Sex, Drugs, and Fashion in 1970s Madrid by Francisco Fernández de Alba

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sex, Drugs, and Fashion in 1970s Madrid by Francisco Fernández de Alba John Margenot Fernández de Alba, Francisco. Sex, Drugs, and Fashion in 1970s Madrid. U of Toronto P, 2020. Pp. 169. ISBN 978-4875-0148-8. This monograph, Sex, Drugs, and Fashion in 1970s Madrid, forms part of recent scholarly reassessments of the Long Transition with special emphasis on the final decade of the Franco regime. It is argued that during this period a new popular culture emerged due in large part to alternative and underground practices that shaped the identity of Madrid. The author draws from various sources of mass media—principally magazines, periodicals and journals—that contributed to the democratization of Madrid, and by extension, Spain. The critic notes that while most scholarship on the Transition has traditionally examined its political, social and [End Page 461] economic consequences, his study will scrutinize the popular culture of the period. A new cultural alternative that emphasizes the civic ownership of the capital city emerges in opposition to the ideology of the Franco regime, a process that lays the foundation of la Movida. Following theories of Raymond Williams and Susan Sontag on the restructuring of feeling, Fernández de Alba examines the central role of mass media in creating a new sensibility that emphasized the ownership of Madrid. His analysis consists of an introduction followed by four chapters dealing with urban planning, sex, drug use and fashion, respectively, followed by a discrete conclusion. Copious endnotes provide helpful information, and translations of Spanish to English are in the appropriate register. In chapter 1, “Madrid: Planning the Democratic City,” the author examines the evolution of the civic ownership of the capital with focus on the professional debates in print media—especially Triunfo and Cuadernos para el diálogo—about urban architecture and planning. Centermost to this process was the shaping of the residents’ attitudes based primarily on Henri Lefebvre’s theory on the right to the city. Numerous assessments and debates on urban planning contribute to conceptualizations of Madrid thus yielding a democratic and pluralistic identity. Such practices produced a collective consciousness on what residents’ lives and surroundings in Madrid should resemble. Central to this process was the role of professionals—particularly architects and engineers—, the emergence of a neo-Marxist conceptualization of urban space and the 1970s housing crisis brought on by immigration to the city during the two previous decades. Fernández de Alba discusses fruitfully Madrid para la democracia, a collection of essays by specialists that provided a road map for the creation of a democratic city. Chapter 2, “Sex: Building Plural Communities,” scrutinizes sex and gender topics presented in the mass media. The critic analyzes the ways in which the sublimation of eroticism to consumption takes place. Issues such as homosexuality and transgenderism come to the fore through a series of films, public demonstrations and marches as well as publications such as Triunfo. The widespread discussion of same-sex relationships, divorce, abortion, and out-of-wedlock sex in the mass media increased their acceptability among Spaniards and yielded a modern democratic vision of community characterized by openness and inclusivity in the Madrid of the 70s and 80s. A discussion of feminism, sexual liberation, comedia sexy and destape films is followed by a reading of Eduardo Medicutti’s novel, Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera. Fernández de Alba argues that Mendicutti synthesizes this dynamic by presenting a new discourse on sex and gender and their relation to politics. As cultural product this novel normalized alternative sexual and gender modes of being. Fernández de Alba concludes that mass media encourages Spaniards to envision a sexual revolution in the final years of a Catholic dictatorship. In chapter 3, “Drugs: The Burden of Modernity,” the author disassembles traditional interpretations of heroin use in Spain—escapism and experimentation—as simplistic and inaccurate. Its popularity among young Spaniards is best explained as the result of cultural transformations that included a new sensibility toward the consumption of intoxicating substances. Widespread heroin use was an act of rebellion against the prevailing order and was thus linked to modernity. Fernández de Alba offers a nuanced interpretation of heroin use by...