Masculine nations, queer bodies and the in/visibilities of gender

ABSTRACT

This article explores the overlapping systems of gender and nation and particularly the connections of masculinities with national construction. Based on the analysis of the video ‘Por España’ performed by the queer artist Samantha Hudson, I discuss how in/visibilities affect the recognizability of queer bodies in relation to national construction and unveil how hegemonic masculinities have been the norm. Queer ‘inappropriate’ bodies have been left aside from the hegemonic representations of the national bodies in the military, in politics or in sport. Queer visible bodies attached to national symbols oppose the still prevalent masculinist models of patriotism in a context of growing right-wing masculinities and antigender right-wing populisms. Changing the rules of what bodies can appear in public in relation to national symbols can affect the construction of the collective ‘we’ and turn invisibility into recognition and political agency. In/visibilities are ambivalent and paradoxical: they trigger empowerment and agency but also stigma, repression and control. Sticking queer bodies to national sentiments (‘Por España’) and symbols (bulls, Spanish flags, folklore, food, dress and so on) is an invitation to see other bodies, genders and sexualities and to imagine other nations that question the traditional geometries of power and their visibility regimes.

KEYWORDS:

• masculinities
• queer bodies
• nations
• in/visibilities
• agency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The author wishes to thank the reviewers for their dedication, careful reading and detailed suggestions for improving the article. I also thank Subterfuge Records for their permission to reproduce the figures.

2. I use the pronoun ‘she’ to refer to Samantha because in her Instagram account she talks of herself in feminine (see @badbixsamantha). The video, directed by Fran Granada, is on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amx9AXllumY (retrieved 10 January 2022).

3. Their re/presentation of masculinity through traditional indexes (body hair, beard, muscles) also characterizes gay bears (Enguix Grau, 2021). This can either confirm Inclusive Masculinity Theory (Anderson & McCormack, 2018) or just be an ironic questioning of ‘traditional’ (heterosexual) masculinity.

4. https://elpais.com/#popup1 (retrieved 29 May 2023).

5. In English, the Spanish prepositions ‘por’ and ‘para’ are translated as ‘for’ but ‘por’ indicates causality and ‘para’ indicates finality.

6. The term ‘measures’ has a political but also a physical meaning referred to hypermasculinity and penis size. The verb ‘to sow’ refers to agriculture (production) and to male potence to impregnate women (reproduction). In fact, the word ‘semen’ etimologically derives from the Latin ‘semen’ (seed) and ‘serere’ (sow). The worlds of nature and culture are thus connected in this electoral slogan.

7. See, for instance, the memes that present some Vox leaders as 'Fachi-blinders' merging the derogatory Spanish word for the sympathizers of the far right ('facha') with the famous series Peaky Blinders, in Tremending (2022) (https://www.publico.es/tremending/2022/01/23/de-los-fachi-blinders-a-los-peaky-blinders-de-hacendado-cachondeo-en-twitter-con-esta-foto-de-abascal-y-sus-pupilos-en-leon/).

8. ‘Soy un maricón judeomasón’ [0.49]. All the lyrics are reproduced with the permission of Subterfuge Records.

9. ‘Hazlo por España; hazme sufrir por España’ [1.20–1.25]

10. ‘Dicen de mí las malas lenguas que soy el diablo, que soy una cualquiera’. [0.31–0.37]

11. Reds, Jews and masons were obsessive enemies for Franco and his regime.

12. ‘A mi y a los de mi calaña, danos caña por España’ [1.45–1.50]

13. ‘Déjame coqueta en una cuneta’ [3.32–3.33]

14. ‘Soy la bujarra con la que sueñas tú; mándame tu regimiento para que me dé escarmiento’ [0.53–1.00].

15. ‘Paco, Paquillo, Sexy caudillo, Tú serás mi obispo y yo tu monaguillo, Soy tu esclava, soy tu sumisa, ponme correa y llévame contigo a misa’ [3.01–3.11].

16. ‘Ven y súbeme la falda, la falda rojigualda’ [3.45–3.57].

17. ‘Soy un tabú, Un maricón judeomasón, Belcebú’ [0.47–0.50]

18. ‘Ay por España, hazme sufrir por España … a mí y a los de mi calaña, danos caña por España’ [1.45–1.50]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Begonya Enguix Grau

Begonya Enguix Grau is a Full Professor of Social Anthropology at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and regularly lectures at the Karl-Franzens-Universität (Graz, Austria), where she held in 2019 the Aigner Rollett Guest Professorship in Women’s and Gender Studies. She is the director of the international conferences Men in Movement (MIM) and the PI of the research group ”Medusa: Genders in transition. Masculinities, Affects and Bodies” (UOC). Her main fields of research operate at the nexus of the anthropology of gender and masculinities, bodies, identities and affects and their intersections with media and politics.