This is the feeling I've had for a month. There's no need to explain what feminism is anymore, feminism is on the streets. Everyone shows and demonstrates it in one way or another in what they do, say, and, above all, in what they don't do and keep silent about. The bomb that made this explode was the non-consensual kiss on August 20th, from the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation to a player of the Spanish national team and winner of the 2023 World Cup. This public, published, and live gesture uncovered a thousand non-consensual kisses. It uncovered a lot of aggression and machismo entrenched and normalized in sports and in so many other sectors and professional environments.
Experiencing it live made all of us, in unison and without strategy or prior plan, take to the streets of social media and our anonymous lives to explain, opine, criticize, and denounce personal situations that all of us, I said all, to a greater or lesser extent have experienced and suffered. This "live" broadcast of the kiss and its consequences has become an organic evolution of the #metoo movement that began in 2017 and denounced abuses in the film industry and helped make visible all the hidden and covered-up aggressions in the world of cinema, above all. Many actresses spoke on social media about their aggressions and experiences that marked them and accompanied them in silence throughout their careers. #metoo was the common thread of each complaint. Today, 6 years later and with many women championing this movement, the message is more forceful, #seacabo.
No more normalizing, silencing, allowing, accepting, swallowing, hiding. No more being afraid and perpetuating aggressive, disrespectful, and some even violent behaviors. IT'S OVER.
Looking at it with some perspective, it is very graphic to analyze the evolution from #metoo to #seacabo; the latter leaves no option to accept one more case of violence or aggression. That's where I see feminism live, because everyone has an opinion, and we have expressed it. Hundreds of women have shared their own #seacabo story.
Men and women have taken a stand speaking about the forced kiss, about the Spanish singer Amaral showing her torso at a concert as a symbol of freedom, about the TV reporter denouncing an unwanted touch while doing a live broadcast, about young men in Iran wearing shorts to show solidarity with young women taking off their veils… all this has happened in less than a month. This is real, it's on the street, it's live. This is feminism, too.
The time for normalizing, silencing, allowing, accepting, swallowing, hiding is over. The time for being afraid and perpetuating aggressive, disrespectful, and some even violent behaviors is over.There is another direct, not false direct, that of many men and some women who have said nothing when they could have. Who have not taken a stand so as not to lose their chair or their status. In this live feminism, I have experienced unpleasant situations with colleagues who have not wanted to take advantage of their situation of influence and power to say loud and clear #itsfinished. That's where I have seen and confirmed that feminism has advanced, but we still have a long way to go. I see that we continue to be quite alone in this search for equality and that we need men who speak from their manhood to transform the foundations of this patriarchy that, when you least expect it, assaults us.
When you are inside the tsunami it is difficult to analyze the situation, because you are part of the movement, you are making history. I only ask that we be aware that each of our actions causes something to end up changing or not. And no matter how small the situation experienced, let's not be afraid to say #it'sover.
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