Abstract
This chapter is concerned with the different ways in which the figure of the male monster, and the notion of the monstrous, may operate as a metaphor for a crisis of masculinity as experienced in many regions throughout Latin America. The chapter argues that machismo can no longer separate itself from the notion of same-sex desire—either homosocial or homosexual—and that instead, this crisis of masculinity can only be overcome, in its own monstrosity, by the assumption and/or externalisation of those desires. The death of the male protagonists in both films analysed in this chapter can then be regarded as the symbolic death of machismo as a fixed template of masculinity circulating in the popular imaginary throughout the continent.
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Notes
- 1.
Although not within the scope of this chapter, it is interesting to see how all these films have Gael Garcia Bernal playing protagonic roles and operating as the emblem of the new vision of revisited machismo. This new embodiment of revisited and rather modernised macho values can be explored in some queer macho roles that he also plays in films such as Pedro Almódovar’s La Mala Educación (2004) and even English-language features such as Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep (2006) and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006), to name a few.
- 2.
The dynamic of the absent father figure within Mexican politics can be observed in the hailed failure of the ‘war on drugs’ declared by the Mexican now ex-president Felipe Calderón. According to the Borderland Beat, Calderón’s efforts failed during his presidency, when drug-related crimes, extortion and substance abuse dramatically increased in the country. By the same token, Enrique Peña Nieto’s term as president has been characterised by one of the worst national crises in recent years, prompted by the disappearance of 43 students in September 2014, as well as mounting accusations of corruption and abuse of power.
- 3.
Many critics and commentators regard the end of this sequence (when cleaners, framed by an aerial establishing shot, appear suddenly to take the body away and quickly mop clean the spot where he died, as if nothing had ever happened) as a direct criticism of late consumerism in a ‘Mexico [that] is now a middle-income country with a large moneyed class [while] announcing a new mode of horror that cites zombie and vampire pictures but places them in a setting that is all too everyday’ (Smith 2010). By the same token, the scene also pays direct homage to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) and its criticism of a brainless society that simply focuses on material consumption as the only form of human interaction.
- 4.
The rise of the queer subject(s) in the fabric of mainstream society can be evidence in films by Julián Hernández or Mario Bellatin’s Salón de belleza, where the male protagonists offer new readings of queer subjectivity as part of a national agenda.
- 5.
Such power relations are not only limited to male exchanges, but can also be evidenced in female exchanges within the film. For instance, the tension between Sabina and Patricia is palpable throughout. Although Patricia seems to be at a loss after the death of the father, she seems reluctant to give up power in the household and transfer patriarchal responsibilities to the oldest son or anyone but herself. Meanwhile, Sabina manipulates the two brothers in order to continue the ritual, while altering the status quo of the female relation by taking over as mother/companion figure. The cannibalistic consumption of gender relations can also be seen in the social and moral clash between Patricia and the putas [prostitutes], whom she regards as lesser human beings as a result of their engagement in the sex trade. Thus cannibalism operates as a metaphor for all the socio-sexual relationships between individuals in contemporary society, while calling into question the fixity of socio-sexual paradigms. In this light, the prostitutes are as much of a victim as the people eaten by the family, because they are all consumed in order to satisfy a basic need; that is, sex/hunger.
- 6.
A prime example of this integration of queer culture into the mainstream of Mexican society can be observed in the reception of Gerardo Delgado’s pornographic film La Putiza (2004). After winning best screenplay and best film at the Heat Gay: Festival Internacional de Cine Erótico Gay de Barcelona, the film awakened a wave of interest from the mainstream media and other cultural institutions. The film was then officially released in a screening at the Museum of Art in Mexico, an event that was covered by mainstream media; surprisingly, it was the gay media that remained absent from such events.
- 7.
It is worth noting that two major historical events have shaped cinematic representations of war and the military in the United States. First, the scars left by the Vietnam War have been famously tackled by many film directors in a number of genres, with storylines ranging from the simple glorification of war (as in the Rambo films) to the overt criticism of the war and its impact on notions of post-war masculinity in films such as Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989). On the other hand, the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror have, once again, propelled an avalanche of films that have deal with the impact on the notion of masculinity of such an episode, including The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008), World Trade Center (Oliver Stone, 2006) and more recently American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014).
- 8.
This notion of queer monstrosity brings to mind those textual discourses that regard lesbigay characters as somewhat violent or hyperviolent in films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), Patty Jenkins’s Monsters (2003) or Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003).
- 9.
This type of narrative can also be found in other films such as Claire Denis’s Beau Travail (1999) or Peter Ustinov’s Billy Bud (1962).
- 10.
Films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000) are but a few of such narratives.
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Subero, G. (2016). Monstrous Machos: Horror and the Crisis of Latin American Masculinity. In: Gender and Sexuality in Latin American Horror Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56495-5_3
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