It's fair to say that over the course of human history, no other group has been oppressed more than women. Their plight is cross cultural; there are evidences of women being repressed in nearly every major civilization and society. This is a little astonishing, considering that women make up 51 percent of every large population.
And this is why the women's rights movement is so important. In a perfect world, there would be no predetermined precedent for achievement based solely on gender. Women should be given the same opportunities as men, and women's rights groups keep a watchdog's eye out for any infringements on women's rights until society can burden that responsibility itself.
The problem is that sometimes, women's rights groups don't know when to quit.
There are a group of women who are demanding that the city of Pamplona have a separate festival that coincides with its running of the bulls. Their suggestion is to have an all-female participatory running of the cows. Although Pamplona is not the only city to have a running of the bulls festival, it is unquestionably the most famous city to do so. Ernest Hemingway wrote about the event in several of his novels and writings, and since that time, the fame of the city's event has grown exponentially.
The centuries-old tradition of the running of the bulls is traced back to the festival of San Fermin, which is a nine-day festival that culminates in a bullfight. On the day before the bullfight, the bulls would have to be brought to the bullfighting arena from their off-site holding pens, so they would be let loose in the city streets and driven to holding pens at the arena. The bulls would often charge down the streets, and brave individuals would step out into the streets with the bulls to show that they were as brave as the matador that would be fighting the bull the next day.
The idea of running down city streets from charging bulls evolved from that basic concept, and after Hemingway wrote about the event, cities in Northern Spain and Southern France that hold bull runs have seen massive amounts of tourism.
The event is not without controversy. Animal rights activists have been trying to shut down the event for years, even though the bulls are never maliciously harmed. But now, a student Web site, www.etudiln.net, is campaigning for the running of the bulls not to be shut down, but rather, expanded. They are asking for a separate running of the cows that would involve only female runners.
One of the pervasive problems that has always existed within the women's rights movement is the idea that women have to have their own, separate, cordoned-off facets of existence that specifically embrace their gender. But why does it have to be separate? Why can't it just be fair?
The whole idea of a running of the cows seems kind of silly, because the running of the bulls has been open to anybody, including females, for many years. If you're willing to run from bulls down the streets of Pamplona, your race, nationality, religion or gender doesn't matter; you can participate.
Granted, women make up only a fraction of those that participate in the event, but I'm sure that fraction is directly proportional to the ratio of men versus women who are willing to put their neck out on the line and risk getting trampled or gored by a bull for the sake of tradition and bravado.
Write to Paul at pjmetz@bsu.edu
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