A few days ago, when the comedian Lalachus was announced as the next presenter of the bells on TVE, she received hate-filled insults that were claimed from social networks at the expense of her physique. This comedian represents a completely different type of television than the one that has been blowing up the audience for decades: a diverse television where non-normative bodies that are a reflection of society have a place.
This election coincides with the renewal of Cristina Pedroche as presenter of the bells on Antena 3. Pedroche connects in a more direct way with television, common in the 90s, where the body and beauty of women become the main bait for capture the audience.
However, this Sixth collaborator also receives insults from those who consider that she should go out dressed in a certain way. Nothing seems to be right and it is on this basis that it is founded Was I a vase woman?the documentary by Producciones del Barrio for the Max platform that covers the history of Spanish television.
Directed by Rafa de los Arcos and Meritxell Aranda, the film investigates the role of women in the 80s and 90s through a journey through programs that marked the history of television. It also does so with the first-person account of some protagonists of the time and the contributions of experts such as the journalist Rosa María Calaf, the researcher Elena Neira or the journalist Juan Sanguino.
“Television continues to be a reflection of the society we live in,” says Meritxell Aranda. “We wanted to have statements from women who were key in the programs of those decades, to invite us to think about what type of television we are making now and reflect on whether we have changed so much or whether we are still doing the same thing,” says the deputy director of the documentary that includes testimonies of Loreto Valverde, Makoke, Patrizia Cavaliere or Beatriz Rico.
The dark and the beautiful, without frivolity
“The truth is that I had never been given the opportunity to talk about this, or at least not in this way,” confesses presenter Loreto Valverde to elDiario.es. “I think it’s nice that we have been able to talk about how we feel, how we live it and what TV was like in the past.”
The singer and actress highlights that the topic “is not treated frivolously nor is it going to cause bloodshed,” since the documentary seeks to convey “the reality of what television was then with its dark parts, its beautiful parts and its fun parts.” “It is a joy, from the maturity of a person over 50 years old, to be able to look back and remember what the country was like at that time,” says Loreto Valverde.
Rafa de los Arcos admits that there is a “very prejudiced” premise when an issue of this style is going to be addressed. Hence, very wisely, the director chose to give all the weight of both episodes to the protagonists. “For us, the most important thing was that they explained everything in first person. We needed there to be a lot feedbackthat their experience would feed us when it came to writing the script,” declares the director, also responsible for the series. brutal megamix for RTVE.
One of the most notable aspects of the documentary is the analysis of the programs that led the television schedule. Formats like The right price They were impregnated with a machismo that, although it is easily detectable now, was normalized in the 90s: while the presenter Joaquín Prat represented experience and confidence, the women were in charge of providing the visual appeal.
Loreto Valverde also remembers her participation in Goals are lovesa program broadcast on Telecinco between 1992 and 1993 that reviewed current sports news in a “casual way.” “Each girl represented a La Liga soccer team, and they had to go out in shorts and with their cleavage to show on a ball the score that each team had that day,” she describes.
“Why weren’t there a lot of great kids coming out in shorts saying the results?”, Valverde questions in retrospect. “But that didn’t shock us, we had a different mentality,” says the presenter. De los Arcos and Aranda agree that “there is part of the reflection” and that the criticism should not be directed at them, but “against those who pulled the strings.”
The men behind the formats
Those who pulled the strings were precisely the managers, almost all men. It is not surprising that, for this same reason, all the programming offers aimed to satisfy the male instinct. “Senior managers are the ones who decided that a woman’s body gave them an audience and how it gave them an audience,” Aranda emphasizes.
This meant that, although the role of women was essential, it was only so because they were sexualized. Loreto Valverde points out that “the girls used to be, in the best of cases, co-presenters,” since in the vast majority of cases “they were only allowed to be hostesses or dancers.”
An essential figure in the two episodes is Lola Barranco, one of the few managers in those decades. “I wasn’t aware that I was so alone, although I didn’t earn like them and that made me quite angry. Why, if I’m doing the same job, am I putting in the same effort and have the same level of opinion?” he goes so far as to say in the documentary.
Lola Barranco’s position, despite the great disadvantage she suffered compared to her peers, contrasts quite a bit with that of the other women, which even makes her privileged. “The only way they had to appear on television was by showing off their body. That was the role they had for them. It’s not that they could choose, it’s that they placed them there and it was a toll that they had to pass if they wanted to go further,” explains Meritxell Aranda.
In Was I a vase woman? The phenomenon of Mama Chicho and Cacao Maravillao is also remembered, one of the most successful ideas. “They were wonderful girls, dancers, who, although the dance they did was very simple, had that ease, that palm,” recalls Loreto Valverde. “They appeared in curtains in the middle of the program, did their little walk and left without saying a word. They were not given the option to even say hello. “They were that: a nice thing in the middle of the program.”
The documentary portrays the rise of that television and the stardom that loomed over women who were treated as objects, combining music from that period with old clips from some programs. “It wasn’t just the girls anymore, it was the sounds, the colors, the camera movements, the sets,” says Rafa de los Arcos. “Everything was very striking,” says the director.
Vase women, a thing of the past?
In the mid-90s, the national mood declined, among several reasons, due to economic decline. The glitter that had conquered an entire country since the beginning of the 80s abruptly ceased to be of interest. Spain wanted to see another type of television. And, what had been at the top for many years, is lost in its own fantasy.
“It was not a logical and natural evolution, it was a very drastic change,” confesses Loreto Valverde. “What we loved, now suddenly it wasn’t popular and we had to make a radical change. Telecinco, for example, changed the directive and made a clean one. What was wonderful before was now worthless,” continues the actress and singer. She recognizes that, although she was able to “continue working” in her profession, “many colleagues had to reinvent themselves.”
The ‘cleanup’ that Valverde refers to bears similarities to the one recently experienced at Mediaset, in which programs such as save me with the aim of renewing the image of Telecinco. However, the presenter says that, compared to what she experienced in her time, “it has not been such a drastic change because the image of Telecinco has not changed that much”: “They have removed certain things that were blunders and that they themselves “They have realized that they should never have committed it, but it has been a light cleaning.”
Am I a vase woman who is put there because I am pretty, or am I an empowered woman who goes out that way because I feel like it, because I like it, because I am beautiful and I don’t care that the public sees me the way I want?
Loreto Valverde
— Presenter
In fact, Loreto Valverde considers that many programs from then were not “as harmful” as those broadcast today. “Passive-aggressive television of making blood of another’s life and airing family dirty laundry seems terrible to me,” he comments. “Give me 20 Cacaos Maravillaos dancing and selling me a brand that doesn’t exist, rather than the acid TV of gossip and causing harm at the expense of playing with the lives of others. The first is spectacle, beauty, joy… The second, no.”
Meritxell Aranda points towards the same place, who believes that “now there is more commercialization with emotions”: “All this Temptation Islandor programs like The Wheel of Luck where a pretty girl spins the letters when today you could perfectly use a remote… A type of television is being made that is no better than before.”
“Am I a vase woman who is put there because I am pretty, or am I an empowered woman who goes out that way because I feel like it, because I like it, because I am beautiful and I don’t care that the public sees me the way I want?” Loreto Valverde questions. The debate that both she and the documentary raise moves to the controversy that surrounds Cristina Pedroche every year. Is she an empowered woman or another victim of the patriarchal system?
For Rafa de los Arcos, “it is a question of plurality”, since “if the bells format has to be based on an attractive girl next to a funny man, thus becoming the norm, there is a problem.” But “if we, as viewers with a certain sensitivity, can find an alternative to all that, it is a step somewhere.” “The problem is when things are uniform and there is only one way to do them,” says the director.
The directors of the documentary affirm that the film will make the viewer think “about the role they have as a consumer.” “What are you consuming audiovisually and what did you consume 20 years ago? That’s where the focus is,” says De los Arcos. For her part, Meritxell Aranda adds that “we have to realize that, although we have made progress, it is still a backpack that we carry around.”
And perhaps Cristina Pedroche’s television and Lalachus’ television have more in common than it seems. They are both women who will receive criticism no matter what they do and however they come out. Are they vase women? Were the girls of the 80s and 90s? Most likely, they do not have the key, but rather the viewers when they see them on the screen.
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