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There are a lot of variants of bullfighting. My favourite is typically Portuguese and probably the most 'fair': an organized group of men trying to catch the bull with bare hands.
Many moons ago, in an SF anthology such as I used to consume in those days, there was this little story about these three astronauts who travelled for 500 years in a sub-lightspeed ship.
They arrived at an inhabited star system - which had been populated by humans departed from Earth a little after them, but on faster-than-light vessels. All was well, except for one detail. Human metabolism had changed, and the three travellers now stank abominably to the evolved humans.
(In the story, they made it back to our time thanks to some worm-hole handwaving.)
More on Arruza:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Arruza
and one of his rivals mentioned in the article: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Manolete
I don't know how a culture like Spain's can call this a "sport". The whole game is rigged against the bull; if the bull does get an upper hand, he is quickly shooed away and the matador saved. And I also can't understand how the matadors can act all macho and stuff, when they have the whole cavalry behind them, so to speak.
It'd be closer to being a 'sport' if it was just the matador against the bull, mano a mano.
I'm very glad that Catalonia has banned bullfighting: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/world/europe/adeu-to-catal...
Spaniard here (I don't like bullfighting AT ALL, I despise it, but just for the sake of explanation)
Bullfight is not considered a "sport" in any way. There is no competition, and their supporters calls it "an art" (which it's too big a word for what it is IMHO).
It is closer to a "performance", a daredevil act where the bullfighter performs calculated dangerous acts aiming to create something exciting and aesthetically pleasant for the public. Instead of a big ramp, there is a dangerous living animal, adding risk and unpredictability to the mix. Since the discovery of antibiotics and modern medicine, is not as dangerous as it used to be (there is an sculpture devoted to Fleming on the most important bullring in Madrid), but it's still quite a risky activity.
It is also banned on the Canary Islands (since 1991). I'd say that most of spaniards oppose it (especially younger people), but there is a significant group of supporters, and given that's it's a tradition that has hundreds of years, it's difficult to ban.
Again, I don't like it AT ALL. It is disgusting. But it's also not well understood outside of Spain, so I'm trying to give some clarification. Please feel free to AMA.
I'd say the sport is less about who defeats whom but the style in which it is done, more figure skating than boxing.
I will always empathize with the bull more than I do the bullfighter. Heartbreaking.
I don't think an act of non-consensual torture for nothing but sheer entertainment of a large audience deserves to be associated with any positive adjectives in this time and age.
We're certainly a delightful species.
Regardless of how you feel about the sport itself, it is a great piece of writing. Keep posting more like it.
What a sick fucking "sport".