Bodily Perils and Pleasures: “Elegant” Masculinity, Physique Culture, and Homoeroticism in Mexican Images, 1920–50

Bodily Perils and Pleasures: “Elegant” Masculinity, Physique Culture, and Homoeroticism in Mexican Images, 1920-1950

This essay, based on series of photographs and advertisements, investigates the multiple masculinities that existed in Mexican urban society between 1920-1950. Among these masculinities included “elegant” masculinity—based on a man’s ability to consume luxury goods such as a fine suit or beauty products; physique/physical culture—localized around the homosocial sites of the gym and pools or around sports like boxing; and lucha libre, a Mexican form of wrestling that bridged both by incorporating physical culture and dandyism in its performances. Contrary to previous accounts, neither the association of masculine “elegance” with homosexuality in 1901, nor the emergence of a hypermasculine, “national” Mexican culture eliminated the consumption of elegant goods by men or the targeting of men as a consumer group. In contrast, middle and upper-working class men asserted their rights to consume such products as markers of masculine refinement. To deflect concerns that to do so was queer, they also participated in and consumed physical culture, frequenting gyms and crafting a body-centered cult of masculinity. In both cases, however, homoeroticism remained a constant specter. Perhaps to highlight the slippages between sex/gender norms, desires, and transgressions, some lucha libre wrestlers, the exóticos, openly dressed as dandies; some indeed were queer men, while non-queer others performed campy personas for their job. In either case, their performances—particularly when they beat other more “masculine” wrestlers on numerous occasions—called into question any natural, stable order or division between masculine/feminine and heterosexual/homosexual. Indeed, homosexual identities and self-expressions existed simultaneously with these masculinities; the men who deployed them actively incorporated and participated in the creation and/or maintenance of various forms of masculinity. This talk thus offers a new approach for understanding the simultaneous inclusion and exclusion of queerness in Mexican masculinities.