Culture Shock: Spain

This summer, I spent a month studying abroad in Spain. In terms of feminism, I was truly shocked as to how the societal norms differed from cultural and political achievements and aspirations. 

Politically:

In all of Spain, gay marriage has been legal since 2005. The law views homosexual unions as marriage in the same way it views heterosexual unions as marriage. It is also legal and the norm for gay couples to adopt. Clearly, this Catholic socialist nation has made a lot more progress than our own. 

Before Spain returned to democracy in 1976, divorce, abortion, and contraception was all prohibited, though prostitution was permitted. With the rule of Adolfo Suarez, Spain’s first democratic president since before Franco, the sale of contraceptives was legalized in 1978 and divorce was legalized in 1981. Abortion was legalized in 1985, but only in the case of rape or maternal health concern. Through democracy and socialism, the rigid Catholicism still prevents choice in many circumstances.

Linguistically, Spanish women do not change their last names and their children take both their last name and the last name of the father. This tradition has been ingrained in society to keep both the maternal and paternal extended families a significant part of the child’s life.

 Socially:

I lived in a small town, a suburb of the great city of Seville with traditional host parents and a brother and more modern host sisters. My Spanish father works for the military and the mother is a math teacher during the school year. The father has few household duties, though appreciates his wife’s cooking and cleaning. The mother is a fantastic cook and takes complete domestic control of the household, though I cannot speak for what she does domestically during the school year when she too works. When I stayed with them, meals were very important. My mother would lie out platters of food and we would all serve ourselves. The one exception was my seventeen-year-old host brother, who would hand his plate to his mother at every meal and she would cut up his food for him while his more than capable hands would dangle idly by, his pursed mouth never eliciting a “Gracias, mama.” My wonderfully feminist host sister recognized this, but never said anything. I shared this with my friends on my program and many said that this macho demand and serve situation occurred in their houses too.

On the streets in my small town, catcalling was just as large a problem, if not larger, than on the streets of midtown Manhattan. Walking into a bar took a large dose of courage and a deep breath as I walked past the table parked outside, which was filled with young and old men who would yell “mami” or “ay, chica, venga” as my friends and I passed.

Like all cultures, there is a lot of good and a lot of bad that make for societal generalizations. I have just made many and realize that one city and one person’s experience cannot speak for everyone or an entire country. Witnessing the lifestyle of another culture allowed me to reexamine my own and the contributions individuals (Adolfo Suarez, a progressive democratic president, or girls who shout “tonto”-stupid or foolish-at creepers outside of bars) who have shaped and are shaping a culture that is no longer constricted by religious confines.