loud enough (no doubt the defendants would have left that portion on the video), for allowing herself to be entered, eyes closed, passive, from all possible points (instead of chomping off one of their members), worst of all, for being recorded laughing with friends a few days later, by a private detective hired by one of the defendants' lawyers, instead of immediately committing suicide.
If all five rapists get 22 years, prison may finally teach them the ineffectual nature of wishing something different from an encounter where numbers are stacked against you. If any or all of them go free, Spain, and more broadly, Europe, may finally taste fury and what hell hath none like, from a segment of society finally ready to demand an equal measure of "Ys being Ys".
Comments
Post a Comment