The characters of Antonio Gasalla: Stage Gestures in Light of Critical Studies on Masculinities

Abstract

“El palacio de la risa”, “Gasalla en pantalla” or “El mundo de Antonio Gasalla” set up successful television bets on the humor of the 90 's in Argentina. This contribution within the framework of the project: “Representations of minorities in performing and audiovisual arts during the second half of the 20th century in Argentina” where I have been problematizing, in a gender key and from the public university, the modes, procedures and contexts in representation of masculinity(s). In this way, the comedian, actor and presenter Antonio Gasalla emerges, as an interlocutor of a time and a style, raising questions, for example, as Beatriz Sarlo (2001) points out about the women played by Gasalla, these are “monstrous women: teachers ridiculous, greedy retirees, bureaucrats, varicose aristocrats, evil little girls, dirty old women, old women stretched and folded by surgery, old, damned, silly stars, vedettes.” But what happens with the representation of the male characters?