Education and LGTB liberation in the cinema of the last years of Francoism

Abstract

Following the recent and vivid dialogue around the relevant role of the media in the Spanish transition to democracy, this article studies the first representations of homosexual characters in the democratic cinema, focusing on the importance of the question of education, of great significance for the LGTB activism of the time. It refers to different theoretical sources, including significant works of queer and gender theorists and archival material of the gay activism of the late Francoism. It studies how the first activism aimed to prove wrong old myths around homosexuality and to convince the new democratic society of the importance of the acceptance of sexual diversity, and how the so-called strategy of the «Trojan horse» was used in order to introduce, making use of the media, educational messages. The film Los placeres ocultos is taken as a case study to examine the legacy of the connection between education and LGTB liberation in cinema; the analysis is helpful to explore the difficulties of the use of film narratives with educational intentions, as well as to understand the first steps in the creation of innovative discourses of little tradition in Spanish culture.