Sexualidades periféricas

This essay considers the problematic construction of alternative masculinities in Spanish cinema during the Franco regime and their reconstruction during the Transition. The analysis examines the cultural parameters of the performance of difference on screen, focusing on the representation of peripheral masculine sexualities, at odds with the fundamental elements of the hegemonic Francoist national-catholic ideology, whereby homosexuality and otherness are commonly denied, neutralised or made invisible to reaffirm the heteromasculine national paradigm. It also explores the fissures in the construction of hegemonic masculinity in Spanish cinema and diverse attempts of deperipheralisation.