A woman bullfighter

When Cristina Sanchez told her parents that she wanted to be a bullfighter, they were not to pleased. Her father said that bullfighting was a hard enough world for a man and twice as bad for a woman. “Dad was right”, she explains. You start with the door shut in your face.” Cristina started on the professional circuit only years ago. After outstanding performances in Latin America and Spain earlier this year, Sanchez decided that she was ready to become a professional bullfighter. She is now the first woman in Spain to have reached the top of an all-male profession.
On the day of the fight she eats a light early lunch and rests before dressing for the bullfight. The worst of the job these days, Sanchez says, is the sense that all eyes are expectantly looking at her: “It’s as if I’m walking round carrying a flag which says ‘woman bullfighter’.” She is clear, in any case, that precisel what seems most frightening, facing a 450kg fighting bull, is the best part of her profession: “Once the two of you are out there, it all depends on how good you are your art. The bull doesn’t care what sex you are or how much you’re getting paid.”

Female heroes

Image from listal

Nowadays we need female heroes. In films, which are the dominant element in our popular culture now, the male heroics of stars such as Schwarzenegger and Stallone have become a parody of the concept of heroism. We have to turn to female heroes, portrayed by actresses like Jodie Foster and Meg Ryan, if we want images of heroism that are credible and moving.
We need heroes, in fact and fiction, to serve as models of courage. After the Second World War there were many such people because nearly everybody had some connection with death and danger. Yet, in the 1960s something started to happen to the image of the male hero. In the James Bond films, Agent 007 is arrogant, invincible, fearless and unbelievable. This tendency increased in the films of the early 1970s: ‘Dirty Harry’ (Clint Eastwood) is habitually violent and frequently ignores the law. Since then, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis have become even less human.
In the world of these films women are usually victims. They are there to be attacked, intimidated, raped, murdered or sometimes rescued by the good guy. Yet, more and more recent films (like The Silence of the Lambs) focus on a female hero, which is generally more intelligent and real than the hero in the macho-man productions.