I still remember when I was a kid and I had just discovered videogames. Please bear in mind I am talking about the early 2000s, when the industry, which still didn't go further than Play Station 2, was considerably younger and the thought of making a living of playing video games for hours wouldn't work even as a joke. Back then, parents and teachers' distrust towards this recent way of entertainment was beyond proportionality, specially towards the action ones. Today, now the video game industry is at the same level of influence than movies and TV series, the topic might seem outdated and even a bit eye-rolling, but you have heard it for sure: violence in videogames, movies and TV makes children aggressive and violent, and their access to them should be restricted as much as possible. Adults' rejection was specially strong in the case of video games, because of their ignorance on the matter and the addiction that spread on the youngest ones, but they all had the common factor of the deal of violence exhibited in the media.

Last year I was at home watching the movie Master and Commander, that movie where Russell Crowe plays the captain of an English ship during the Napoleonic Wars. In case you haven't seen it (I wouldn't call this relevant enough to be considered a spoiler), there is a scene where a young member of the crew is scourged in front of the rest as a punishment for disrespecting one of the officials. My mother just entered the living room and commented: "Son, must you see movies this violent?". At that moment I simply responded that it was a film settled during a war of a past age, the scene just accurately showed how discipline was kept on a war ship and how different the European mentality was back then, and that the violence it included was no gratuitous at all. The funny thing is that, last month, while we were sitting at the table, somehow, bullfights, one of the most controversial subjects of the Spanish culture, was mentioned during the conversation. I'm not sure how you people from abroad call it, but you probably have seen this event referenced and parodied in cartoons like The Simpsons or The Looney Tunes. There have even been some movies that feature it, like The Book of Life or Ferdinand (yeah, that one where John Cena voices a big black bull with a heart of gold). It is that show in a bullring where men dressed in bright colors "fight" a bull using a red cloth to dodge it and stab it with sharp objects until the animal falls because of exhaustion and its wounds, until it is eventually killed while the public cheers.

My mother and elder sister are not what you may call die hard fans of that tradition, but they both had the opinion that, whether people enjoy it or not, that is part of our culture, and people who work in that field should be given some credit. Today tauromaquia has lost a considerable deal of the influence it used to have in Spain, in part due to the matter of animal rights, veganism and general globalization going on, but there are a lot of people who keep defending it, and that includes teachers (I mean it, one from my college was a fan, and he wasn't one of the hateful ones actually).

Let me get this straight: adults criticize today's movies, series and videogames for exhibiting so much and graphic violence that could supposedly turn children into ruthless psychopaths... but torturing an animal that can't be blamed for anything to the death is to be considered "culture"? I'm just saying, as a kid my family was crazy at some point because they saw me playing the Jak & Daxter trilogy and other games that featured shooting, explosions, causing dome chaos and killing ugly creatures, and they said that violence wouldn't be healthy for me. If someone can explain to me how children who enjoy shooting pixels with the form of people or monsters is more unsettling than a bunch of adult and old people enjoying the sight of a bull, an actual living creature, agonizing after several stabs, really appreciate it.

This has nothing to do with loving animals or saving the environment, it is  a matter of common sense and not being hypocrites. Those who like bullfights always have the same arguments.

The first, and mostly known, is that this isn't torture because animals can't be compared to people and therefore they can't possibly have the same rights (they go as far as saying the bull can't feel the same pain a human would). I say that just because an animal can't be compared to humans, that doesn't mean they are not subjects of rights and being whose value must be recognized and respected as such. Bulls are necessary so the reproduction of cattle can be assured and they can also serve for agrarian work, and even as food (killing animals for survival is just the way of nature and that's none to blame).

Others try to compare it to hunting, but that is a nonsense too; we humans, even if they have the right to choose to be vegans, are hunters by nature, and hunting is actually necessary to keep the balance on nature. I don't say it, biologists and true ecologists (not Greta Thunberg) know that it is true. Illegal hunting and hunting just for fun would different, of course.

Bullfighters always say they respect the bull's bravery and that they are honored to risk their lives and fight them til one of the two falls. They talk about it as if this was some sort of equal fight, but that is far from true. Those guys are trained, know the arena quite well, and everything in this show is orquestated so the bull can be killed. Even if in this actually unbalanced battle between human and beast, it is the bull who manages to severely injure or kill the man (obviously this has happened), the bull will be sacrificed anyway, since a savage animal who loses its fear of humans becomes incontrollable. If the animal is going to be dead either way, how can this be considered a fair fight?

Also, once I tried to compare it with gladiator battles from two thousand years ago, which were also considered a tradition to be respected and praised in Ancient Rome. Again, they told be killing an animal has nothing to do with killing a person, specially back then. However, and I learned this recently, unlike Hollywood and pop culture has made us believe, the real purpose of those battles in the Colisseum wasn't to see people dying. It was actually rare that a gladiator was asked to kill a defeated one, since despite being socially considered as slaves, these warriors were often also regarded as celebrities by the Romans and praised for the amusement they provided, to the point maybe one day they would be able to earn their liberty. The public wanted action, combat and blood, and wouldn't be happy to see their favorite fighter being put down for good (much like his owner, who had invested money, resources and time on that man's training expecting to make some profit). My point is that by today's standards, no civilized country would consider this as acceptable entertainment because of all the modern human rights violated here, but since animals aren't humans, the debate on if it should be legal or not putting animals through the same continues. If one tradition of centuries became obsolete and today everyone agrees that it was for the best, why can't another?

It isn't comparable to boxing or wrestling either. It is true that more than a few have died working on these shows, but boxers and wrestlers step voluntarily into the arena and know exactly what they are risking, while the bull that has been raised for this purpose has no choice.

Oh, but... is it more ethical to kill an defenseless animal in slaughterhouse than killing it in a situation where at least it can fight back for its life? Well even if the result is the same, the way of achieving it marks all the difference. People fed on animals for survival, because that is how the food chain works, and therefore ethics has hardly any role to play in that context. In any case, thanks to today's methods, cattle can get the least suffering possible, while a fighting bull shall suffer for a long while, when there is no law of nature to fulfill here.

Now, from a more objective point of view, I understand that bullfights move a considerable amount of money and that another considerable deal of people is able to have a job thanks to this business. The country is not in a situation that we can protest too much about where its incomes come from, so I don't see this tradition disappearing anytime soon. Nevertheless, there is no denial that each time it becomes less popular with the new generations, so I personally hope at some point this kind of spectacle should be considered obsolete, or at least people should stop calling it what it's not. If the rest of occidental countries have been able to keep evolving without this kind of stuff, then this one can too.

Let's be honest: many of us often enjoy violent movies, TV shows, anime and video games (seriously, who has never done something ridiculously illegal and violent playing Grand Theft Auto?). But as far as I know, these products include great stories, memorable characters, detailed graphics, elaborated animations, music and other aspects from the hand of talented programmers and designers, and that intrinsic and graphic violence may work as one more resource. Their goal is an entertainment that hurts nobody and violates no human or animal right in real life, and on their way the companies have left pieces of art like The Last of Us (the script is so good it can compete with modern movies), Dark Souls (look at Anor Londo and tell me that is not a sight) and Silent Hill 2 (it would be the perfect horror and mystery game, if it wasn't for that infamous alternative ending with the dog). And you are telling me this is not to be considered culture... but bullfights are?

I don't want to make this too long, since this is not a much debated topic out of my country, but I'd like to conclude that, if I was a parent, I would prefer to hear from a child "hey, Dad; today my friends and I slayed a hundred demons playing Doom and we had a lot of fun!" rather than "hey, Dad; today my friends and I saw some men stabbing a wild animal until it died from its bleeding wounds, and we had a lot of fun!"

Please, don't mind too much this chapter. I wrote it for personal reasons and with some little curiosity on how other countries see it, but I am aware this is not something that might catch a lot of interest here.

Honest Fiction sends you regards and hugs, and promises to get back to working on Wedding Bells. I can't allow myself to go on hiatus now, can I? Too many things going on!

So, for the next chapter in this Pub, I'd like to give some options, so you can read something interesting enough:

a) The management of the Covid problem.

b) Movie review: Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 (I recently rewatched and I feel like it deserves it XD).

c) Animated movies from my childhood you probably haven't heard of.

d) The treatment of female characters in anime; what makes them cool? Are they actually ruined when they fall for a guy?