Cuerpos que hablan: Identidad de género e impacto social en la película XXY de lucía puenzo

Abstract

In this article I will focus on the analysis of the Argentine film XXY (2007), directed by Lucía Puenzo. I am interested in the debate on the nature of gender identity and on the possible transformations that this concept is undergoing today, a problem that the film presents in its crisis. I understand “intersex” identity as one of the biggest challenges to binary and heteronormative social structures and am interested in presenting the social and family impact that the intersex body has, as we see it in the film, when its condition becomes public. The main hypothesis of this article is that bodies speak and impose themselves in the articulation and formulation of their desire, forcing the family, society, and legal structures to respond to such an appeal. Multiple laws have been generated on the topic, and different perspectives can be found on the film since its launch, some of which are commented on, from normalizing surgeries to the construction of the body according to the subject’s desire, as well as the concept of what is “natural.”. Not neglected here is a reflection on the use of the cinematographic language chosen by the director to express her vision of a topic that provokes debate and that, although it has generated new legislation that protects the subjects involved, has also generated resistance in multiple levels of society (those from the Rio de la Plata region, Uruguayan and Argentine, are the ones represented in the film).