Competing masculinities and homosocial desire in El jefe (1958)

Montenegro, Patricia

Journal of Romance Studies (2004), 4, (2), 67–83.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/jrs.4.2.67
Language: English
Pages: 17

Abstract

This article argues for the conceptualization of competing masculinity(ies) and explores how a competitive process of inclusion and exclusion effects a certain type of hegemonic masculinity. Dealing with the post-Peronist critical fallout of 1955, the author engages with the notion of Perón as head gangster as proposed by the Argentine film El jefe (1958, Fernando Ayala). The powerful representations of masculinity in the film are not only shown to be embedded in the Peronist discourse of class and sexuality but are also linked to the production of an imagined masculine social/sexual self of the period. Using Freud’s theories on group identification processes, competing masculinities are posited and studied through the analysis of the gang in El jefe. Identification, competition and exclusion are key components in the construction of a desired masculinity. Drawing on Sedgwick’s concept of triangulation, male homosocial desire is examined. Ultimately, the purging of effeminacy in particular is found to be the key to understanding and resolving the paradox of the simultaneous existence of homosociality and homophobia.

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