Machismo (and violence against women)

Why ‘macho culture’ is not to

blame for violence against women
in Mexico
In recent weeks, hundreds of women have taken to the streets of Mexico City
protesting against murder, rape and other violence against women in Mexico.
Many commentators blame “macho culture” for the violence they are so furious
about. In the first half of 2019 alone, 1,835 women were murdered in Mexico,
according to Mexican geophysicist María Salguero, who is mapping the
violence.

In these accounts, macho culture seems to refer to a social climate which

facilitates or rewards macho attitudes and behaviours. Following the stereotype,
in a macho culture, a man earns respect through his ability to lead his family,
make sexual conquests, and defend his honour, with violence if necessary.

But what does macho culture mean in real life? And what if blaming it for
violence against women in Mexico is in fact part of the problem?

“When we have friends visit from other states, they are frightened,” a young
psychologist told me when I visited the central Mexican state of Michoacán in
June. Within Mexico, the state is notorious for its high levels of violence,
including gender-based violence. Sitting in a cafe among feminist friends of
diverse backgrounds, she added: “Here they are macho to the bone.”

This statement, like many similar ones I’ve recorded during my ongoing research
in Mexico since 2014, both confirms and challenges stereotypes about Mexican
machos. The feminists I spoke to often – unsurprisingly – blamed macho
attitudes for violence against women in Michoacán. But they also made a point
out of distinguishing different kinds of macho culture in different places and
different moments in history.

For instance, the Catholic Church has a much stronger influence in the
conservative city of Zamora in Michoacán than in liberal Mexico City. This
means that while many parents in Michoacán teach their daughters to be
submissive in line with Mediterranean Catholic ideals of womanhood, their peers
in Mexico City are socially expected to fend male aggressors off with equal
violence.

Machismo in many forms

Paying attention to these differences is important, as the anthropologist Matthew
Gutmann explained in his study, The Meanings of Macho. Simply blaming
macho culture for violence against women allows men to justify their physically
abusive behaviour. They can excuse themselves by saying: “I am a product of a
macho culture, and that’s why I hit my wife.” Gutmann found that, in reality,
machismo comes in many forms.

Both men and women in the working-class Mexico City neighbourhood he

studied displayed some qualities commonly associated with being a macho,
without fully conforming to the stereotype. Some alcoholic men were caring,
nonviolent husbands, while some women beat their children or cheated on their
husbands. By contrast, some less “manly” men who avoided alcohol and did not
seem like machos did beat their wives.

In my research on violence against indigenous women, I found that macho

culture arguably describes something real. The shape that violence against
women takes and how people talk about it is influenced by cultural ideas, for
example, whether they consider violence to be normal or a shameful taboo topic.

But even within a single Mexican village, whether a certain act of violence is
considered normal and excusable, or extraordinary and abhorrent, varies
considerably from person to person. Many of the Mexican men I met in
Michoacán and Mexico City associated being a “strong man” – which they also
counted as a kind of machismo – with being stoic, rather than violent in the face
of conflict.

So, given that macho culture has many different meanings and it’s difficult to
find a perfect embodiment of it in real life, using macho culture to explain
violence against women is inadequate. Worryingly, it may prevent an
examination of the real causes of such violence.

While there is considerable evidence that macho attitudes normalise male

aggression and dominance, culture on its own doesn’t explain why violence
happens. There are many factors at play in causing and facilitating violence
against women around the world, including power inequalities, sexist and racist
discrimination, peer pressure, adverse childhood experiences and trauma,
emotional dependency, and sadism, just to name a few.
Other types of masculinity are possible
There is another reason why blaming macho culture might stand in the way of
reducing violence against women in Mexico: it stigmatises Mexican men.
Stereotyping Mexican men as violent machos limits their ability to embody other,
more empathetic and caring kinds of masculinity. This particularly applies to
poor, indigenous, and rural Mexican men, who are stereotyped as machos by
other Mexicans.

For example, a 20-year-old interviewee from the rural southern outskirts of

Mexico City told me he wanted to become a veterinarian, but failed to get into
one of the highly selective universities of Mexico City. While his lighter-skinned
twin sister went on to study, he soon decided his best option was to become a
police officer. Now he spends his days carrying a large gun, just like his father
before him.

He is just one of many examples of indigenous and rural Mexican men, who can
only find poorly paid or risky work, such as farming, construction work and
police. These jobs often involve shows of strength and endurance that are closely
associated with machismo. Statistically, only very few of them manage to get
into more prestigious professions, such as teaching.

When people speak of macho culture, this often says less about gender relations
than racist and class-based discrimination. This discrimination itself breeds
frustration and, too often, violence.

FUENTES: https://theconversation.com/why-macho-culture-is-not-to-blame-for-
violence-against-women-in-mexico-122900

QUESTIONS:
a) What social issue does the article discuss?
The machismo and violence against women.
b) Where is it taking place?
In Mexico.
c) When does it take place?
Always happened but since 2019 this problem start becoming
bigger and bigger so actually is a problem now in 2022.
d) Who does it affect?
It affect to all women an girls that get out alone of their
homes.
e) What is causing it?
The Men´s that think they can do better than woman and think
we can do nothing, (machismo culture)
f) What are its consequences?
Women be afraid to go out to work, to school, to take a walk,
women are tierd of this big problem they can´t live their life
right because of this. Also they affect families of the women
that the despair, kill or abuse them.
g) What could be done but isn’t being done to solve the
problem?
The government should help looking for the ones that are
doing this, and giving security and demonstrate that we are
save and sure in on own country so we can live right.