The construction of masculinity in the city of Medellín Reflections from the cinema and literature in the last fifty years

Abstract

This article proposes an initial approach to the social construction of masculinity as a concept in Medellin, Antioquia, from an anthropological and historical perspective. It undertakes a research of the mechanisms through which it finds legitimacy and validity within the society. The starting point of this research was the change experienced by the conception of what was considered masculine in Medellin, from the scope of film and literature, between the 1980s and the 1990s, a period characterized by growing rates of violence and new criminal practices associated to the peak of drug trafficking. By taking the stereotypes established by these activities that were reflected in film and literature as part of the new “normal” landscape of the city, the article highlights the social implications of this phenomenon. Thus, the article accentuates the elements that have given way to the reproduction of a particular mode of acting and becoming a man in the capital of Antioquia from the late Twentieth century until the present.