The hot mess that ensued after Spain won the football World Cup underlines the unique problems of female sport in the context of the fight for gender parity. Joseph Conrad, a white male novelist as it happens, said it well, albeit in a different context: “Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.”
Right since their grand win, all that the Spanish champions have gotten is a lousy, unedifying, ongoing row over a kiss on the lips from a senior male official. In India of course, women wrestlers are pursuing a case against former wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for inappropriate touching and sexual harassment.
For much of European womanhood, the Spanish kiss has been a metaphysical shock. In the soap opera playing out around that kiss, so much is so dreadful, so familiar and so dreadfully familiar, six years after the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and misconduct.
Originally published at https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com on September 1, 2023
