#SeAcabo — 'it's over' — became Spain's answer to MeToo. Lane Greene argues it will be remembered alongside Harvey Weinstein and George Floyd as a moment that marked a permanent shift in how Spanish society tolerates sexism, not just on the pitch but in every workplace.
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At 23:55 · chapter starts 20:00
Lane Greene draws a distinction between Spain's progress in political and civic life and the slower evolution in sport and corporate culture, which he identifies as the last remaining holdouts of unreformed machismo [1] — Lane Greene "The backlash against Rubiales was striking not just for its size, but its political breadth. In a country with its own culture wars, the ne…" 15:20 . Crucially, the reaction to Rubiales has been nearly unanimous: barely a voice in the Spanish media defended him. One television presenter mused whether men were now even allowed to help a woman with her luggage — and was immediately met with a chorus of commentators saying, 'Yes, if you ask first. You just don't kiss employees without their will.' Greene also highlights the remarkable scale of Spanish women's sports: the Barcelona women's team set the world attendance record for any women's sporting event when 91,000 fans packed Camp Nou for a Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg [2] — Lane Greene "91,000 fans at women's Champions League semi: Barcelona's women's team set the all-time attendance record for a women's sporting event anyw…" 20:55 . The contrast is stark — a country that fills stadiums for women's football, yet whose federation president acts as if the rules of consent don't apply to him.
Barcelona's women's team drew 91,000 fans to Camp Nou for a Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg — the largest crowd ever recorded for a women's sporting event anywhere in the world. Spanish women's sport isn't ignored; it's a mainstream phenomenon.
Barcelona's women's team set the all-time attendance record for a women's sporting event anywhere in the world, packing 91,000 fans into Camp Nou for a Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg.
The hashtag #SeAcabo ('it's over') went viral in Spain after the Rubiales kiss incident, with commentators comparing it to the US MeToo movement and Harvey Weinstein reckoning.
Social media feeds men and women the absolute worst caricatures of each other while stripping away the everyday, imperfect relationships that would calibrate their expectations. Combine that with smaller families and fewer cross-sex friendships, and you get a generation that talks about the opposite sex constantly but almost never to them.
The 'would you rather be alone with a man or a bear' debate went viral not because men are objectively more dangerous than ever, but because an entire fear industrial complex of influencers and safety products had already primed women to feel that way. Once the algorithm identifies you as worried about personal safety, the content and the scrunchie drink-covers never stop.
Women feel less safe not because danger has increased, but because trust in institutions — police, churches, schools — that used to enforce safety norms has collapsed. Young women are far less likely than older women to believe those institutions will handle sexual assault responsibly, leaving them with only individual self-protection as a fallback.
Even self-identified feminist women consistently told Daniel Cox in interviews and surveys that they want men to open doors, pay for dates, and show demonstrable care. The internet noise around 'benevolent sexism' drowns out this widespread, quietly held preference.
In focus groups in Philadelphia and Raleigh, every single hand went up when participants were asked if parents discussed financial stability and education. Zero hands went up for marriage or parenthood. Parents are shaping their children's ambitions with total silence on the experiences that matter most.
American families are smaller than ever, with roughly 1 in 5 children now growing up as only children. Without the daily friction of siblings — shared bedrooms, shared bathrooms, resolving disagreements — young people enter adult relationships without the negotiation muscles relationships require.
Online dating optimises for your existing preferences rather than expanding your horizons. People who meet online give bad first dates almost no second chances; people who meet through mutual friends are far more forgiving. The disembodied, checklist-driven nature of apps removes all the social cues that actually reveal character.
A split-sample survey found that men judge male and female cheating identically harshly, and women judge male cheating the same way men do. The outlier: young women are dramatically less likely to call female infidelity morally wrong, suggesting shared-fate thinking and personal experience of being cheated on are reshaping the moral calculus.
The monk mode trend encourages men to withdraw from social life to work on themselves — but this is precisely backwards. The research is clear: close friendships are the single most powerful predictor of whether a man dates, commits, and becomes his best self. Self-improvement without social reintegration is just sophisticated avoidance.
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