Exótico

For the music album, seeExotico (album).

Inlucha libre,anexóticois aluchador(malewrestler) fighting/performing indrag.Theexótico's movement vocabulary iscampy,often silly, and seldom dignified.Exóticos are male wrestlers who appropriatefeminineaspects in their wrestling personas or "gimmicks"– through feminine costumes, for example," contesting the dramatic representation ofmachismo"and successfully unmanning their opponents in the ring while also" rejecting the outward signs ofmanhood".Thoughexoticosmay not necessarily begay,they often are, and their sexual ambiguity is undeniable. Attired with feather boas, headdresses, sequins or stockings, they defy a religiousLatinculture that is ardently macho.

Máximo,a well knownexóticowrestler

Meaning

Lucha libre(Hispanicfreestyle wrestling) is a blend ofartandsportthat involves variousfightingtechniques such asjudo,jujitsu,grapplingandkickboxing.It is a world of maskedluchadores(enmascarados), flying little people and flamboyant costuming, one filled with acrobatics and athleticism, all mixed withdrama,pageantry and aphysical comedythat is uniquely Latino origin.Everything that aluchadorsays, does, and wears is essential to their character and theirperformance.There are different kind ofluchadoreswho representgood and evil,técnicoorrudo/heel,andqueers.Lucha libreis a space in which themacho-maricón(heterosexual-homosexual continuum) is represented not only in the relative positioning of men competing over who is "more" macho but also by men who have abdicated their masculinity.

Many gay wrestlers show in their performances that they may identify as a female, but can be just as strong as a male, and can deliver a great performance just like any other male wrestler.Lucha libreis a performance that is open to multiple readings on axis of representation by two men.Manylucha librematches cannot be described as a struggle between two men, because not all wrestlers are male, and not all male wrestlers are unambiguously men.Alucha librematch between two men represents a rudo and a técnico (evil and good), in which mostexóticosend up being rudos.This does not apply to allexóticos,but the audience usually responds to them being a rudo.

History

In the 1940s, the firstexóticoswere seen in the history of lucha libre. Initially, the category ofexóticoswas formed as simply an act for entertainment; it did not reflect the life of any luchador. One of the earliest acknowledgedexóticowas Sterling Davis, also known as Gardenia Davis (ring name). Gardenia would enter the ring by throwinggardeniasat the crowd. But up until the late 1980s,exóticosclaimed that the act was just an act and that it did not reflect any personal lifestyles. In the mid-1980s, two luchadores trained by Reynosa began wrestling asexóticosbut unlike previousexóticos,they did not deny their homosexual identity publicly. "Theexóticoschanged theexóticostyle from a representation of a tendency to a representation of a social category and celebrated lucha libre as a means ofupward mobilityfor themselves specifically as homosexuals ".

"I love it. I come from a 'machismo' family in which many arehomophobic.I've had many doors slammed in my face, but I am who I am. What you see is what you get. I'm gay, and I've had no problem saying it. "Many Lucha libre fanatics would argue thatexóticosare "not quite men", butexóticosdefend themselves, the thing that maricones are thought to, by definition, not be capable of doing.

Interpretation

As theconnotationbehind the meaning of being anexóticobegan to change and shifted from simply being an act to actually forming a category for female and gay representation in the ring,gender rolesstarted to change. Not only were women's gender roles challenged but they were also seen as a threat by machistas. For example,Juana Barrazawas a knownexóticowrestler andserial killerwho challenged gender norms.

Barraza's wrestling body transgresses thenormativegender and sex roles socially defined for women, thus challenging normative productions of mexicanidad.The physical strength that Barraza presents in the photograph as the la Dama del Silencio resists the "historical notions of the properly feminine body constituted as 'weak and pathological' and the culturally dominant codes of femininity that render women outside 'sports as cults of masculinity', especially in a Mexican cultural context where sports like lucha libre and physical strength are only celebrated for men; female bodies are culturally accepted if 'naturally' feminine, that is, if they do not threaten the dominant codes of the idealized Mexican, that is themestizoand macho.As Balsamo (1996) explains, to be female and strong implicitly violates traditional codes of feminine identity ".

By having a female presence in the ring, Mexican women were empowered because they were now having a part in something that was seen as manly. The female presence in the sport showed that women and gay men could do the same things as men without a doubt. This threatenedsocial normsbecause the traditional Machismo does not like strong women.

Significance

Yosuke♥Santa Maria,a Japaneseexótico.Santa Maria adopted the persona when she (Santa Maria uses feminine pronouns) joined the Millennials, a group with alucha librestyle.

Heather Levihas argued that lucha libre's theatricality challenges mainstream machismo in Mexico in the performance of certain wrestlers, likeexóticos.Exóticoschallenge the traditional norms of what a man should and should not do, and challenge that idea that a maricon can not defend himself. Foremost, they also allow women to empower themselves by bringing a female presence to the ring. Although there are audience members that do not takeexóticosseriously, their act has helped challenge traditional machismo and has been effective enough to even be considered a threat by "ideal" machismo.

"Exóticosthen contest the production of mexicanidad as they challenge the ideal mestizo-macho heterosexual) wrestler. As such, female wrestlers also challengelucha libre's traditional performances and, while women wrestlers only fight other women and cannot literally unman male opponents in the ring, they do so culturally, since female wrestlers transgress the codes of normative femininity inside and outside the ring. "Although women do not actually fight with men in the ring, they are represented byexóticossince they are openly homosexual. This allows women to empower themselves even more and have a type of vision that gives them equal rights. The biggest reason why this is seen as a threat by traditional machismo is because once these women are empowered, they realize that they have the same rights as men do, therefore disempowering machismo completely. The fact thatexóticoscan physically challenge a man in the ring and physically challenge male masculinity is what makes the role ofexóticosso crucial to the transformation of social norms.

The outfit of anexóticois known to be different regarding its style and colors. The outfit represents different aspects of their identity and their stance against machismo, while empowering women. "Her face is covered with a silver and bright pink butterfly mask. Barraza's wrestling photograph thus juxtaposes markers of her physical strength with those of femininity, codified through butterflies and the bright pink color of her suit. In doing so, the photo creates whatAnne Balsamocalls a 'gender hybrid' that invokes corporeal codes of femininity as well as of masculinity.The outfit that these men in drag sport help define their category of anexótico.They create a gender hybrid in which the masculinity of a man is blended with the femininity of a woman but in an empowered form where they can compete with social norms and be accepted in an arena.

See also

• List of drag queens
• List ofexóticos