Paradoxes of gender and sexuality in films during Argentina's military dictatorship

Abstract

In this article I offer an interpretation of why Argentina's last military government promoted, by way of conditional State funding and financial support, a series of movies that presented a vision of gender and sexuality that was at odds with official discourse on the subjects, especially given that cinematography is an artistic, industrial and commercial enterprise that is central to the mass-media culture and therefore of considerable social and cultural influence. These movies, which were characterized by film journalists and critics as light or roguish sexy comedies, were by no means marginal productions in the filmmaking industry; in fact, they accounted represented a not insignificant percentage of total during those years.

Argentina Dictatorship; cinematography; State; gender; sexuality