Abstract

CARABALLO, Pablo. Junior’s desire. Working-class masculinity, sexual dissidence and gay sensibility in Mariana Rondón’s Pelo malo (2013). An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2025, vol.47, n.126, pp.315-342.  Epub Sep 01, 2025. ISSN 0185-1276.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iie.18703062e.2025.126.2889.

This essay analyzes Pelo malo (Bad Hair, Rondón, 2013) based on the articulations that connect the intimate space presented in the film and the contexts in which the action unfolds and acquires meaning. The story centers on Junior, a 9-year-old boy with a fragile appearance and brown skin, who wants to straighten his ‘bad’ (curly) hair. Starting from this initial point of conflict, the film presents the configurations of gender and sexuality that shape the racialized masculinity that Junior rejects, in connection with a gay sensibility that, as I propose, is rooted both in his homoerotic desire towards Mario and on the longing for whiteness that separates him from the barrio (and from Mario).

Keywords : racialization; whitening; modern gay identity; beauty; Bolivarian Venezuela; popular masculinity.

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