A further note on Spanish custom and gender norms....

 

Having just watched "El Intermedio" I have a quick further thought

 

 In light of the current (and recurring) hysteria about sexual harassment by politicians and so on in the Anglosphere, I watched the final (absolutely funny and charming) segment of "El Intermedio" this evening with something like shock.  I think it's superb that the Spanish manage to be concerned about sexism while still managing a considerable sense of humor about what my Complutense mentor refers to as the "national characteristic of invading people's personal space."



A brief introduction to the clip below: Miquel Iceta is the head of the Socialist Party of Catalunya (the PSC), and one of the few politicians who I think has come out of the Catalunya situation looking like a reasonable human and reasonably intelligent human being.  (Statesmen are rare on the ground, but at least Iceta appears coherent and fairly articulate.)  He is (as you can see below), short, balding, and a bit pudgy, with the general air of a slightly mischievous elf.  The lead up to the clip was a news item that Iceta admitted that his handlers had suggested for the election campaign that he appear more presidential, and that he therefore was not allowed to yell loudly, to dance, or to appear in public without a tie.  ("No es pot cridar, no es pot ballar" as he put it in an interview.)  Apparently (based on previous clips) Iceta has a tendency to dance, which does not look presidential unless you look at every awkward presidential attempt to dance ever.

Thais Villas (the correspondent of El Intermedio) publicly expressed shock and grief at the idea that Iceta was no longer going to make a public idiot of himself by dancing, and Iceta (who knows that El Intermedio is basically in the tank for the PSC in the upcoming elections and will do all they can to support him) tweeted at her "Thais, si tu me dices ven lo dejo todo."  ("Si tu me dices ven lo dejo todo" -- "if you say 'come' I'll drop everything" -- is the first line of a well known song.)  So naturally, Thais Villas set up an interview with him with the stated intention of trying to get him to dance.  Here's the interview.  There is dancing.

I can't believe the amount of open flirting (never mind the slow dancing) between reporter and politician here.  I don't think there's a congressman in the US who would dare, even with a friendly show, for fear of the clips being taken out of context or used against him in the future.  It's nice that the Spanish worry (and have a considerable inferiority complex) about violence against women, and about equality in the workplace, and so on (and that this shows up in their ads) but also think it's totally cool to dance "pegaditos" (literally stuck together) with an interview subject.