Cross-dressing and Transgressing: The Queer Body in Madame Satã

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Marcus D. Welsh
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20988717
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20988717

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 237, Vol. 48 No. 2, March 2021, 123–136

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20988717

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

123

Cross-dressing and Transgressing

The Queer Body in Madame Satã

by

Marcus D. Welsh

In Karim Aïnouz’s debut feature film Madame Satã (2002), the protagonist yearns to

be a cross-dressing performer. Based on the historical figure João Francisco dos Santos, the

protagonist is black, poor, gay, and a criminal in the Brazil of the 1930s. An examination

of his body as a nexus of these factors and the film’s portrayal of it in the context of queer

theory, film history, and social discourses of gender, race, and class and in cinematic terms

demonstrates that, while he is able to express his fluid gender identity temporarily through

performance, the protagonist is unable to escape his social position as regulated by the

intersectionality of his gender identity with other factors.

En el primer largometraje de Karim Aïnouz, Madame Satã (2002), el protagonista

anhela ser un artista travesti. Basado en la figura histórica de João Francisco dos Santos,

dicho protagonista es negro, pobre, homosexual y criminal en el Brasil de la década de

1930. El artículo analiza su cuerpo como nexo entre estos factores y la manera en que es

representado en la película a partir de una perspectiva teórica queer, de la historia del cine

y los discursos sociales de género, raza y clase, así como de la técnica cinematográfica. Si

por un lado el personaje es capaz de expresar su fluida identidad de género temporalmente

a través de la interpretación, por otro es incapaz de escapar su posición social, la cual está

regulada por la interseccionalidad entre su identidad de género y otros factores.

Keywords: Queer cinema, Madame Satã, Heteronormativity, Karim Aïnouz, Gender

identity

The body is spatially important because it is at the threshold between self

and other; it is the gatekeeper between the public and the truly private, both

open and closed to the outside world. Perhaps most consequential, it is the

interface between one’s sense (or senses) of self and the sense (or senses) of one

that may be imposed by others. While scholars such as Butler (2004) have

argued that the body is ultimately a space where cultural discourse is played

out, others such as Johnston and Longhurst (2010) remind us that bodies are

places and have a materiality that cannot be ignored. Because of this dual

nature, the body is a locus for the exploration of meaning on many fronts when

discussing sexuality and gender identity: How is the body used to convey

queer identity? In what ways can the body be conceived of as place and space

Marcus D. Welsh is an associate professor of Spanish at Pacific University. His teaching focuses

on film and food of the Spanish-speaking world, interdisciplinary travel, and Spanish language.

He is coauthor of the student activities manual and supplementary materials for Wiley Publishing’s

¡Pura vida!: Beginning Spanish.

988717LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20988717Latin American PerspectivesWelsh / Cross-Dressing and Transgressing

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