A short time ago it would have been unthinkable for a judge to investigate the already resigned president of the RFEF, Luis Rubiales, for sexual assault for the non-consensual kiss of the soccer player Jenni Hermoso. Or that the police, hours after a man touched reporter Isabel Balado's ass on the street, when she was on a live connection, located him, detained him and brought him before the judge.
Between these two cases that have been in the news in recent weeks there is a difference and two revealing coincidences. The difference is that Rubiales and Hermoso already knew each other before (he was the boss of the RFEF and she was a soccer player selected by this organization), while the journalist did not know the man who harassed her while she was working. Different situations, which reveal that abuse takes place in many types of settings and circumstances.
In the field of coincidences, first of all, the fact that the first reaction of both women was to maintain composure and move forward, putting their craft and professionalism first before the red line that they had crossed, although later both have planted expensive.
The second coincidence, linked to the first, is the impact that the fact that both moments occurred in public and were captured by cameras has had. What in other circumstances could have remained the high percentage of harassment or assault suffered by women who fail to report is now under judicial investigation.
Despite the practically unanimous social consensus that both actions are intolerable, there is also a current - there is no reason to deny it - that believes that in the case of Rubiales the media has gone too far. “Lynching in the public square” or “the most brutal case of sheep manipulation in 50 years,” can be read in some comments in the digital edition.
The media are historically meeting places for society: in and through them, the news and analyzes that generate the necessary social debate are presented (with permission from the polarizing networks).
In this case, the debate is about the limits of sexual harassment and assault and their punishment. The judges, interpreting the laws issued by Congress, will have the last word, but the media has the obligation to go in-depth and leave the cold and anonymous statistics, addressing clear and exemplary cases that help consolidate new consensuses on what is right. and what is wrong. So that no woman thinks that she should continue as if nothing had happened after suffering a similar situation at work. And so that men who still do not understand the limits of respect know that society no longer tolerates their attitudes.
