44 years have passed since the first LGBT Pride march in Mexicothe first demonstration in favor of the gay rights in Mexico City, which coincided with the anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Free sexual expression was demanded and protests were made against the social and police repression. Since then, annually LGBT marchesbut beyond taking to the streets, this fact had an impact on other spheres of society, one of them was in the entertainment industry. And although this progress has been made slowly, today the audiovisual offers include more characters from the LGBT community.
“At the national level there is today an opening that 20 or 30 years ago was almost nil. Or what there was had to do with a ‘traditional’ imaginary around these figures of the LGBT collective, they were the tomboys or the effeminate”, he explains Cesar Mendez Rodriguezcandidate for a Doctorate in Criticism of Culture and Artistic Creation from the Autonomous Mexico State University.
Thread of characters from the LGBTQ+ community from whom we learned a lot.
In “The Hidden World of Sabrina”, Lachlan Watson, Theo in the series, perceives himself as a non-binary person and transitions throughout the series. His personality helped shape the character.— Netflix Latinoamérica (@NetflixLAT) March 18, 2020
In the case of telenovelas, Méndez believes that the characters they have a conflict because bisexualor have one relationship hidden from the familybut on other platforms they handle it in different ways, because the new generations require and demand it.
According to Rodríguez, cinema and television have made a pretty positive change in no longer presenting characters who would have to commit suicide or live in a drama. It has changed a lot, for example, now you can see more and more characters empoweredlike the series Euphoria.
“We have generations that demand so much and are losing a lot this connection to history, it is so natural for them that they normalize and forget where the movement comes from. today come to Rupa o The most dredge, but it all came from a strong social movement, where people died for their convictions,” says the also professor at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
At this point, he says that the same story would help to understand this evolution and thus balance who we are and where we come from as a society.
Everyone complaining that the little mermaid is black, if they knew that Úrsula was inspired by Divine, a drag queen who was an icon of the LGBT+ community and cinema in the 70s, now the third world war is breaking out.
And the 🧀 💅 pic.twitter.com/AuUE4FMjOU— Geraldine (@geraldinelesca) June 1, 2023
The specialist details that, for example, the first film in which a gay character es the house of the ogre (1938). Compared to the plot, it was rendered “ridiculous and believable,” but it marked a milestone in the history of mexican cinema and in the national entertainment industry.
“They are good representations because they resist a whole heteropatriarchal system, but they also end up being a mockery, or that other face of the masculine, in the case of the male. But these relationships have been changing and now we have characters more focused on a more conscious homosexuality”, he points out.
The challenges and advances
There has always been a misogyny around the figure of women, which has resulted in the machismo and the homophobia And in that great hatred, not only women are hated, but also the feminine and all that it can represent.
According to Mendez, the transvestism broke up with gender roles and divisions by claiming that a person is much more than the appearance.
“Another great representation was the case of Marlene Dietrichthat on the tape Morocco she dresses in a man’s tuxedo at a nightclub and kisses another woman. It’s the 40s, in Hollywood, she is super risky, because in addition to playing with clothing and sexual ambiguity, she winks at the possibilities to conquer men and women.
I was never so HAPPY this is my MOST anticipated short film real cinema long live the dilf and lgbt community
pic.twitter.com/reyoi5G5ld— little (@ifilmescal) April 27, 2023
These representations are not something new, that is, they have existed all the time within the older traditionsbut when seeing it on a screen they cause scandal.
“In Mexico we have Francis, she was a vedet, she was not a complete transformist or transsexual, but she faced a macho and homophobic society. That success of Francis, of having been lost and diluted in the LGBT culture in recent years, gave rise to the appearance of other figures such as Liberty Pigeon.
“But it takes a lot in the sense that you are visibilities They don’t appear from the masculine side, that is, it celebrates the transition from man to woman a lot, as one more man’s conquest, I think so, but the other way around is very complicated. We have very few figures in the Mexican environment, ”he says.
Méndez clarifies that there is still a lot of work to be done, such as a better opening to the female figures and its transition towards the masculine.
Nancy Cárdenas, film director and activist, pioneer of the lesbian and gay liberation movement in MX. She spoke for the first time about the rights of the LGBTTIQ community on a national chain in 1973, she also spoke publicly about her sexual orientation… pic.twitter.com/pbuD5nSTuh
— Sheila Hernández Alcaraz (@AlcarazSheila) May 17, 2022
“There are still prejudices, but I think that these doors are still being opened to reflect, because there is still a lot to say. We need to see trans men, where and what is their representation, especially in the media?
“How long is this addition of LGBT+ letters going to end? The answer is never, because we are so several that each one of us should have our own lyrics, and we are millions”.
The moments of TV and Mexican cinema
The specialist lists a class of moments that marked a milestone in LGBT representation
life in the mirrortelenovela produced by Argos Televisión
“The production ‘risked’ telling the story of two gay boys who lived with their mother and talked about conversion therapy. It was, let’s say, the first coming out of the closet on open television.”
The character of “La Manuela” in the film the limitless place
“La Manuela opens the opportunity for these dissident figures to appear, no longer as a figure of laughter, absurd and ridiculous, but rather to exhibit the patriarchal and macho culture and see a character with feelings and fears. The first kiss between two men also appears, which would be that of Pancho and La Manuela.”
Tape bird without nest
“This is a project by director Chano Urueta that talks about the relationship between several women, who openly declare that they are lesbians.”
Most memorable “coming out of the closet”
“In 1973, after the scandal over the dismissal of a homosexual worker from a department store, the presenter and writer Nancy Cárdenas was a guest on the program 24 hours by Jacobo Zabludovsky. There, she Nancy declared herself a lesbian and defended the rights of homosexuals. She is without a doubt the mother of the LGBT community.”
The case of the screenwriter Jaime Humberto Hermosillo
For César Méndez, the filmmaker contributed to the LGBTTTI movement with themes that portray “the hypocrisy” of a middle class that represses what is different.
“Most of his films have dissident characters like Looks are deceiving, with Gonzalo Vega and Isela Vega, a trans woman, who shows her body with breasts and a penis, or the film Doña Herlinda and her son. They are transgressive tapes that speak of the double standards of Mexican society.
“Today we could mention that he made queer cinema, he was a man who opened these visibilities”, he comments.
Presentation in series and movies
Series you must see:
- Gentleman Jack
- Orange is the new black
- Poison
- Feel Good
- A Very English Scandal
- Queer Jewelry
- Sex Education
- Movies you can’t miss:
- to an unknown god: James Chavarri
- Brokeback Mountain: The Lee
- Carol: Tod Haines
- Strawberry and Chocolate: Tomas Gutierrez Alea
2023-06-02 08:59:55
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