Malena Alterio stars in ‘Cochinas’: “It is terrifying to think that increasingly younger children have access to porn”

After passing through the Malaga Festival, where it was presented in the Out of Competition Series section, This Friday, April 24, ‘Cochinas’ arrives on Prime Video. Set in Valladolid in 1998, the fiction follows Nines, a conservative woman who is forced to take the reins of her husband’s video store in its lowest hours. To save the business, Nines decides to specialize in porn movie rentalwhich unexpectedly gives rise to a delayed sexual liberation in the neighborhood, especially among women.

The series brings to the table important topics such as the personal and social relationship with the sexuality of others and one’s own, feminine desire or “sexual education”, something that the protagonists find especially relevant today, when adult content that was previously found in video stores is available to anyone on the Internet. “It is terrifying to think that increasingly younger children have access to pornography“, laments Malena Alteriowho gives life to Nines.

“Let’s see, I think that emphasis should be placed on the sexual education of young people, of children,” says the actress, warning that “all these images are misinterpreted, which taken out of context are very violent, they do not educate, they are not real.” “It is dangerous,” says the interpreter, who believes it is necessary to “regularize, care for and train.”

“And it cannot be that today, the only sexual education that a kid has is porn. And may your doubts and curiosities about sex and sexuality be resolved by going online to watch videos of how they subjugate a person.“adds Álvaro Mel. The actor plays in the series one of the video store employees along with Celia Morán, who joins the opinion of his colleagues demanding not only sexual but also “emotional” education.

WHERE THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEXUAL EDUCATION LIES

Carlos del Hoyo, creator and screenwriter of fiction, emphasizes that “the basis of everything is in education” and doubts that it is possible to “put limits on the sea.” “Your children, your nephews, are going to access, unfortunately, that pornography sooner and earlier.“, he says, warning that that moment is coming, so it must be instilled that, although it may serve as a “sexual incentive” it is not “real sex.”

“I am a mother and for me that it be regularized, a priori it does not seem like a bad measure, if we are talking here about the issue of networks and kids under 16“, contributes the screenwriter Irene Bohoyo. “That does not mean that you have to talk about sexuality with your children,” she clarifies, explaining that, in her opinion, it is “essential because they also deserve it, that you tell them, that there is not going to be someone who loves them more than you and that you have already been through that“.

In any case, both those responsible and the actors of ‘Cochinas’ emphasize that sexual education is a joint responsibility, which falls “on society in general: schools, family, environment.” In this sense, Morán points out the “influencers” to also be “good references.”“.

“I think it is something systematic and structural, that is, it cannot change from one day to the next, because it is true that we also come from generations that have experienced it in a different way,” reflects Mel, to whom the establishment of “a sexual education subject” seems like “a good little stroke.” “Then there is a lot to do, not everything is as easy as putting it on paper, and a lot depends on our change“, he acknowledges.

PORN AS AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT FEMALE DESIRE

Although the central setting of ‘Cochinas’ is the particular Nines video store, Alterio highlights that porn “is the excuse, it is the trigger for suddenly a group of women who had not even asked themselves about their sexuality” get together to talk about it, analyzing what is happening to them.

“In the end it is a space of conquest“observes Laura M. Campos, who directs the fiction together with Andrea Jaurrieta and Nuria Gago, pointing out that “this is where the critical view of the series comes from.” Gago also highlights how in fiction, women “begin to meet and talk to each other,” judging what they see on the screen, “because the individual journey regarding sex is one thing, but it is very healthy to be able to put it out loud with your companions.”

“Sometimes I think about how my aunts, for example, who are from provincial towns, are going to receive this series. And if in some way the fact of facing these issues with absolute freedom makes them reconsider if they are really being happy with their own sexuality.”reveals Jaurrieta. For the filmmaker, the simple fact that the series can raise these questions will be a “triumph.”

THE REVOLUTION OF SHOWING REAL BODIES

‘Cochinas’ also talks about sex as a place of meeting and connection. One subplot in particular shows a woman insecure about her body who believes she is incapable of arousing her husband on her own, when what he really wants is to look at her. In fact, faced with the unreality of pornography, the series aims to show “body diversity.” “They have impressed upon us that bodies have to be perfect and that only perfect bodies are the ones that have the license to appear on the screen.“, reflects Alterio.

“It is very strong that, in the same way that we are saying that we have changed a lot with respect to 1998, which is when the series is set, we are taking showing real bodies in fiction as something revolutionary,” Morán denounces. “It seems crazy to me, not only in porn, but in fiction in general. In other words, we think we are super modern and suddenly we are still somehow fleeing from reality, from naturalness, from diversity,” he points out.