As a soccer fan, I saw how this story unfolded when it broke several months ago.

Rubiales kissed Hermosa, very obviously and in full view of cameras, immediately following the Spanish women's World Cup win. It's clearly a deliberate kiss, but it's close-mouthed and very quick. If you watch the footage you'll see she doesn't have a negative reaction and is smiling during and after as she walks away. Of course, she may have been downplaying her true feelings in the moment, but she was also asked about the kiss shortly after (as internet feminists had started raging over it) and she said she didn't care and that it was done in a moment of excitement.

I will say that if a man kissed my girlfriend like that, I would not be happy. However, Hermosa initially claimed to not mind. Rubiales maintained that he'd done nothing wrong and Hermosa seemed to support that, but after the pressure continued to mount on him to resign (with players threatening to leave the national team and sponsors threatening to pull money), she changed her story. A bajillion famous Spanish players, non-Spaniards who play in La Liga, and influential football pundits came out of the woodwork to decry the kiss as sexual assault and soak up that sweet sweet leftist signaling credit. Rubiales and the football association he worked for relented after a few weeks and he resigned.

In my opinion, the whole thing was -- and continues to be -- a completely overblown exercise in how to morally dominate a public man.

As a soccer fan, I saw how this story unfolded when it broke several months ago.

Rubiales kissed Hermosa, very obviously and in full view of cameras, immediately following the Spanish women's World Cup win. It's clearly a deliberate kiss, but it's close-mouthed and very quick. If you watch the footage you'll see she doesn't have a negative reaction and is smiling during and after as she walks away. Of course, she may have been downplaying her true feelings in the moment, but she was also asked about the kiss shortly after (as internet feminists had started raging over it) and she said she didn't care and that it was done in a moment of excitement.

I will say that if a man kissed my girlfriend like that, I would not be happy. However, Hermosa initially claimed to not mind. Rubiales maintained that he'd done nothing wrong and Hermosa seemed to support that, but after the pressure continued to mount on him to resign (with players threatening to leave the national team and sponsors threatening to pull money), she changed her story. A bajillion famous Spanish players, non-Spaniards who play in La Liga, and influential football pundits came out of the woodwork to decry the kiss as sexual assault and soak up that sweet sweet leftist signaling credit. Rubiales and the football association he worked for relented after a few weeks and he resigned.

In my opinion, the whole thing was a completely overblown exercise in how to morally dominate a public man.