Persuasive Essay Spanish Bullfighting

One afternoon, when the Flamenco music played, a gypsy-like dancer did her tap dance and clapped her hands in the arena as people cheered very loudly. After she finished performing her dance, two bullfighting horsemen took their spear and poked the bull with it. Bullfighting is considered a gory, aggressive sport because it is compared to playing rugby. Out of all the Romance-speaking countries, Spain is most famous for bullfighting, bringing many people to question the sport. Many people such as animal right activists and other civilians have had enough of bullfights; while others enjoy the nature of bullfighting. Therefore, the sport of bullfighting should be abolished because of animal abuse, human consequences, and negative social
impact. First of all, bullfighters have already abused their rights of mistreating bulls in order to maintain the shouts of encouragement from the crowd through abusive actions, male violence, and cultural ignorance. Their forms of animal abuse have been viewed as part of the sport. One of their abusive actions is the way a picador uses his javelin-like stick to stab the back of the bull (Gannon & Pillai, 513). Another act of violence is the way of a matador slaughterthe bull as he holds his reddish fabric to draw his sword upon the unconscious, running beast (Marvin, 31). Male aggression is another impact from animal abuse, in which it includes the ignorance of suffering and definition for masculinity. Peter Singer mentioned against the types of people like the matadors and the picadors, having been “…refusing to attribute pain to those who do not have a language,…” (Singer, 3) Additionally, the Spanish society always had its way of defining manliness as “a ritual of authoritarianism” to promote masculine dominance over nature (Beilin, 63). Cultural Misapprehension was mainly focused on the art of tauromachy, being linked to barbarism and pictured as insensitivity. According to authors Martin J. Gannon and Rajnandini Pillai, millions of Spanish inhabitants perceived the bullfights to be brutal because bulls are slaughtered for entertainment (512). Also, the Spanish society had not recognized its apathy towards the suffering of a creature since promoting bullfighting is considered to be a type “of ethical hypocrisy” (Beilin, 69). In all, these factors of animal abuse can make up the nature of animal abuse done by bullfighters in the arena. Secondly, the negative feeling that occurs to the people involved in the tauromachian event which can be felt by matadors, audience, and former fans. Not only bulls get constantly threatened in the arena, but also the matadors could suffer wounds from the result of his acts. These men get injured severely because they can be unsuccessful if they cannot dominate the furious bull (Marvin, 141). For example, there was a news report about Juan Jose Padilla, a Spanish bullfighter, who injured his head and eyes when he was fighting a furious bull in 2011 and now currently wears an eye patch (Dyer). The people in the crowd are affected by the things they had seen during the bullfights which impacts the behavior of females and statistics of attendance. Even though millions of Spanish inhabitants visit the bullfighting arena annually, the number of people attending to watch the sport is decreasing (Gannon & Pillai, 512). Moreover, a matador named Jesulin de Ubrique had great impact over women who threw their “…accessories into the ring….Traditionalists regard such displays as vulgar”, in which this was offensive to many people who may have watched this on television or at live (Gannon & Pillai, 512). The other people who are terrified by the acts of tauromachy are the former aficionados who used to enjoy bullfighting, but now dislikes the bloody activity. According to Katarzyna Olga Beilin, the politicians, from the Spanish provinces of Cataluna and the Canary Islands, had abolished bullfighting because the audience seemed to not be interested in the sport (65). Also, Beilin discussed a story about an Iberian writer named Rosa Montero, who is the daughter of a matador, at first admired his bullfighting motives as a child until she became an adult realized her “cultural blindness” (68) on she had witnessed in the bullfights. Totally, Spaniards who had been involved had participated in the event of tauromachy find out that bullfighting can bring consequences on them. Thirdly, bullfighting had negatively influenced the many members of the Spanish society, in where the concern for morality, ethics, and legality rapidly increased.
Many Spaniards often question themselves on whether mistreating bulls for sport is inhumane or not when dealing with moralistic concerns. Bullfighting had been impacted by Catholicism, serving as a long-time tradition for the Spanish-speaking people in Europe (Gannon & Pillai, 526-527). In addition, “the bullfight combines a passionate celebration of life,” wrote authors Gannon and Pillai in their book, “with an elaborate system of rituals, a grandiose and artistic spectacle with blood, violence, and an all-too-real danger to the valiant performers” (511). Another question several Spanish people ask when concerning ethics is on whether tauromachy had been enforced in the Iberian society. Beilin, a female researcher in the culture of Spain, exclaims that one type of ethical approach the Spaniards have on bullfighting is on the behavior that they are already accustomed to this sport which had been viewed by a Spanish writer as a “puritan hypocrisy about our relation with nature and transform it into the memory of our origins…” (61-62) Another kind of ethical approach is on the idea that torturing animals is part of the Spanish social norm since bullfighting is like a sport of animal servitude for bulls (Beilin, 62). Finally, the Iberian people wonder if the law legislators ever viewed the bullfighting rituals as a crime of mistreating creatures. There is already a legal punishment for “mistreating and abandoning (Beilin)” bulls in the bullfighting arena (65). In 2008, there had been law passed, that restricted torture proving that people are not allowed to abuse their rights (Beilin, 65). In total, these three concerns found in the Spanish society where many people had determined about bullfighting being an issue that affects the conduct of the
Spaniards. However, there are people who want bullfighting to be legalized because the audience is interested in the techniques of a bullfighter due to cultural promotion, gender attraction, and tourist fascination. One person might say that bullfighting is an essential event in Spain. For example, he states that the historical values that derived from the influences of the Greco-Romano and Arabic culture (Gannon & Pillai, 514). Another example the opponent points out is that the Iberian values are self-esteem, individuality, and passion (Gannon & Pillai, 511). In opposition, both of these values are the reasons for promoting the “artistic’ torture of cattle” (Beilin) as a way to keep the audience thrilled (66). Some people may argue that the character of the matador attracts both genders in a way to admire the Spanish culture. For example, they say that the female qualities of a matador are romanticism and inactiveness as Garry Marvin described in his book (14-15). Also, these probullfight advocates explain the male qualities that men “must not only be assertive and control others, but must also exercise self-control,…(Marvin, 133) In contrary, the attitudes displayed by male and female audience can still be seen as inappropriate because the sexuality of women is very evident (Marvin, 154) and men tend to abuse their masculine traits (Marvin, 37). Other opponents of anti-bullfighting would state that the art of bullfighting fascinates tourists from all over the world. For example, they say that going to the bullfights is in the top priority of tourists when traveling to Spain (Raftery and Tiznado). Another example these people may say to defend the bullfighting rights is that the number of tourists attending the bullfights in a novillada is generally full “just to see a ‘bullfight’” (Marvin, 38). In opposition, a foreigner who is familiar with the tauromachy, states that “…,tens of thousands of bulls are maimed, tortured, and killed for entertainment. Thousands of horses, used as a part of the bullfighting spectacle, are also injured or killed” (Raftery). All of these opponents giving their reasons for approving the sport of bullfighting need to understand that bloodiness and sexuality occurs frequently in the arena. The three things that are impacted from performing bullfights can give one a reason why the animal rights must be extended to bulls who are victims of the tauromachian ritual. For these reasons that witness the emotional impact from seeing such things in bullfighting arena prove that bullfighting has a possible chance to be abolished in more places in Spain. After the matador spent hours on lifting his muleta during his final stage of bullfighting, he seized his steel sword in to the air and strikes the rushing bull coming towards him. After the bullfighter killed the bull in triumph, the flamenco dancer popped out from somewhere into the arena and danced with the matador to end the entertainment of torturing bulls.