While Béjar’s actions and sermons on the mount might at first seem flamboyant and over the top – she said her protest would continue “indefinitely, day and night” until the “inhuman, bloodthirsty witch hunt which my son is being subjected to” came to an end – they are also typical Catholic mother behaviour. Or perhaps more accurately, Catholic-mother-of-sons behaviour.
Culturally, there is not much a Catholic son can do wrong in the eyes of a mother like Béjar, and they will be defended to the ends of the earth, blindly, in their pursuit of justice, whether that’s a climb to Calgary or something as minor – and I cannot emphasise this enough,Just as every woman has met a brash,, so too have many of us met their mothers, who would defend them to the ends of the earth. “My son is incapable of hurting anyone,” Béjar told news outlets in Spain.
Look, it’s easy to joke about Béjar’s bizarre crusade, but the reverberations from the Rubiales saga do reveal some unfortunate truths, too. If men like Rubiales are comfortable enough to act like this in front of the entire world, and if they’re not reprimanded for it, then that trickles down. It trickles down to what becomes acceptable away from the cameras, without the support of organisations and government inquiries, behind closed doors.
Spain’s Yolanda Díaz said on Monday that Rubiales actions were an example of how “systemic” male chauvinism was in the country, shown in its worst form. Given how systemic that chauvinism is, it’s unsurprising that Rubiales’s family would begin this odd crusade on his behalf. There will always be mothers who excuse their sons’ bad behaviour, just as there will always be sons who abuse their mothers’ unconditional love. But the true tragedy here is not Rubiales or his song-suffering mum, Our Lady of Fifa. It’s that the World Cup has become another time immemorial example of a story of female success ruined by a male Messiah complex.