I had only been in Spain for two days when my Spanish mom, Inma, began talking about this Day of the Women. She couldn’t stop talking about it. It all seemed rather vague and mysterious, but a celebration of females appealed to me so I nodded and smiled. The more I listened to Inma, I finally caught on that my friends and I were going to a fancy dinner and strip show in the restaurant where Inma works. I really should have known better. After I watched a “Sexy Boy Spectacular,” I decided there must be an international standard for sleazy. Feb. 5 is the Day of Saint Agatha, who is the patron saint of married women. How this equates to a striptease is a mystery to me, but I went with it even though I am usually the last person to purposely go see strippers. I wrote it off as a cultural experience since it is a national holiday — a holiday that involves extremely muscular men and four kinds of alcohol.The night began innocently enough with 1,000 women getting situated at dozens of tables. Thanks to our connections, my friends and I had a table right at front of the stage, mere inches from the strippers. I found it particularly amusing that the restaurant billed the dancers in the English phrase “sexy boys,” as if it’s more appropriate to use an American phrase for something so vulgar.In a city of 400,000, about 3,000 women attended the show at this particular restaurant. Inma said other restaurants in town have similar shows, but not nearly as big or with men as attractive. We waited in anticipation.The first thing I noticed were the four glasses sitting in front of my dinner plate. I immediately drilled our Spanish companions about their use: one each for water, wine, champagne and liquor. I could already tell it was going to be a crazy experience.The only problem with all this alcohol and 1,000 women — only six bathroom stalls. Suddenly the song “In the Mood” blared throughout the room, and women twirled their pink dinner napkins in the air. The waiters materialized with the first course of our four-course meal, each one of which was met with similar fanfare.The organizers of this shindig apparently were determined to drag out the suspense as long as possible. Since I was lowering my standards long enough to watch a strip show loosely dubbed as a “celebration,” I wanted the men to be dancing and gyrating the entire time. Instead, the program had several intervals where the women danced together until the sexy boys were ready at about 2:30 A.M.Finally, the first stripper came on as…Batman? I didn’t know if he was serious. Batman is more appropriate for a 10-year-old’s Halloween costume. It’s just not right for Batman to be wearing a thong.The sexy boy pretended like he was going to remove his ass floss before he pranced off-stage. I watched in horror as my friends Emily and Tiffany were enticed onstage to help two more of the men with their strip teases before it was time for the grand finale.All four men came out with capes (obviously they were still in Batman mode) and starting throwing clothes out from underneath their capes. Suddenly the capes disappeared, and all the women around me screamed wildly. I couldn’t help but feel dirty despite my insistence that it was a cultural experience. Spain has a plethora of festivals scattered throughout the year, most of which are tied to Catholicism, the country’s official religion. Each city has its own saint’s day, along with each province’s saint and national celebrations of saints. Celebrations run from the ostentatious, such as Las Fallas in Valencia which involved burning huge papier-mƒche figures, to the somber such as the religious processions in Valladolid during Holy Week.Yet no matter what the festival is, Spaniards throw themselves into the occasion. Inma assured us that having men strip is not a normal occurrence for Spanish women. It’s just once a year during the Day of the Women, even though the women act as if they are getting a dose of Chippendale every weekend.I still don’t quite understand the connection between honoring women and having men shove their bodies in women’s faces. Nor do I understand the religious ties, although I suppose it’s not too far from having a fat guy in a red suit deliver presents on Christmas day.Especially because I am such an advocate of women’s rights and respecting both sexes, I don’t particularly enjoy having a man with his entire body shaved crawling across my dinner table as he removes his G-string. But I still appreciate the zest and enthusiasm for having fun and enjoying life that is evident in Spanish fiestas. I, of course, just happened to be around for the sleaziest of them all.Amie Van Overmeer is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Rock Rapids.