It seems that the sexual fallout of the Pamplona festival is finally encouraging some joined-up thinking on the connection between violence towards animals and humans. The Pamplona bull festival, and bull running/bull fighting in general, hides under an umbrella of local color, riotous celebration and the endorsement of many, including the writer Hemingway, who considered it a healthy expression of masculinity. The festival “tests” young men during the running of the bulls through the town, before the actual bull-fighting, a stampede which claims human lives. But all this is just a prelude to what happens to the bull in the ring, which is described here:

“Over the course of the corrida, the bull is first enraged by the actions of the toreros, then stabbed with a lance, then planted with barbed spears (bandilleras), then further enraged by the matador, then – if all goes according to plan – killed by the matador, who plunges a sword directly into its heart. That’s an agonising enough death, but if something goes wrong it can be even worse for the bull: if the matador misses the bull’s heart during the final stage of the fight, the bull’s lungs will be punctured and it can either slowly drown in its own blood, or endure several attempts to land the killing blow. Only in exceptionally rare circumstances does the bull receive an indulto or pardon, which spares it from being killed.”

Because these traditional “corridas” are protected by Spanish law, it’s been easy to let the festivals idle away in an archaic space where the death of the animal is purely symbolic rather than real, where people can brush the bull’s suffering under the carpet. It’s the fallout in sexual harassment and sexual assault that is waking people up to the idea that violence doesn’t stop at the boundary of the bull ring. Violence is a chain reaction that causes people to diminish the value of other living beings in disturbing ways. Earlier this year, a woman’s rape at the festival was reduced to a “sexual abuse” sentence for her perpetrators. Since then, the festival has made strenuous attempts to be friendlier and more responsive, but women in particular still feel threatened at the festival. Hemingway called the festival a safe way of witnessing a war (completely denying the complicit participation in the death of the bull). At the heart of this festival is an unchallenged myth of toxic masculinity (the story of the half-human, half-bull Minotaur is a story of rape). Supporters of the festival still maintain that the festival is a vital test for “masculinity” – yet they have no good ideas for how violence is contained once it’s unleashed.

Read More: http://time.com/5331622/spain-pamplona-san-fermin-bull-festival/

http://junkee.com/junk-explained-what-is-bullfighting-and-why-is-it-still-around/51253