In an opinion piece, labor law professor and attorney Jaime L. Sanabria Montañez argues that two reggaetón songs, Ivy Queen’s 2003 "Quiero bailar" and Bad Bunny’s March 2020 "Yo perreo sola," carry the same message Puerto Rico’s Law 17 of 1988 has written into employment law since 1988: consent is not presumed. Bad Bunny performed the song in Spanish at the February Super Bowl halftime show, and Nesi, the female voice of that chorus, recorded this year with Ivy Queen on La Liga Femenina, the first all-women urban album.
Sanabria explains that Law 17 defines workplace sexual harassment as any unwanted sexual advance, and that the key word is "unwanted," citing the US Supreme Court’s Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson. He outlines that consent does not transfer, is not inferred from hierarchy, and can be withdrawn.
Citing Rodríguez Meléndez v. Supermercados Amigo, he describes quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment, including electronic harassment recognized since 2006. The law protects men and covers same-sex harassment, per Oncale v.
Sundowner Offshore Services. His central point: Law 17 is stricter than Title VII, holding employers strictly liable for supervisors’ harassment without the federal affirmative defense, with damages doubled, and he argues the rule should change.