‘With you, sister @JenniHermoso’: Productive rage in the viralization of #SeAcabó

Abstract

The hashtag #SeAcabó [It’s over], which was originally published on X by Spanish football player Alexia Putellas in support of her teammate Jenni Hermoso following a nonconsensual kiss by the then president of Spanish football, Luis Rubiales, managed to channel the transformative collective rage toward sexual violence in Spain. Following the World Cup final, while mainstream media, especially sports media, either ignored the act, gave Rubiales a voice, or even defended him, indignation at an act seen as sexual violence went viral on the networks. #SeAcabó spurred the expression of rage in a digital environment conditioned by the previous La Manada ( The Wolf Pack) gang rape case in 2016 that gave rise to the hashtag #YoSiTeCreo [I do believe you] in support of the accuser. While Rubiales has maintained that the kiss was consensual and has accused ‘false feminism’ of conspiring against him, Hermoso has become a legitimate spokesperson for those who fight against the affective injustice suffered by victims of sexual violence, who even go so far as to deny their condition, for fear of not being believed. In this short piece, we draw on Lorde and Cherry’s concept of productive rage to argue that Spanish feminism fostered, through the #SeAcabó movement, collective resistance to sexual violence, managing to put consent at the center of the debate in the public sphere. This piece is a part of a special themed issue on the Rubiales / Hermoso non-consensual kiss.