‘The problem is the system’: Luis Rubiales, Jenni Hermoso and the sound of sealed lips

In this contribution, I explore the affordances of videographic criticism for feminist activism by dissecting a specific incident of power imbalance and toxic entitlement: the non-consensual kiss that the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, inflicted upon player Jenni Hermoso during the official ceremony for Spain’s victory in the Women’s Soccer World Cup in August 2023. Through a supercut set to the romantic song ‘As Time Goes By’ from Casablanca, mimicking the fanvid format, the video essay—”A Kiss is Not Just a Kiss” ( https://vimeo.com/908473856 )—juxtaposes footage of Rubiales’ kiss with representations of non-consensual kisses in mainstream films, where the woman reciprocates the kiss after a brief resistance. Slow-motion, zooming-in and repetition of the same narrative disrupt and challenge the normalization of sexual aggression. By selecting films, including animation features, that span seven decades (from 1937 to 2007), I aim to highlight the persistent nature of the issue. The superimposition of Jenni Hermoso’s voice interrupts the kisses, and a glitch with the text ‘System error’ obscures the action, arguing that the incident is part of a broader systemic problem of entrenched naturalization of sexual violence.