Antifémina

Abstract

Antifémina (1977), a collaborative photobook by Catalan photographer Colita and Catalan feminist writer Maria Aurèlia Capmany, documents “anti” feminine women in 1960s and 1970s Spain who challenge constrictive gender roles inherited from the dictatorship. Colita’s photos of factory workers, Gitanas, sex workers, and models expose the patriarchal systems aimed at disciplining female sexuality and unsettle dominant modes of representation. Championing sexual liberation, Antifémina also questions the influence of the destape on women’s bodies throughout the advertisements lining Barcelona’s streets and ultimately reveals patriarchy as the connection between dictatorship and late capitalist forces in a modernizing city.