Essay On Machismo In Latin America

One would be surprised on how much the roles of men and women have evolved over time. Countries, societies and religion determine the part of the gender roles. Although the Latin Americans and the Americans have similar ideas on the roles of a man and a woman in the society, they differ depending on the culture and the people’s beliefs and way of life.
Foremost, the idea of machismo is very much practiced culture in Latin America. As stated by dictionary.com, Machismo is a strong or exaggerated sense of manliness. It is a form of superiority of man over woman and to show how weak and irrelevant a woman is in the society. As such women’s opinions and ideas are often ignored or simply treated as of no value. This also makes man to be seen as having more privileges and rights in terms of decision making and control. The machismo …show more content…
Based on this statement, one can generalize that in Latin America, men having sex with a lot of women was not a thing to be ashamed of, instead men found pleasure “bragging” and “storytelling” without caring about the feelings of the women they were involved with. In the article Machismo and Sexism, Flora discussed her experiences in Latin American countries. She talked about being approached on the streets by men of different ages and mentions that when she walked with a man, it was as if the men had lost interest in her. In other words, the women were not respected at all. When they were alone, they were viewed as weak and incapable but when there was a man around them, other men knew not to approach them as the man represented masculinity. Additionally, Nick Newman refers to a comment made by Dr. Gilberto Q. Conchas which was that “many Mexican-American boys regard education as a feminine pursuit” (Newman). This shows how the commonly held beliefs on gender roles and the machismo hinder a group of people (the men) from being successful. In some