/ARTS WEEKLY/ SPAIN: Fictional Rapist Sparks Row on Author Responsibility

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Jun 3 2003 (IPS) - The book "Todas Putas" (All Whores) has created a storm of debate on feminism and on the responsibilities of creators of fiction, drawing into the melee matters of discrimination against women, abuse, rape and paedophilia.

The author of "Todas Putas", Hernán Migoya, internationally famed filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and other artists reject the notion that authors should be held responsible for what they have their characters do or say in their stories, novels or films.

But women’s groups and the two leading parties of the political opposition, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and the United Left (IU), demanded – and won – the removal of "Todas Putas" from bookshop shelves.

They are also seeking the resignation of Miriam Tey, director of the governmental Women’s Institute and co-owner of the book’s publisher, El Cobre.

Migoya came under fire for two of his book’s 15 short stories, titled "El violador" (The Rapist) and "Porno del bueno" (The Good Porno).

Almodóvar was also the target of criticism because, according to a study published by the psychology department of Ramón Llul University in Barcelona, drug consumption is portrayed in 14 percent of screentime of his overall film production.

Migoya’s "El Violador" is written in first person and begins: "Now that all blacks are good and all gays are very nice guys, let’s see if society gets together and decides once and for all that we rapists are not all bad people."

After recounting some personal stories, the character says, "It will always be better to rape a woman and let her live than not to rape her and but kill her."

"I wouldn’t be capable of killing a woman. I wouldn’t have the stomach for it. But rape themà I assure you that it causes me no remorse."

In the other controversial story by Migoya a man picks up his daughter from school, rapes her and, through tears, tells her: "Don’t tell Mommy, honey."

Gloria Escudero, president of the Aid Association for Sexual Assault Victims, says, "It is reprehensible that a justification is being made against the human rights of women and children. The author confuses open and consensual sexuality with violence, which constitutes an attack against sexual freedom."

The Women’s Council of Madrid, which comprises 84 feminist groups, and the Network of Feminist Organisations against Gender Violence say Migoya’s book constitutes a defence of the crimes it portrays. As such, they are calling for the resignations of publisher Tey and of Labour Minister Eduardo Zaplana.

The demand that Tey step down came in spite of the fact that the book was published before Mar. 13, when she took over the public post as director of the Women’s Institute, an agency of the Labour Ministry.

The president of the Association of Progressive Women, Enriqueta Chicano, also a feminist and PSOE member, joined the protests saying that "the content of the book is absolutely unacceptable and an offence against all defendable values, given that it is a clear justification of rape."

When asked to what extent he thinks like the protagonist in "El violador", Migoya responds, "not at all." He stresses that "nobody is interested in what I think. The story is fiction and if I had wanted to defend of rape I would have written and signed a manifesto."

Furthermore, the author does acknowledge that the story is a justification for rape, but only from the point of view of the protagonist, "who fortunately is not me."

Migoya says that the entire book is about the monsters that all humans have inside and, for precisely this reason, is a manner of condemning such moral aberrations.

He also claims he is "more feminist than many feminists," and underlined that his goal in writing "Todas Putas" was to "pull out all the crap involved in untouchable issues and allow people to laugh at themselves and to discover the hypocrisy that we all carry inside."

A group of "literati", including two members of the Spanish Royal Academy (of language), Antonio Muñoz Molina and Pere Gimferrer, publicly rejected the notion that Migoya’s book is a defence of any kind violence and described the controversy surrounding it as "artificial".

Predicting that the outcry against the book "is the seed of a witch-hunt in the most purely fascist style," in a communiqué the group announced that it would "uphold freedom of expression and of the dissemination of creative works."

A leading personality from Spain’s publishing world, José Manuel Lara Bosch, head of Grupo Planeta, one of the most powerful publishing houses in the Spanish language, said, "even if they are scandalous, it is always good that books are published so that there is talk about these issues."

"If an editor removes what he doesn’t like from the books he edits, that is censorship, and that is not the editor’s job," added Lara Bosch.

A Barcelona-based organisation of young writers and journalists, La Gancho Divine, expressed solidarity with Migoya and Tey, saying that the author "has sought to stir up moral indignation and civic responsibility against those who in reality act like his much-criticised characters."

Almodóvar, after learning of the report on drug use in his films, wrote in the Spanish daily ‘El Mundo’ that he felt "the same Kafkian sensation, a mix of fear, disgust, stupor, fury and indignation as in 1991 when the U.S. censors categorised as pornographic ‘Atame’ (Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down – the film that launched him to international fame)."

According to the filmmaker, "the fact that this would occur in Spain in 2003 does nothing but aggravate the situation."

He noted, "If in the films by U.S. director Martin Scorsese one takes into account that more than 60 percent of his characters are gangsters or criminals, possess weapons and use them, we would have to denounce him as a member of organised crime."

"The author should not judge his characters, but rather understand them, as monstrous as they might be, and show their humanity and complexity, creating them in complete liberty," states Almodóvar.

In reactions to the book appearing on the El Mundo website, one reader asks with irony, "Have you tried reading (Marquis de) Sade, (Francisco) Quevedo, Dostoyevski, Céline? We should ban them too, no?"

Those caught up in the controversy surrounding "Todas Putas" have not reached an agreement as to whether or not the book is misogynist or whether or not it was correct to withdraw it from the market.

But everyone, including the author and Tey, agree in condemning all types of gender discrimination, and particularly rape and other sex crimes.