SoHo as virtual theatre: performing gender, race, and class in 21st-century Colombia

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article I explore the cultural significance of SoHo, a magazine produced by and addressed to the Colombian elite yet consumed across a wider urban social spectrum. I carry out an analysis of the magazine in connection with the broader political, cultural, and social context of its production and circulation during the period it was directed by journalist Daniel Samper Ospina (2001–2015). I argue that under Samper Ospina, SoHo played a significant role in shaping gender ideologies in 21st-century urban Colombia. Overtly addressed to a male audience (its title means ‘Only for Men’) and following the model of Playboy and Esquire, SoHo operated during the period studied as a ‘virtual theatre’ where the Colombian elite converged and where a sort of education in postmodern sensibilities of both men and women took place. Such an educational process took the form of a double-edged performance of gender, social class, and race: firstly, in Austin's sense, upon the women it portrayed; secondly, in the theatrical sense, by the (mostly male) members of the Colombian elite that actively participated in its production. As a virtual theatre, SoHo carries out a specific type of ideological work that seeks to ensure cultural hegemony and, through it, the perpetuation of a system of domination that goes back to the colonial period and whose keys are ‘the lettered city’ and the ‘whiteness device’ (All translations are mine).