The Official Col·legi de Bibliotecaris-Documentalistes de Catalunya is considering taking disciplinary measures against a well-known documentalist for a website that is no longer in use in which he hung the buttocks of co-workers without their consent and in professional meeting environments. It was as a result of the Rubiales case that a colleague decided to recall the case of a documentalist on the social network X and that she was in charge of a website called ArtiCulitos. The alleged harasser assures that the accusations are “false” and that the images that appeared on the web were from magazines.
“About 15 years ago there was a website that posted photos of librarians’ asses.” This message from Elena Pastor-Ramon, a Mallorcan documentalist, brought to light some attitudes that have been known in the world for a long time that the Col·legi de Bibliotecaris-Documentalistes de Catalunya (COBDC) has described as “serious” and for which it is studying to punish its creator. Despite the fact that the entity has described the website as “macho in nature with vexatious content”, after the controversy, its author, who has recognized the facts, has minimized his actions for which he does not consider that he should apologize. In a statement, the COBDC dismisses as “inadmissible” the facts that it considers a “clear sexual abuse without consent”, shows its support for the victims and recalls that what happened is a violation of article 2 and 18 of the Code of Ethics of the COBDC.
“He walked around the conferences and congresses with a camera and asked for photos for a directory of documentary filmmakers,” Pastor-Ramon tells La Vanguardia. He also asked her to take a photo of her. She agreed, she says, because she did not know the purpose of it until much later. In addition, she assures that she helped that the defendant is a well-known documentary filmmaker and this made it easier for many women to allow themselves to be photographed without knowing the real purpose of the snapshot. Elena found out later but she never found her photograph on a controversial website in which women’s bodies appeared cut out sometimes from the back and sometimes from the front, she explains.
Through Twitter, the defendant has denied that there was “any photo of someone from the profession” on the website and “even less, naked.” He assures that the published materials came from magazines, jokes and short stories. “It was a website that we did with my daughter in 2008 and there was nothing indecent,” he said. The accused has regretted that “very harsh opinions” have been published that he considers he does not “deserve” and regrets that they have been related “for free” to his professional work.
“I’m sorry if I offended anyone, but I didn’t mean it, it was harmless fun from other times,” he insisted. Given these responses, the COBDC has expressed its “resounding discomfort and concern”, and considers that “it makes the situation worse” by minimizing the facts.
Pastor-Ramon regrets that in addition to creating the questionable website, the documentalist had many “macho attitudes.” “Sometimes he would tell you that he posted you a job because of your boss, but not because you deserved it,” he explains. Or he called inclusive language “bullshit.” “If with a camera in front, as has been the case with Rubiales, the defendant denies it, he imagines 15 years ago without cameras,” explains the documentalist. Pastor-Ramon also regrets that many men were silent and “laughed at him for thanks.”
