Leticia Dolera, creative activism: "It's not just about consenting, it's also about wanting"

Relaxed after a “short” getaway with friends, the director, screenwriter and actress, feminist and professional zombie killer chats with the Magazine on the phone. With agile and generous responses, without giving an iota in terms of her private life and her forceful feminism. She is a reference in this fight, since she joined the

With a rich career as an actress (Rec 3, From your window to mine, Kamikaze…), in her work as a scriptwriter and director she reflects on a recurring theme: “What society asks of you to fit into it and be happy ”. She did it with ease in Requirements to be a normal person, and in Vida perfecta, a series awarded at Cannes that charged prejudices and social tolls one after another. She is now preparing her first theatrical direction for October: Marcela, starring Celia Freijeiro. She writes the script for her new series Pubertad (in which she will have a role) that starts from an alleged abuse between pre-adolescents within a ‘colla castellera’. To get inspired, she plans to return to her city, Barcelona, ​​for a while and spend the summer “from day to day”.

An unusual context in fiction.

Castells excite me a lot. They are a social driving force and a metaphor for society: a castell without a well-constructed pinya does not work, all the positions of the tronc are important… The series talks about the weight of the taboo and how it is transmitted, based on an alleged sexual abuse .

Is sex still taboo?

It occupies a confusing place. From the taboo we move on to the revolution of the 60-70s and the current concept of sexual capital. Today, apps like OnlyFans are a gateway to prostitution. And pornography enters the mobile phones of the youngest with ease. In the videos with the most visits on porn websites, women say no and men end up saying yes. The message is terrifying. It’s not just about consenting, it’s also about wanting. It is the big theme.

On the law of Yes is Yes, what position do you share, that of PSOE or Podemos?

Apart from the controversy, it has made progress, such as that victims of sexual violence will have resources available even if they do not report it or that street harassment will be a crime. On the reduction of sentences, there is no perfect law. Even so, when a law does not have the desired effects, the cracks must be analyzed and resolved. I am not a lawyer, but I see consent as the only tool to legislate something as serious as sexual violence: in Spain a rape is reported every 7 hours. There are 16-year-old girls consenting to sexual practices they don’t want, out of fear or pressure. As the philosopher Celia Amorós says: “Feminism does not criticize the individual decisions of women, but the reasons that force them to make them.” Education and culture are essential.

Is the woman gaining ground, despite everything?

We have advanced in rights, it is evident. Before the word feminism was reviled and today all the parties say they are. The question is that it is not manipulated or emptied of content and political agenda. Now neoliberalism wants to absorb feminism.

What does the feminist movement need to move forward?

Not losing sight of what unites us, our history of struggle and above all the objectives: abolition of sexual and reproductive exploitation, of gender stereotypes, an age-appropriate sex-affective education and resources to combat sexist violence and sexual. It would be fantastic if this very feminist government, before the end of the legislature, approved an abolitionist law, because prostitution is a place of sexual violence and inequality. And Spain is the brothel of Europe. That prostitution exists is toxic for the whole society. You send a message to young people: on the one hand, you tell them that 8-M exists and, on the other, that consent can be bought and it is cheap.

What awakened your conscience?

It was a drip. When seeking financing for my film, investors turned to my producers instead of me on directing issues. On a TV channel they told me that they already had a women’s movie and they couldn’t make another one. And how many did they have for men? I realized many things. And I started reading about feminism.

Was your mother, single, a reference?

My mother was working all day. She didn’t read about feminism, she practiced it. That interest was born later in me. Feminism must be read, thought about, it is a social critique that requires reflection.

When did you jump into politics? The first thing you would change?

Oh no, I like my job and activism can be done from many places. Culture is a place to reflect in society. All the stories are political. It is also a movie not to think about, because it achieves that, so that you don’t think. We must ask ourselves what culture we want as a society. The first thing I would change is education, healthcare and the abolition of body rental. Because notice that the sale of organs is prohibited and that: because it affects the bodies of men?

Have you received threats?

A lot of hate, but also a lot of feedback that makes up for it. That super young girls tell me that they started reading about feminism with my book, that there is no tweet, article or message in Forocoches that deletes it.

On the Obregón case, he has been blunt on Twitter: “Women no longer cry, women are rented”…

It’s just that I don’t believe in a society where someone’s body can be rented. People I love very much have had children like this and I know that the matter is sensitive. Motherhood itself is sensitive, it goes through all of us sooner or later. The issue is not what Obregon says, or blame her, but what we do with this. I understand her pain but we must have an ethical commitment to respect human rights. And I would like to add something…

Forward…

I would like to add that egg donation also enters into the issue of reproductive exploitation, which is not a donation because there is economic exchange and where once again female empathy is pulled: all the advertisements for the purchase and sale of eggs (which do not donation, I insist) carry phrases such as: do you want to help another woman? Now in Spain there are women who pay for university by selling their eggs, and no one tells them how hard the process will be and the harmful effects it can have on their own body.

Do you want to be a mother?

That’s part of private land. Maternity and reconciliation should be talked about as something political, but it is intimate.

How would it be defined?

I am ashamed to define myself. I am many things and not always the same. And I see therapy as essential to get to know yourself, to know what moves you.

She explained that she often felt the sensation of not fitting in. Because?

When I released Requirements I saw that this is something quite universal. You think that fitting into that perfect life will give you stability and that is a pipe dream. The couple, the sex… they tell you that it will make you happy but you see that it is not so. It’s not that easy. I still think about it, that’s why I dedicate myself to writing. I am discovering things and the more I discover the more I keep looking. Although I have found places and people where I feel at peace.

If you think back to your youth, what image comes to mind?

I see myself telling stories, forever.

He is 41 years old…Have you had your first crisis?

Oh yes, the midlife crisis! I think every decade comes with one. And they are an opportunity, but you have to go through them, not hide them. I passed it, I think I’m in the taglines (she laughs).

The quality that has helped you the most in life and a defect that you want to eliminate.

Curiosity and perseverance. And I wish I wasn’t such a perfectionist.

She seems very confident. Have you also felt the impostor syndrome?

Light man! What came in handy for me was naming it. I think it happens to both sexes, but women have fewer references from the platform, from power. In the media, the man occupies more space for serious things and the woman for the emotional. In us the syndrome is structural.

Do they hide more?

We also hide, but we feel more guilt, we ask for more forgiveness, we demand more of ourselves. The directors also have the right to make a mediocre film, like them. But the error, in women, penalizes more.

Your worst moment and how did you get over it?

He gets out of bad times with resilience, therapy and friendship. That “I can do everything by myself” is very neoliberal, it’s better with help. And that time heals everything is not true. You have to roll up your sleeves, do personal work.

And a day when she felt powerful?

When they gave us the prize in Cannes for Vida perfecta, I was very aware that this was something unique. We live it with a lot of love and a lot of joy to live.

What scares you?

Lack of empathy and reflection.

How do you get along with the universe of cosmetics and fashion?

Being a feminist implies navigating the contradiction. Plus, I work in an industry where harmful beauty stereotypes are still encouraged. What I do is bet on a healthy life. I would never advise a diet to fit a beauty ideal. I use creams, I put on makeup, well, not in my day-to-day life, and then they say that I have a bad face. “It’s just that I have dark circles!” But makeup and fashion amuse me too. Fashion is a cultural thing.

What is life?

Life is the present, right? Accept the mystery. And death. It is important to have expectations, ideals, to walk, but it is necessary to know if they are born from an honest and free place or are the result of cultural, family heritage. And not live in the future.

What makes you happier?

Wow, lots of things. I don’t think it’s right to rank it.

In an interview, she said that love “is the great issue that feminists don’t know what to do with.”

Love is wonderful, an opportunity for growth and pleasure, but romantic love has been sold to women as a goal (if not, your life has no meaning) instead to men, as a complement. And by reaffirming yourself in the male gaze you can lose yourself. I advocate paying attention to the philosopher Kate Millet: “Let’s eroticize equality.”