Animal Metaphors in Non-Fictional Narratives of Gender-Based Violence in Contemporary Spain
The establishment of Franco’s dictatorship (1939) meant a regression in the rights of women, who were often compared with animals to emphasize their biological functions, intellectual inferiority, and even to justify domestic abuse and gender violence (López-Rodríguez 2024: 92). Francoist media, indeed, recommended wife beating for didactic purposes through comparisons of women with irrational beasts:
Una pequeña paliza es, a menudo, la manera más eficaz de corregir a una mujer … La mujer llega a este mundo como cualquier otro animal, y debe aprender la diferencia entre el bien y el mal y es el marido el que tiene el deber de enseñarle … En tal caso, el marido puede ser disculpado y hasta elogiado por pegar a su mujer. (Fandiño Pérez 2004: 116)
As a corollary, this language of the species permeated Spanish news dealing with real cases of domestic violence. In 1945, the magazine Y. Revista de la Mujer Nacional Sindicalista reported about wife battery by likening women with wild animals in need of taming. The article explained a husband’s need to hit his wife with a belt by comparing her with an indomitable beast: “al esposo no le quedó otro remedio que coger el cinturón y domar a la bestia de su joven esposa” (Maura 1945: 48). Similarly, in 1969, El Ventanal, described a wife in terms of an obstinate mule to justify her husband’s use of a slipper to spank her: “terca como una mula […] el marido se quitó la zapatilla y azotó a su mujer” (Julia 1969: 29). Two years later, the popular radio program El consultorio sentimental de Elena Francis compared a young woman with a beast when speaking of her attempted rape by her long-time boyfriend: “lucharon como dos fieras […] [la joven] estuvo en un hilo de caer en ese terrible pecado” (Balsebre and Fontova 2018: 273).
After the demise of Francoism, Spain’s transition into democracy went hand in hand with significant advances in the promotion of gender equality. Yet, despite women’s attainment of legal, educational, and labor rights, the issue of gender-based violence continued to be a social problem, with the Spanish media frequently reporting on this issue through the iconography of the bestial feminine. In 1979, the newspaper ABC wrote about the sexual assault of a female student by her partner, who called her “zorra” before raping her: “El joven la llamaba zorra antes de violarla en el portal de su casa” (Braulio 1979: 53). Six years later, the very same journal documented the term “perra” when analyzing the psychological and verbal abuse experienced by a woman at the hands of her husband: “la tildaba de perra y gorda a diario” (Maura 1985: 19).
In recent decades, Spanish newspapers have paid more attention to the issue of gender-based violence, reproducing a wealth of animal metaphors to conceptualize female victims. Reports on verbal abuse often include faunistic slurs that degrade women: “se dirigía a su pareja como perra” or “me llamaba zorra asquerosa y foca” (“Condenado por dirigirse” 2018: 2; “Maltrato” 2020: 12). This form of verbal violence is particularly noticeable in online environments, where the male perpetrator can somehow maintain his anonymity: “Un hombre … llamaba perra a su expareja en su perfil privado de Facebook” or “tuits dirigidos hacia su persona … como zorra sinvergüenza” (“Condena por insultos” 2017: 3). Likewise, chants and shouts in sports and other public events often convey sexist attitudes through figurative fauna. During a football match, a group of male supporters hurled animal insults at the female referee: “el público se dirigió en reiteradas ocasiones a la árbitro asistente llamándola ‘guarra,’ ‘zorra,’ ‘puta’” (“Cincuenta euros de multa” 2005: 12). The same animal terms were targeted at female politicians on the street: “el sábado, al cruzar la plaza Sant Jaume para ir desde el Ayuntamiento al Palau de la Generalitat, centenares de personas les gritaron a ella y a otras ediles ‘putas, guarras y zorras’” (“Estas son las otras” 2018: 1).
Cases of sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and rapes are often tinged with animal slurs that sexually objectify women. In the Spanish press, male perpetrators frequently turn women into “pigs” – an animal associated with (moral) dirtiness, shame, and promiscuity – to condemn women’s outfits, which are considered as sexually provocative: “Gritos de ‘Cerda’ y amenazas a una mujer en Murcia por ir en pantalones cortos” and “me llamaba guarra por llevar minifalda” (“Gritos de ‘cerda’” 2018: 19; López-Rodríguez 2009: 91). Far from being mere verbal attacks, animal names like “cerda,” “zorra,” and “perra,” with strong libidinous associations, often lead to sexual abuse: “llamaba a su pareja zorra y perra tras violarla,” “se avalanzó sobre mí y me llamaba puta zorra,” and “Me dijo que era una puta, una zorra, una guarra […] me penetraba” (“Condenado por violar” 2020: 14; “Maltrato” 2020: 6; “Nuevo caso” 2022: 5). The press even reported about a sex work network known as “las lobas,” named after the animal moniker given to the minors who were sexually abused: “Búsqueda y captura contra el presunto líder de la red de prostitución de menores 18 lobas” (“Desarticulada red de prostitución” 2021: 11–15). Besides stressing the instinctual sexual nature of animals, the conceptualization of women as “zorras” activates the hunting scenario whereby men reduce women to wild animals that need to be chased.
The animalization of women is similarly associated with physical abuse. Given that animals – unless domesticated and tamed – pose a threat to humans, zoomorphic metaphors entail notions of danger that justify the exertion of physical force. Seeing women as beasts certainly prompts men’s aggressive behaviors: “la llamó ‘zorra, puta’ y golpeó con el puño varias veces a su pareja, en la parada de taxis de la plaza de Luis Braille,” “Me dijo que era una puta, una zorra, una guarra. Me pegó dos bofetadas,” “le pegaba patadas mientras le gritaba ‘perra’,” or “le pegó un puñetazo […] puta perra de mierda” ( “Maltrato continuado” 2018: 11; “Vejaciones” 2022: 2; “Violencia machista” 2022: 9).
Different forms of gender-based violence – verbal, sexual, psychological, and physical – reported in the Spanish press show the lethal consequences that the iconography of the bestial feminine has in the real world. Faunistic tropes not only contribute to the dehumanization, sexualization, and belittlement of women, but they also put women’s lives at risk.