{"id":11264,"date":"2023-08-27T04:09:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T04:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/rubiales-suspension-sends-message-about-unwanted-kisses\/"},"modified":"2023-08-27T04:09:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T04:09:20","slug":"rubiales-suspension-sends-message-about-unwanted-kisses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=11264","title":{"rendered":"Rubiales\u2019 Suspension Sends Message About Unwanted Kisses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luis Rubiales, president of Spain\u2019s soccer federation, was suspended Saturday for planting an unwanted kiss on star forward Jennifer Hermoso last week.<\/p>\n

Hermoso is not the first to be on the receiving end of a cringe-worthy unwanted smooch caught by media cameras. Halle Berry, Uma Thurman and most recently, a councilwoman from Brooklyn have all been there. But Rubiales\u2019 suspension suggests that attitudes may be starting to change.<\/p>\n

Rubiales kissed Hermoso after Spain\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup victory last Sunday. He described it as a peck and said it was consensual. Hermoso disagreed. On social media<\/a>, Hermoso explained, \u201cI felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out-of-place act without any consent on my part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the kiss as \u201cspontaneous\u201d and \u201cwithout any bad intention,\u201d Rubiales seemed to have missed out on a major tenet of #MeToo\u2014that his intentions aren\u2019t relevant. Fortunately, FIFA understood and took action. In a statement, FIFA said that Mr. Rubiales would be suspended \u201cfrom all football-related activities\u201d for 90 days. One sports official from Spain called this, the “Me Too moment of Spanish football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubiales is not the first and likely won\u2019t be the last to be caught on camera planting an unwelcome smooch. The media has caught many unwanted kisses in action. What\u2019s different in this case is the reaction and public outcry on behalf of Hermoso.<\/p>\n

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Back in 2003, Adrien Brody surprised everyone when he grabbed presenter Halle Berry and kissed her passionately while accepting his Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Pianist. After the kiss, Berry looked visibly uncomfortable. Years later, Berry said in an interview, \u201cThat was not planned. I knew nothing about it.\u201d When asked what was going through her mind then, Berry added, \u201cI was like, \u2018What the fuck is happening right now?\u2019 That is what was going through my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Oscars Youtube channel, the scene of Berry receiving the nonconsensual kiss was named a \u201cfavorite Oscar moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actress Uma Thurman reported feeling \u201cviolated\u201d after Italian entrepreneur Lapo Elkann kissed her at amFAR’s Cinema Against AIDS gala in 2016. The businessman decided to go for the kiss after winning a Victoria’s Secret show package costing $196,000. \u201cIt\u2019s opportunism at its worst. She wasn\u2019t complicit in it,\u201d Thurman\u2019s representative said in a statement to The Huffington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was also alleged to have provided unwelcome kisses on the cheek to two women. Complaints of sexual misconduct from these and other women resulted in Cuomo\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

Unwelcome kisses aren\u2019t reserved for the famous. Last week, Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov was kissed on the cheek by a passerby while giving a TV interview. Vernikov tracked down the individual and pressed charges against him.<\/p>\n

Unwanted smooches can come from women\u2019s lips, too. Katy Perry planted one on American Idol contestant Benjamin Glaze just before his audition in 2018. \u201cI was a tad bit uncomfortable,\u201d Glaze, who had never been kissed before, told the New York Times<\/em>. \u201cI wanted to save it for my first relationship,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted it to be special.\u201d In the same interview, he clarified that the contact was not welcome. \u201cWould I have done it if she said, \u2018Would you kiss me?\u2019 No, I would have said no,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic photograph of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square depicts a nonconsensual kiss. The famous photo was taken after news of the 1945 Japanese surrender in World War II and was published in Life<\/em> magazine. Years later, in an interview, the nurse, Greta Zimmer Friedman, revealed that the kiss was not consensual. At the time, she didn\u2019t even know the man that had kissed her. \u201cIt wasn’t my choice to be kissed,\u201d she said in an interview for the Library of Congress\u2019 Veterans History Project. \u201cThe guy just came over and kissed or grabbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation has improved since the V-J Day photo was published almost 80 years ago. Unwelcome kisses still happen, but those on the receiving end, like Hermoso, are becoming more comfortable speaking out about their discomfort. And they are being heard. Let\u2019s hope that those who don\u2019t have media coverage and photographs of their unwanted kisses are also listened to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n