Keywords
Regimes de gênero
Política no Cone Sul
Masculinidade política
Etnografia do Estado Burocracia de calle
Regímenes de género
Política del Cono Sur
Masculinidad política
Etnografía del Estado Street-level bureaucracy
Gender regimes
Southern Cone politics
Political masculinity
Stategraphy
How to Cite
Abstract
This article examines how masculinity is performed by frontline state workers in Argentina and Chile, arguing that state authority is not only bureaucratically exercised but also theatrically enacted through gendered scripts. Based on ethnographic case studies and interviews with labor inspectors and social development officials in Argentina, and a hemerographic analysis of Chilean policing during the 2019 protests, we introduce the concept of 'gendered repertoires': culturally embedded strategies that state agents use to assert authority and fulfill institutional roles. These repertoires reflect and reproduce both dominant and contested masculinities, ranging from assertive paternalism to empathetic deconstruction. Performances are shaped by national political cultures influenced by Peronist populism, authoritarian legacies, neoliberal technocracy, and feminist resistance. Street-level bureaucrats draw on formal state tools and informal gendered aesthetics to navigate discretion and mediate state-society relations. By framing state authority as capillary, performative, and gendered, the article contributes to feminist statenography and studies of political masculinities. It highlights how gendered power is enacted and negotiated in everyday governance.
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