Queer bodies

Homosexuality, politics and effeminacy in Pier Paolo Pasolini

Abstract

Some scholars criticize Pier Paolo Pasolini for his negative representation of homosexuality, his conservative views on gay politics, and his alleged internalized homophobia. While considering the impact of the socio-cultural context on Pasolini’s early view of homosexuality, this essay argues that, at the turn of the 70s, Pasolini conceived of homosexuality as an important force in the fight for real tolerance and an alternative to capitalist society. Some of his later writings, interviews, and projects show that Pasolini was indeed elaborating a radical, anti-identitarian homosexual politics, which can remind of some reflections developed by the queer movement two decades later. In particular, in the years before his premature death, despite his exclusive attraction to heterosexual male bodies, Pasolini came to consider and represent the effeminate homosexual body as a radical destabilizing force against hegemonic masculinity and homosexual identity politics.