Almodóvar’s Livable Skins in Perspective: (Meta)Scalar Projections

Abstract Oriented by a performative perspective of language (AUSTIN, 1962/1990), in this article we analyze a video-critique published on YouTube on the movie The skin I live in order to identify with which guiding discourses its author is aligned, especially regarding the gender. Our theoretical approach focuses on queer theories. The analysis, a metascalar-reflexive exercise, is based on the notions of scales (CARR; LEMPERT, 2016) and indexicality (SILVERSTEIN, 2003), making complementary use of other theoretical-analytical constructs: iconization, erasure and fractal recursivity (IRVINE; GAL, 2000; GAL, 2016). We also aim to point how Almodóvar's film is perspectivized and the semiotic strategies that refer to certain ideologies. What we observe is there are conflicting meanings that intertwine in the discourse of the youtuber, who despite speaking of gender construction builds up his point of view up using a metalanguage that evokes essentialist and deterministic notions, which go against those mobilized in the film.