Cows are animals too
By Sheesh, two animal-themed days in a row.
I can’t wait to see the anti-feminist wingnut reaction to this one: According to an AP report, a group of female Spanish students have created a petition seeking full equality with regard to the beloved Pamplonan tradition, the Running of the Bulls. According to their petition, the male cows (bulls) get to run, and their female peers too want to be free (of course, there’s no mention of female cows wanting to be killed in cowfights, but that’s another story). So they propose a running of the cows: women running after cows running after women. According to the group’s statement (via the AP article), everyone wins:
”A cow-run would fill a fundamental void: what do we women do at 8 in the morning when the boys are risking their lives?” the manifesto asked. ”A little exercise after so much alcohol and food would do us no harm.”
It said the introduction of a cow-run ”would make our festival greater and place Pamplona at the vanguard of traditional fiestas with total equality between males and females, men and women.”
The running of the bulls is not closed to women. Though it’s a traditionally male event, women are invited to take part.
So here’s what I can’t figure out. A Pamplonan government official seemed to level the right critique when she said:
“At the moment women can run with the bulls. What really would be discriminatory would be a women-only run with cows.”
I totally agree. If I were crazy enough to want to take part in this event, and I were told I had to run with cows…I would be mad as hell. So what are the tongue-in-cheek originators of this petition getting at here? If it’s the general outlandishness of this event, I don’t think any such petition was necessary (with apologies to many years of Pamplonan history).