Female Bullfighting
It was a unique, eye-catching sight: an attractive woman in a shiny bullfighter’s suit, sword in hand, facing the sharp horns of a black, 500-kilogram beast.
Most people thought the days of female bullfighting were over in Spain. (46) .
The first woman fighter, Cristina Sanchez, quit in 1999 because of male discrimination (歧视). But Vega is determined to break into what could be Spain’s most resistant male field. (47) .
Spanish women have conquered almost all male professions. (48) "The bull does not ask for your identity card," she said in an interview a few years ago. She insisted that she be judged for her skills rather than her femaleness.
Vega became a matador (斗牛士) in 1997 in the southwestern city of Caceres.
(49) She entered a bullfighting school in Malaga at age nine and performed her first major bullfight at age 14. She has faced as much opposition as Sanchez did. And the "difficulties have made her grow into a very strong bullfighter," her brother Jorge says.
The 1.68-metre tall and somewhat shy Vega says her love of bullfighting does not make her any less of a woman. (50) .
A She intends to become even better than Sanchez was.
B Her father was an aspiring (有雄心壮志的) bullfighter.
C But many bullfighting professionals continue to insist that women do not have what it takes to perform the country’s "national show".
D "I’m a woman from head to toe and proud of it," she once said.
E She looks like a male bullfighter.
F But recently, 29-year-old Mari Paz Vega became the second woman in Spanish history to fight against those heavy animals.