Estudios LGBTIQ+, Comunicación y Cultura
The Journal of LGBTIQ+ Studies, Communication and Culture, published by the Complutense University of Madrid, is an academic research journal dedicated to exploring media, cultural, artistic, and social dimensions of LGBTIQ+ Studies. It publishes articles in English and Spanish and appears twice a year. In line with the guidelines of Ediciones Complutense, the journal may also produce special issues. The journal focuses on the intersections between LGBTIQ+ Studies, communication, and culture—for example, representations of LGBTIQ+ identities in film, television, media, photography, art, literature, fashion, and broader cultural trends. While it is primarily oriented towards the Ibero-American context, it also engages with its connections to other regions and socio-cultural settings, reflecting the increasingly global nature of academic research. All submissions undergo a rigorous peer-review process by external experts and must follow APA 7th edition guidelines. The journal is published in electronic format (e-ISSN: XXX). The journal is edited by the Complutense Research Group “GECA: Gender, Aesthetics and Audiovisual Culture” (based in the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid). GECA is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, interfaculty, and international research group with over thirteen years of experience. Its main areas of research include audiovisual culture—such as film, television, digital media, advertising and public relations, sound and music, photography, fashion, fiction, literary texts, and contemporary artistic practices—as well as cultural studies, gender studies (with a particular focus on LGBTIQ+ perspectives), and the wider field of Communication and Culture across the social sciences, humanities, and the arts.
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Estudios LGBTIQ +, Comunicación y Género is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
More Than Just a Simple Farm Game: LGBTIQ+ representations and possibilities in cozy country life simulators
Farm life simulators have long been a significant niche within the video game industry. Whit more than twenty years of history, these titles – commonly know as farming games – have evolved to respond not only to gameplay and aesthetic trends, but also to new social and cultural demands. In this context, it is particularly noteworthy how developers have begun to explicitly incorporate representations and experiences of LGBTIQ+ communities. Although it may seem counterintuitive to associate LGBTIQ+ diversity with rural settings, cozy farming games are increasingly committed to broadening gender expression and relationship options, allowing players to choose partners freely, free from prejudice or limitations. This article aims to examine in detail the LGBTIQ+ possibilities offered by one of the most recent farming simulators, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Xseed Games, 2005). To this purpose, the results, which emerge from a formal analysis of the content and an autoethnographic ingame study, are structured around three key dimensions: 1) avatar customization options and forms of identity expression; 2) narrative development and the discursive construction of the game; 3) mechanics for establishing romantic relationships and forming LGBTIQ+ families.
Copyright (c) 2026 Estudios LGBTIQ+, Comunicación y Cultura
«The intersex turning point»: Reseña de Gregori Flor, Nuria (2024). Intersexualidades: Emergencias y Debates en torno a Personas con Características Sexuales Diversas. Catarata, los Libros de, 304 páginas.
Alcibiades’ Political Bisexuality in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft Quebéc, 2018)
Bisexuality, within the field of Sexuality studies, has often been deemed invisible (Monro et al, 2017; Erickson-Schroth and Mitchel, 2009) and framed as a threat (Klein, 1993). For the bisexuals’ ability to engage with both men and women, they have been regarded as untrustworthy in many spaces. Comparably, Ancient Greek homosexuality, or pederasty, though proven to never have been considered a crime or prejudiced by law (Cohen, 1987; Hindley, 1991; Dover, 1978), was chastised in ancient texts for its involvement in politics, when associated with male prostitution (Oyamada, 2024), and never truly accepted by society (Hubbard, 1998). Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft Québec, 2018), when depicting Classical Athens and its wartime period, includes multiple historical spaces, figures, and events. Among the known Greek politicians, philosophers, and playwrights, Alcibiades (450-404 BCE) is included in main and side missions of the video game. Remembered as a controversial figure of the Peloponnesian War, a politician, a «strategos», and a student of Socrates, “Alkibiades” is loyal to historical, philosophical and even comical surviving references in various ways. And, in this modern depiction, his bisexuality is included in a variety of side missions all revolving, in their own way, around themes of sexuality and desire. Through the ancient references of Alcibiades bisexuality and Ubisoft’s modern portrayal, this paper argues that the game incorporates Alcibiades’ bisexuality not merely as a character trait, but as a political tool used during the times of the tensions and instabilities of Athenian politics.
Of Dommes and Night Queens: Kink, BDSM, and positive representations of alternative sexualities in the Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza/Like a Dragon) video game series
This article analyses the representations of kink and BDSM in two non-BDSM mainstream games in the Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise, known in the West as Yakuza and Like a Dragon: Yakuza 0 (Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, 2015) and Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, 2020). For this purpose, this paper adapts a methodology of myth-analysis and the identification of recurrent motifs to analyse the discourses that these games generate around kink and BDSM as alternative and non-normative practices within their particular social and ludic imaginaries. By drawing on game studies and sex and sexuality studies, this article provides a reading of the dommes in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon as contextualised within popular culture, the genres of role-playing games (RPG) and beat’em ups, and the genealogy of dominatrices in Japanese games. The substories (game missions) studied here tell the stories of Ayu, a dominatrix with a lack of confidence, and Yumiko, a more experienced dominatrix bullied by colleagues and connected to a legendary Mr. Masochist who has become immune to pain. Together with the recurring job class of Night Queen, a fighting class, these substories frame kink and BDSM through the lens of professionalisation and normalisation. The analysis recognises 20 recurrent motifs that help articulate the discourses proposed by the games and construct a positive vision of kink and BDSM within the queer spaces of the underworld that allows the dommes to assert themselves within their communities
Queerbaiting and Fandom: The Influence of the Community on LGBTQ+ Representation in Arcane, the League of Legends Video Game Series
Arcane (Netflix, 2021–2024) adapts characters from League of Legends and, in that transition, reconfigures their identities under the influence of the fandom. We explore how Reddit conversations have intervened in the construction and evolution of these characters, with particular attention to Caitlyn and Vi: a relationship absent in the original game that the community stitched together and popularized until it became a centerpiece of the series. We posit a fanon–canon loop: fans’ readings and desires orient traits and bonds that are later consolidated in official products. Drawing on qualitative analysis of discussions, we show how the fandom normalizes diversity as something natural, demands explicitness free of harmful tropes, and operates as a collective workshop of meaning (nicknames, fanart, ethical debates). We assess the relevance of this fan agency in the evolution of the characters and in the explicit or implicit canonization of their relationship in Arcane.
Ontological Duality of the Closet in Times of Surveillance Capitalism: Liminal Worlds
This article examines the relationship between dissident identities and contemporary digital environments within a context marked by the expansion of surveillance capitalism and the growing technological mediation of everyday life. The social and cultural transformations driven by digitalization affect not only modes of communication but also processes of subjectivation, visibility, and resistance. Within this framework, the paper offers a theoretical reflection that connects classical debates on gender and sexuality with emerging challenges in hyperconnected societies. The analysis incorporates the study of the ontological duality of the closet from a philosophical perspective, understood as a space of tension between concealment and disclosure that is reconfigured under digital logics. This approach makes it possible to understand how algorithmic devices and social interaction platforms reshape queer visibility dynamics, generating new forms of control and exposure that impact both identity construction and the experience of intimacy. The article aims to introduce a series of neologisms, conceived as ontological realities and analytical categories, intended to provide a solid foundation for future reflections on this topic. Furthermore, it seeks to fully exploit the theoretical potential of existing scholarship on the closet—both nationally and internationally— by addressing it from a new paradigm: that of artificial intelligence, surveillance, and the reign of algorithms. The research explores a territory hitherto unexamined within academia: the status of closets in a context of algorithmic warfare. This proposal seeks to offer interpretative keys for understanding how digitalization and the data economy reconfigure contemporary closets, situating the discussion at the intersection of philosophy, feminist and queer theory, and technology studies. In doing so, it aims to contribute to a critical understanding of the processes shaping life in the digital age and to open spaces for debate on the ethical and political implications these transformations entail for LGBTIQ+ individuals.
The Poet’s Archive That Speaks the Truth: Lorca’s Audiovisual Discovery at the Menéndez Pidal Foundation
The recent discovery made by filmmaker Manuel Menchón—found while researching for his documentary La voz quebrada in the Menéndez Pidal family archive: previously unseen footage of Federico García Lorca waving from a car in 1932, on his way to Berlanga de Duero, where La Barraca would perform La vida es sueño—constitutes an event of historical and epistemological significance. It is not merely a matter of adding one more document to Lorca’s iconography; it is a call to interrogate the very nature of the archive in relation to memory, disappearance, and the mechanisms of silencing that have shaped Lorca’s reception for almost a century. This article proposes a reading of the discovery through the lens of Jacques Derrida’s theory of the archive as formulated in Mal d’archive (1995), in which the archive is not a neutral repository of information but a structure of power that produces, preserves, organises, and simultaneously destroys. The recovery of this footage—together with the technical restoration of other known films of La Barraca—offers a fertile ground for examining how the emergence of a forgotten document can alter the regime of visibility that has governed a historical figure whose life and death were marked by political and sexual repression. Lorca’s appearance in motion—smiling, alive, on his way to a democratizing cultural project—creates tension with narratives that have fixed him exclusively within his tragic fate or the static image of the martyred poet. This article analyses how the new audiovisual material contributes not only to a documentary expansion but also to an ethical reconfiguration of the archive, allowing us to question the historical silences surrounding his homosexuality, his murder, and the politics of disappearance that turned him into a symbol of a fractured Spain.
Awkward typefaces. Cinema, diversity and visual literacy for teacher training
The article’s aim argues for the need to incorporate, within initial teacher education, visual literacy tools capable of addressing LGBTIQ+ diversity without reducing it to an episodic curricular topic. Accordingly, the corpus is delimited around LGBTIQ+-themed film posters and, within that field, around typography as an interface that organises regimes of legibility, tone, and cultural authority. The method adopts a qualitative case-study design, based on a purposive selection of contemporary posters from international cinema and a genealogical contrast with key references from Spanish poster traditions, integrating a transdisciplinary reading that connects arts education with language and literary education, grounded in cultural studies. The results describe how typographic and compositional decisions modulate the visibility of dissidence, oscillating between closure, ambivalence, and irony, and how they provide analytic criteria transferable to university-based teacher training. The discussion links these graphic operations to forms of pedagogical mediation oriented towards human rights, and the conclusions propose a replicable line of understanding based on historical comparison, critical reading of paratexts, and interpretive design production, while identifying the corpus’s contextual heterogeneity as a limitation.
Presentation. Beyond the avatar: LGBTIQ+ representations, narratives and communities in video games
Video games constitute a strategic space for the representation, resistance and experimentation of gender and sexual identities. Faced with a cultural imaginary historically defined by cisheteronormative narratives, the medium has emerged as a key cultural artefact where LGBTIQ+ communities negotiate their visibility and build spaces for belonging and activism. Within the framework of Queer Game Studies and a broad conception of 'queer'—understood as the questioning of all normativity—this volume examines both representation within videoludic texts and the trajectories of players and creators, exploring how gaming mediates socialisation processes and collective imaginaries. Through various methodologies, the collected contributions demonstrate that video games transcend mere leisure to become a terrain for affective and political experimentation, essential for understanding the interaction between popular culture and identity in the contemporary era.
En juego: pantallas, protocolos y archivos
(Re)constructing Ourselves in the Plural: From Individual Creation to Collective Memory through the Euforia Festival for Trans* and Non-binary Memory
This article aims to address the celebration of the non-binary/trans event Festival Euforia with a focus on memory and collectivity. The gathering is conceived as a space to share not only the artistic creations that each of the artists developed in their respective fields (visual arts, music, or audiovisual), but also as a moment of interlacing networks and building community. Collectivity, in this sense, takes shape through the interweaving of voices, stories, and representations of individuals dissenting from the sex-gender system. Through this encounter, the artists and attendants connect with each other, generating a shared composition of experiences in which they are able to find themselves and each other. This festival is understood as a place that allows the (re)construction of the stories of people within the trans/enby community and from where individual experiences and legacies can be transmitted through art, ultimately creating a collective memory.
Copyright (c) 2025 Estudios LGBTIQ+, Comunicación y Cultura
Llopart, A., Mola, J., & Miguel, R. S. (2023). Memorias de Shangay: 30 años de historia LGTBIQ+ en España. Libros Cúpula. 238 páginas.
"Memorias de Shangay: 30 años de historia LGTBIQ+ en España" es un libro que narra la historia del movimiento LGTBIQ+ en España a través de la lente de la revista Shangay. El libro cubre momentos clave desde la despenalización de la homosexualidad hasta la legalización del matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo. Los autores también discuten la lucha contra el VIH/SIDA y el papel de organizaciones como COGAM y FELGTB. El libro es un homenaje a quienes lucharon por los derechos LGTBIQ+ y un recordatorio de que la lucha por la igualdad continúa.
Mapi León and Instagram: Lesbian visibility in football and on social networks
In recent decades, social networks have emerged as fundamental tools in people's new ways of socialising. Concurrently, women's sport has experienced progressive growth in Spain, increasing the participation and visibility of women. Also in recent years, LGTBIQ+ visibility and activism have increased in Spain. One of the most visible sportswomen on social networks, who speaks openly about her sexual orientation, is the Spanish footballer María (Mapi) León. This study utilised netnography to analyse the impact of the player's Instagram profile (@marialeonn16), which boasts a following of 713 thousand, on her visibility and her role as a reference within the LGTBIQ+ community and society at large. Between August 2021 and July 2022, the seven publications of the footballer related to her sexual orientation and their corresponding (3,193) comments were analysed. In addition, a focus group was conducted with six key informants who met and followed the footballer. The results revealed a marked polarisation of responses, ranging from outright rejection to expressions of affection and admiration at the other extreme. These findings emphasise the significance of employing role models in the pursuit of visibility and acceptance of sexual diversity within both sport and society at large.
The Absence of the Body in Portrait of Ross in L.A: Loss, Memory and Invisibility During the AIDS Crisis in the United States
"Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)" (1991) by Félix González-Torres is a work that has been the subject of multiple interpretations due to its symbolic weight and its relationship to the AIDS crisis in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. The present research focuses on analyzing the physical absence of the body as a metaphor for loss, memory, and the invisibilization of the gay community affected by the disease. Through an interdisciplinary approach that combines queer theory and philosophy of art, it seeks to explore how the work not only represents personal grief, but also acts as a political denunciation against the norms of invisibilization and marginalization exercised upon queer bodies. The adopted methodology articulates contextual, formal, and theoretical analysis, situating the piece within the artist's corpus and in dialogue with contemporary activist practices. The theoretical analysis is grounded in Judith Butler's concepts of precariousness and performativity, Michel Foucault's biopolitics and punishment, and Paul Ricoeur's memory and forgetting. It posits that the progressive disappearance of the candies in the work materializes the vulnerability of affected persons, and that the act of viewer participation creates a space of resistance against social exclusion. The central hypothesis maintains that "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)" is a metaphor for resistance and collective memory that confronts narratives of forgetting. This text contributes to academic discussion by offering a new reading of the absence of the body in the work. This absence is interpreted not only as a process of individual mourning, but also as a political act that challenges the norms of heteronormativity.
Butler, Judith. (2024). ¿Quién teme al género? Barcelona: Paidós, 374 páginas.
Thirty-five years after the publication of Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990)—a text that definitively transformed our understanding of gender by critically deconstructing its supposed essentialist link to sex and offering a well-reasoned performative theory of its social construction, Judith Butler returns with a much-needed essay for this current moment of cultural and political conflict: Who’s Afraid of Gender? (2024). She begins her reflection with a question: “How is it possible that someone could be afraid of gender?” (Butler, 2024, p. 11)
Muñoz Fernández, Francisco Javier; Bartolomé García, Fernando R. (eds.). (2025). Queer x Cultura x Arte. Bilbao: Universidad del País Vasco, 250 páginas.
Queer roots of Splatterpunk: transgression, loss, and reclamation of the horror subgenre
Splatterpunk, a subgenre of horror known for its graphic depiction of extreme violence, has been intrinsically linked to queer experiences and perspectives since its emergence in the 1980s and 1990s. Authors such as Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite explored themes of subversive sexuality, pain, desire, and social critique, challenging traditional narratives and genre stereotypes. This article examines how splatterpunk served as a vehicle of expression for queer individuals, allowing for the transgression of cultural norms. It also addresses how the genre deteriorated in the new century into superficial exploitation, and how contemporary authors like Alison Rumfitt are reclaiming it to address modern queer issues with critical depth. The analysis highlights the cultural impact and relevance of splatterpunk as a space for representing queer experiences in horror.
Digital media and social network X in light of Law 4/2023: hate speech and inclusion of trans people in Spain
Despite advances in LGBTIQ+ rights in Spain, especially following the approval of Law 4/2023 of 28 February on real and effective equality for trans people and the guarantee of LGBTIQ+ rights, hate speech towards this group continues to be a reality. This research analyses the news published by the main Spanish newspapers during the processing and approval of the so-called ‘Trans Law’. To gauge public reaction, critical discourse analysis was applied to the comments generated on the official profiles of these media outlets on social network X. The findings show that some media outlets adopt informative frameworks that, while claiming neutrality, contain significant biases, while others maintain an openly hostile stance towards the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. A significant volume of comments denying the identity and rights of trans people was identified in the social audience, as well as hate speech facilitated by the anonymity of social media. The analysis reveals a media and digital environment that contributes to the reproduction of stigmatising narratives about trans people. These results underscore the need to promote responsible reporting practices that counteract the spread of hate in contemporary public spaces.
Of asses, bears and digital perreo: dissident performativity in Javo León's regaytón mexa (2025)
This article analyzes the dissident performativities present in Javo León’s (2025) regaytón mexa, emphasizing two central symbolic axes of his artistic proposal: the ass as a political space of desire and identity, and the critical reappropriation of the bear figure within LGBTIQ+ communities. Drawing on these imaginaries, the article explores how the artist articulates a sonic and corporeal aesthetic that subverts white, thin, masculine gay normativity, while constructing an affective and sexual archive from a non-hegemonic perspective. The study employs a qualitative methodology with an emphasis on digital ethnography, considering the production, circulation, and reception of Javo León’s discursive content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify. To do so, it analyzes audiovisual performances, posts, audience interactions, and social media discourses, recognizing these spaces as contemporary sites of queer socialization, visibility, and activism. In this sense, the analyzed videos constitute a musical and performative proposal that confronts sex-gender normativities from a virtual space, problematizing the corporeal and aesthetic inscription of a fat, racialized, effeminate, and non-normative masculinity in the urban cultural field of contemporary Mexico. The article proposes a critical reading that moves beyond traditional categories of musical analysis to consider regaytón mexa as a platform for subaltern enunciation that eroticizes, politicizes, and redefines the margins of LGBTIQ+ communities through jouissance, the body, and the algorithm.
Bronze Tongues, Bird Tongues: The Life in Verses of Violeta Parra and María Carta from a queer transcultural perspective
This research aims to propose an archaeology of affections through the autobiographical poetry collections Décimas. Autobiography in Verses by Violeta Parra and Canto Rituale by María Carta. Through narratological analysis and the lived experiences of the authors, the study explores transcultural identity and collective memory as instruments of self-representation from a queer perspective of the author. By reconstructing the biographies of both creators, the research draws a connection between Sardinia and Chile based on the development of class consciousness and the self-determination of peoples, understood as axes of poetic resistance and creation. It is an autoethnographic exercise based on a cartography of affects.
Gynecological Care, Communicative Practices and Access to Health Services: Experiences of Trans Men in the Chilean Health System
Introduction: Trans men face persistent barriers when accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare, particularly gynecological services. These challenges extend beyond biomedical issues and are shaped by organizational, cultural, and communicative practices that reproduce binary gender norms, negatively affecting timely access, continuity of care, and the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights. Methods: A qualitative, phenomenological, descriptive, and exploratory study was conducted. Nine trans men aged 18 years or older with previous experiences of gynecological care in Chile’s public and private health systems were interviewed. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using Colaizzi’s method, applying qualitative rigor criteria (credibility, dependability, confirmability, and auditability). Results: Structural, organizational, and symbolic barriers emerged. Negative experiences were associated with misgendering, pathologizing language, lack of relevant clinical information, insufficient professional training, centralized services, and the absence of specific protocols. These communicative practices generated discomfort, avoidance of preventive care, and delayed consultations. Facilitators included respectful treatment, clear information, recognition of gender identity, and providers trained in gender diversity. Conclusions: Gynecological care functions as a communicative and cultural space where meanings about trans bodies and identities are constructed. Implementing inclusive communication strategies, gender-sensitive training, and institutional protocols is essential to reduce inequities and ensure dignified, safe, and comprehensive healthcare.
Video Games, Sexual Orientation and Youth: An Approach Based on the 2023 Youth Survey
As an audiovisual medium, the importance of video games has increased over recent decades, both in terms of their economic impact and the number of players. This article focuses primarily on the use of video games by young people, as this medium fosters socialization beyond mere entertainment. Through the Youth Survey, which in its latest edition marked its 40th anniversary, an initial approach is made to the profile of young video game players. The purpose is to analyze how sexual orientation influences video game use. At a second level of analysis, the situation of young women and men is examined in relation to sexual orientation in order to determine whether differences exist in video game use. Ultimately, drawing on the 2023 Youth Survey, the aim is to understand the situation of young people and video games from an inclusive perspective and through the diversity of players’ sexual orientations.
Diario de Nueva York (1964), de Iván Zulueta. Con introducción y anotaciones de Josetxo Cerdán y Miguel Fernández Labayen. Editado por Pepitas de Calabaza y Filmoteca Española. Mayo de 2025. 248 páginas.
Reseña del Diario en Nueva York de Iván Zulueta. Con introducción y notas de Josetxo Cerdán y Miguel Fernández Labayen. Publicado por Pepitas de Calabaza y Filmoteca Española en Mayo de 2025.
Becoming the Gay Pig – A Mapping of Queer Entanglements with Disease and Monstrosity in Bloodborne
In this article, queer player–game experiences with Bloodborne are mapped. Bloodborne is approached through a player-researcher framework that examines how subjectivities become entangled with the game’s various elements. The cartography is grounded in the positionality of a white, cisgender, ablebodied, gay Irish man whose identity has been markedly shaped by the relationship between the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and the Irish Catholic Church. From this acknowledgement, experiences of playing Bloodborne are related to experiences of growing up in the Irish state. The aim is to construct a cartography of entangled experiences with the game that begins from this positionality, and to explore its implications for formulations of queerness and Irish queer identity. To accomplish this aim, textual analysis is conducted from a feminist new materialist perspective in order to isolate and analyse elements of Bloodborne. Drawing in particular on Barad’s (2003, 2006, 2018) work on entanglements, the analysis focuses on the game’s use of blood and monstrosity, mapping them as in-game Gothic-Lovecraftian elements and using them to identify parallels between the game and experiences within the Irish Catholic Church. These relations are then connected to queer identity through consideration of the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, and of how discourses at the time formulated Gay, Bisexual and Men Who Have Sex with Men (GBMSM) identities in particular. By attending to these entangled subjectivities with Bloodborne, a mapping of Irish queer identity with the game is constructed, exploring how liberation from oppressive systems may be achieved if one risks their own humanity.
Beyond the Dictator: Resistances and LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Narratives in Far Cry 6
The article examines the representation of LGBTQ+ identities in Far Cry 6 through two key characters: Paolo de la Vega and Rosa Mel Paquete. The study begins from a simple but significant idea: video games are not only sources of entertainment, but also symbolic spaces where social, political, and cultural representations are negotiated. Based on this premise, the research combines several approaches: direct observation of the full gameplay experience, the review of interviews and promotional materials, and the analysis of audience reception in both specialized media and player forums. The analysis of the characters is structured across three levels. First, their external dimension, which includes elements such as physical appearance, clothing choices, color palette, and even tone of voice. Second, their internal dimension, focused on emotions, personal conflicts, and psychological evolution. Finally, their narrative function, that is, how they participate in missions, what role they play in the storyline, and how they relate to the protagonist. The findings reveal that Paolo de la Vega emerges as a cultural symbol within the insurgency, following a process of personal affirmation that moves from fear to political conviction, using music as a form of resistance. Rosa Mel Paquete, on the other hand, stands out for her irony and chameleon-like versatility, transforming drag performance into a weapon of subversion and espionage. Together, they offer a distinct perspective that enriches the story and paves the way for new forms of representation.
Standing With as Allyship: A Reflexive Approach to Queer Game Design
A considerable body of queer-themed and allyship-oriented games has been discussed under the label of “empathy games,” which invite players to temporarily inhabit queer experiences. While often well-intentioned, such approaches risk falling into what Ruberg (2019) terms empathy tourism, where complex forms of queer life are compressed into consumable emotions and moral reassurance. This article instead examines allyship as a design positionality grounded in witnessing, hesitation, and partial recognition rather than mastery. The study employs a critical literature review alongside a social semiotic analysis of Anna Anthropy’s Dys4ia (2012). This methodological combination makes it possible to explore how game mechanics and player positioning operate as meaning-making strategies, and how these strategies challenge conventional empathy-driven frameworks. The results of the case study show that Dys4ia resists normative design expectations by proceduralising frustration, repetition, and disorientation. Fragmented micro-games, banal clinical routines, hostile interactions, and the absence of narrative closure position the player not as an inhabitant of queer embodiment but as a constrained witness. Rather than offering identification or emotional substitution, the game foregrounds ambiguity and limited understanding, thereby modelling an alternative allyship that respects difference. The article concludes that a reflexive allyship perspective contributes both conceptually and methodologically to queer game studies. By shifting attention from empathy to witnessing and partiality, this framework highlights possibilities for ethical game design that resist closure, avoid appropriation, and cultivate solidarity without collapsing experiential boundaries.
Homoeroticism, orientalism and misogyny in Harka! (1941): A filmic analysis from a camp point of view
This article will analyse from a camp perspective the film Harka! (1941) by Carlos Arévalo, starring Alfredo Mayo and Luís Peña, who play Captain Santiago Balcázar and Lieutenant Carlos Herrera. Firstly, the homoeroticism implicit in the orientalist framework of this filmic manifestation of Franco's crusade will be explored. Secondly, it will delve into the melodramatic camaraderie of Balcázar and Herrera constructed under the pretext of fighting for the fatherland and their common love or devotion to Africa. Thirdly, the misogyny of Harka! will be addressed, as it does not have a female presence until halfway through the film, with the appearance of the character of Amparo, played by Luchy Soto, who ends up constituting an antagonistic figure against the Harkeños by interposing herself in the mission that unites the protagonists. A whole series of aesthetic elements such as the djellaba, the fez, the bonfire, tobacco, the harka, the harkeños, the night, alcohol, the wardrobe and the uniform, the palm trees, the lattice, the taste for Arab culture, the use of polysemous words, the soundtrack or the melodramatic character that make up the film, make up a camp language that testifies that homosexual desire is latent in Harka! beyond the official discourse that responded to the propagandistic interests of the Franco dictatorship.
The Genealogy of LGBTQA+ Suspicion in the Spanish Vaudeville: Strategies, Spaces, Practices and Narratives
The rise of variety and drag shows in Spain in the first third of the twentieth century brought the visibility of gender diversity to the Spanish stage. However, after the arrival of Franco's regime, many of the artists were forced to abandon their work, go into exile or simply disappear. This article analyses, through the application of the musicology of suspicion, five case studies of artists who transcended heteronormativity during this period, but whose sexual orientation or identity cannot be confirmed. A genealogy of suspicion based in the biographies written by Álvaro Retana is proposed as a hermeneutic tool for their valorisation as identity references for the LGTBIQA+ community of the time, despite the difficulties in recovering their biographies due to the Franco regime and censorship. This joint study of the biographies compiled by Retana, the spaces where they performed, their costumes and repertoires, allows us to highlight their practices of being, loving and desiring throughout the 20th century, establishing a common thread with later practices, aesthetics and styles such as the drag shows or the resignifications in the copla of Franco's regime.
Inverted Listening: Situating the Concealed Songs of Mari Trini, Guillermina Motta, and Elisa Serna
A review of vinyl covers, songs, and archival materials from singer-songwriters Mari Trini, Guillermina Motta, and Elisa Serna suggests that the role of these artists deserves attention to further our understandings of LGBTIQ+ musical history in Spain. Throughout her career, Mari Trini faced LGBTI-phobic media campaigns and wrote what she called “ambiguous songs,” to which I am referring here as “concealed songs.” Guillermina Motta’s case highlights how audience reception played a key role, considering the subversive potential of certain love songs performed by female singer-songwriters. These romantic lyrics may have prompted “inverted listening”—a way of understanding the songs that challenges cisheteronormative interpretations. This invites us to consider how, during a time of repression, audiences might have found in these songs a way to openly express their emotions, regardless of whom they were addressed to. Elisa Serna’s case involves revisiting the visual iconography of her album covers and some of her lyrics, informed by her personal archive; documents she carefully preserved throughout her life— thus providing insight into her relationships, feelings, and experiences—and are now part of her legacy. These three female singer-songwriters point to the need for further research on the role of protest music on the dissident musical culture of Francoism and the Transition to democracy.