Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

‘¡pelos, pelos!’ 92 Tiliches and Quijano try to remove her clothes but she is reluctant.
This might bring tension, but finally Eva stops the men, and decides to remove her
clothes by herself. The way she was treated is definitely sexist, although the stress is
relieved with the absurd, and vulgar, yelling of the audience. As Freud suggests,
through humour we find pleasure in sexual references and socially unacceptable
comments because ‘hace posible la satisfacción de un instinto (el instinto libidinoso y
hostil) en contra de un obstáculo que se le opone y extrae de este modo placer de una
fuente a la que tal obstáculo impide el acceso’. 93
Women are also portrayed as objects in some of the scenes of Calzonzin
Inspector. A parade is organised in honour of Calzonzin, and he leads the crowd in their
procession around the town. His friend Chon is not with them, because he is watching
the parade from a balcony, surrounded by women. When Calzonzin notices Chon he
tries to show that he can also get women. He embraces the woman marching next to him
without asking her permission; he does not even know her, she is just carrying a banner.
This in turn provokes Chon try to compete with Calzonzin. He attempts to embrace
Lupe, the girl next to him, but Lupe prevents him to do so. Since everyone believes that
Calzonzin is the inspector, he is in a position of power, and the girl allows him to hold
her. Chon’s luck is not the same. But the rejection will not stop him and later in the
story, when Lupe is cooking a banquet for Calzonzin, Chon again tries to touch her. She
rejects him again, but this time with a flirtatious smile. At the end of the film, Lupe and
Chon end up together, a triumph for macho behaviour over the submissive woman,
since we saw no effort on Chon’s part to win her heart.
Mecánica Nacional is full of moments of machismo, and I will examine them in
depth when I discuss the mechanisms of relief and superiority. However, I will mention
92 Isaac, Tivoli, 1974.
93 Freud, El chiste y su relación… p. 97.
191