Outspoken senator, thespian and animal rights activist Jesusa Rodríguez posted a dramatic, 43-second video against bullfighting to her Twitter account Thursday which has garnered controversy and more than 455,000 views.
“Neither art nor culture, it’s torture,” she says in a voice-over as she pretends to stab herself with banderillas. Clad in a white linen dress, eyes to the sky, she winces and cries out in pain with the plunge of each dart.
She warns that bullfighting aficionados are advocating that the spectacle be deemed cultural heritage by UNESCO, which could be a setback for animal rights activists seeking to ban the practice. Better to abolish “all those anachronistic, violent, bloody and immoral manifestations in which animals are tortured,” she says.
While the performance might be seen as an unusual tactic for a politician to adopt, Rodríguez is a decidedly unusual politician.
Last year, she told Mexicans that every time they ate a carnitas taco, they were celebrating the fall of the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlán to the Spaniards.
Ni arte ni cultura, es tortura. #NoTauromaquiaEnUnesco @UNESCO @AAzoulay @EspUNESCO pic.twitter.com/vZaQZNcr1D
— Jesusa Rodríguez (@jesusardgz) September 10, 2020
Last week, Rodríguez took a marijuana plant with her to the Senate floor during a debate on marijuana legalization and likened its medicinal properties to female genitalia.
“Twenty years ago an Australian urologist made a description of how the clitoris works; before we did not know how to use it. The same goes for marijuana,” she said. “There is a complete program of misinformation so that people do not know the wonders that the plant can do for society when it is well regulated.”
Several commenters on her anti-bullfighting performance wondered if she hadn’t been smoking marijuana when she made it. Others considered her video an embarrassment to her office.
“Madam, remember you are a public servant. We don’t need these kinds of ordinary, poorly acted, meaningless and clumsy performances. If you have an initiative, present it and stop making these fucking ridiculous things,” one Twitter user wrote.
“I totally agree with you madam, what is regrettable is your performance. All intention is lost and it only makes us laugh at your ridiculous madness. Be serious madam, you only detract from a legitimate fight with your stupidities.”
But for at least one user, Rodríguez’s message resonated. “Although unorthodox, she is absolutely right. Defending practices simply because they are considered cultural without questioning in principle what makes them good or bad leads us to justify barbaric acts such as human sacrifice, mutilations or bullfights.”
Source: El Universal (sp)
