Transgressive Female Sexuality and Desire in Contemporary Colombian Cinema: Hermida’s La luciérnaga and Rodríguez’s Señoritas

• Author: Karol Valderrama-Burgos
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20988716
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20988716

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 237, Vol. 48 No. 2, March 2021, 108–122

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20988716

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

108

Transgressive Female Sexuality and Desire in

Contemporary Colombian Cinema

Hermida’s La luciérnaga and Rodríguez’s Señoritas

by

Karol Valderrama-Burgos

The contemporary Colombian films made by women La luciérnaga (Hermida, 2016)

and Señoritas (Rodríguez, 2013) subvert patriarchal gender norms of classic Colombian

film narratology through their representation of lesbianism, female sexual self-explora-

tion, and orgasms. The cinematic techniques of these filmmakers construct a specific view

of female pleasure, emphasizing the plurality and visibility in cinema of female sexuality

and desire. An interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of specific sequences suggests

that the aesthetics and visual strategies of these women filmmakers evince pioneering

female characters and subjectivities that challenge the traditional gaze on female bodies.

Their films offer liberating representations that deconstruct the dominant basis of hetero-

normativity that has historically characterized Colombian narrative cinema.

La luciérnaga (Hermida, 2016) y Señoritas (Rodríguez, 2013), dos películas colom-

bianas contemporáneas realizadas por mujeres, subvierten las normas patriarcales de la

narratología clásica del cine colombiano a través de su representación del lesbianismo, la

autoexploración sexual femenina y los orgasmos. Las técnicas cinematográficas empleadas

construyen una visión específica del placer femenino, haciendo hincapié en la pluralidad

y visibilidad de la sexualidad y el deseo femenino. Un análisis de secuencias específicas con

enfoque interdisciplinario sugiere que la estética y las estrategias visuales de estas cineas-

tas evidencian personajes femeninos pioneros y subjetividades que desafían la mirada

tradicional sobre los cuerpos femeninos. Las películas muestran representaciones libera-

doras que deconstruyen la base heteronormativa dominante que históricamente ha carac-

terizado al cine narrativo colombiano.

Keywords: Colombian cinema, Female desire, Female sexuality, Women filmmakers,

La luciérnaga, Señoritas

Laura Mulvey (1975) suggested that the function of women in films was as

passive objects of the male gaze. In her view, cinematic images of women

showed subordination to men, and this strengthened the patriarchal order.

Women were part of the plot but tended to be docile, objectified, and second-

ary to the narrative as unconscious reflections of patriarchal societies. Women

Karol Valderrama-Burgos completed her Ph.D. in July 2020 at the University of Leicester, funded

by Colciencias (Colombia). She is currently a lecturer (education) in Spanish at Queen’s Belfast

University and pursuing research interests in Colombian cinema, women filmmakers’ produc-

tions, Latin American cinemas and representations of gender.

988716LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20988716Latin American PerspectivesValderrama-Burgos / Transgressive Female Sexuality in Colombian Cinema

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