The Hon Also Rises

May 26, 2023 5:12 PM

It was early September, late in the bullfighting season of 1977. The Spanish Falangists had lost their grip on power; a governmental ban prohibiting women from fighting bulls on foot had recently been overturned. The profession’s sexist barriers were crumbling, women’s liberation movements were gaining momentum, and a growing number of aspirants like Haskin were flocking to Spain. It was a dangerous dream. from The Bullfighter Draws Her Sword
posted by chavenet (6 comments total)

Wow. Does this story raise complicated feelings.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:06 PM on May 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

Viscerally so. Splanic even.
posted by y2karl at 9:42 PM on May 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

But she was a rebellious kid who had bypassed college and taught herself how to fight a bull,

Rare to see a sentence that escalates that quickly.
posted by mhoye at 5:48 AM on May 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

A+ title
posted by freethefeet at 3:07 PM on May 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

downright churlish of a bull not to care about the gender of the person who tortured it to death.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:07 PM on May 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

This article was fascinating, and another example of how I enjoy sports writing a lot more than most sports - Hamilton Nolan on boxing is what immediately comes to mind these days, but David Foster Wallace on tennis is another good example. The illustrations were perfect, too.

That said, it's hard to enjoy writing that revolves around something as cruel as bullfighting, so I'm with GenjiandProust re: complicated feelings.
posted by heteronym at 6:37 AM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]