Machismo
[3] Thus the origin of machismo serves as an illustration of past history, the struggles that colonial Latin America faced and the evolution of gender stereotypes with time.
[11] From a Mexican-Chicano cultural and psychological perspective, the psycho-social traits can be summarized as: emotional invulnerability, patriarchal dominance, aggressive or controlling responses to stimuli, and ambivalence toward women.
[20][6] During colonial times, a female's chastity and demureness were linked to the family's societal standings [new], while the males were expected and sometimes pressured into proving their sexual prowess by having multiple partners.
The Virgin Mary is the ideal female figure, representing characteristics such as "semi divinity, moral superiority, and spiritual strengths all the which are expected from women under machismo and marianismo.
Some people identify that machismo is perpetuated through the pressure to follow the norm to raise children a certain way and instill social constructions of gender throughout a child's development.
[24] It creates a sense of inferiority that drives boys to reach an unattainable level of masculinity, a pursuit often validated by the aggressive and apathetic behavior they observe in the men around them and ultimately leading them to continue the cycle.
A survey conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University found that men who had high machismo values or characteristics were more than five times more probable to participate in activities or behave in a way to put them at risk for contracting HIV or an STI.
[25] There is accumulating evidence that supports the relation between the way men are traditionally socialized to be masculine and its harmful mental and physical health consequences.
[28] Respectively, machismo, is sociocultural term associated with male and female socialization in Latin American cultures; it is a set of values, attitudes and beliefs about masculinity.
[29] Research suggests the gender role conceptualization of machismo has associations with negative cognitive-emotional factors (i.e., depression symptoms; trait anxiety and anger; cynical hostility) among Latin American populations.
[31] This high demand stems from such psychologists' abilities to make patients aware how some inflexible and pre-established ideals regarding sex-roles may be detrimental to people's way of regarding new changes in societal expectancies, fostering relationships, and physical and mental health.
[31] Professionals such as Thomas Skovholt, psychology professor at the University of Minnesota, claim that more research needs to be done in order to have efficient mediation for men through counseling.
[32] Scholars also argue that men could be mentally harmed from competition, such as the one experienced by many at their job, as their impetus to rise above their peers and fulfill the breadwinner concept in many societies can cause stress, jealousy, and psychological strain.
While strength and fortitude are recognized as key components to the stereotype of machismo, demonstrations of violence and aggressive actions have become almost expected of men and have been justified as desirable products of being tough and macho.
In the point of view of Clavijo, militarism and caudillismo, are what is to blame for Cuban machismo, as it established the ideology of the "leadership of the strongman" which proved to be successful in Castro becoming victorious in his revolution.
[42] The idea that gender equality was surface level can be shown in the Codigo de la Familia which called for men to take a more active role in the household, but was rarely enforced.
Machismo is mostly ingrained in domestic environments, so while 89% of women over 25 have received a secondary education,[47] if a woman is a doctor, or a lawyer even after all the work she has done during the day, at home she is still expected to cook and clean and be the primary caretaker of the children.
Men who do not perform their gender in the "normalized" way are referred to as maricon, (a derogatory word meaning queer or fag), because their maleness is being called into question.
Puerto Rican families influenced by American culture may express or bend these traditional rules whether they educated their children based on the values and morals that they were taught.
[66][67][65] Out of the many cases, the murders of Andrea Ruiz Costas and Keishla Rodriguez caused the public to question how gender-based violence was handled within Puerto Rico's judicial system.
[69] On 26 October 2022, the Department of Education announced a curriculum called Equity and Respect for All Human Beings which will take place every fourth Wednesday of the month during homeroom period.
[75] Miners symbolize the ideal of the male worker, hostile to the bosses and to the moral authorities that have, over decades, tried to mold them into a disciplined and self-reproducing work force.
[76] Since 2007, every July the Red Chilena Contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres (Chilean Network Against Violence Towards Women) implements its campaign "¡Cuidado!
Machismo is not the sole issue the Peruvian community should address; addiction also plays a significant role in boosting men's egos, allowing them to adopt the "macho" persona.
[78] Because education and acculturation of American values in Latino individuals may result in the development of attitudes supporting gender-equality, this demonstrates how machismo may gradually decline over time in the United States.
[85] Seeking self-determination and community control of institutions and land, the organization's leaders made a distinct choice to denounce machismo in their revised 13-Point Program and Platform.
Moving toward this platform, however, would not have been possible without the Women of the Young Lords who pressured the organization's leadership to reject machismo during their East Coast Regional Central Committee retreat in May 1970.
This is because the origin of the word resides in feudal Spanish/Portuguese descriptions of landlords that reached through and into the colonial era, exalts[92] European culture in comparison to the so-called Latin American machismo.
[93] They have repeatedly pointed out the positive characteristics consistent with machismo, or caballerosidad: nurturance, protection of the family and its honor, dignity, wisdom, hard work, responsibility, spirituality, and emotional connectedness.
In the play (and 1951 film adaptation), Stanley epitomizes the tough, alpha-male (hyper-masculine) archetype, socially and physically dominating and imposing his will upon his wife and her sister, Blanche Dubois.
