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What It Means To Be A Man

This text delves into the complexities of Puerto Rican masculinity, exploring the historical, social, and cultural factors that shape the concept of machismo in the region. It examines the positive and negative aspects of machismo, its impact on societal dynamics, and the manifestations of masculine ideology. Through discussions on gender roles, dominance, and societal constructs, it challenges traditional perceptions of manhood.

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What It Means To Be A Man

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  1. Reflections on Puerto Rican Masculinity Rafael L. Ramirez Translated by: Rosa E. Casper Gresenia Gil Suarez Francisco Torres What It Means To Be A Man

  2. Puerto Rico

  3. Puerto Rico continued • Under U.S at first known as Porto Rico • Plebiscite- U.N • 1917 forced citizenship • U.S has ability to override the P.R constitution and all laws passed in the country • First governors were appointed by the Unites States • Social issues- Diaspora vs islander

  4. Puerto Rico • “Male domination is perpetuated in Puerto Rican society by presenting women as subordinate, dependent beings in contrast to the more or less powerful male”

  5. MACHISMO • Popularized in the social literatures of the fifties and sixties and was initially presented as a Latin American phenomenon that appeared in its crudest form in the peasant and working classes • Associated with male traits or behaviors to which negative qualities are attributed

  6. Latin American men categorized as beings who are: Aggressive Oppressive Narcissistic Insecure Loud mouthed Womanizers Massive drinkers Uncontrollable sexual prowess Parranderos de parranda larga Machismo

  7. Machismo • Positive aspects: • Courage • Responsibility • Perseverance • Used in multiple ways • Set of attitudes • Configuration on traits • syndrome

  8. Machismo- Stycos • Explains machismo as an analytical category- studying sociocultural aspects of human fertility in order to make specific recommendations to guide the Puerto Rican birth control programs • The drive in males to manifest their virility • Drives men to produce a limitless quantity of children

  9. Cont’ • Stycos- Response of 72 men who were asked the following questions: • “Speaking of being a macho completo (complete man) how does a man show it? How does he prove it?” • 15.4 % said that machismo is manifested “through abusiveness” • 73.7% said (courage, honesty, chivalry, reliability, being a good neighbor, being a man of honor) • 39.2 % associated machismo with virility and sexuality

  10. Machismo-Styco’s cont’ • Machismo is a “general lower-class value” and is transmitted by the penis adulation of infants and by the reinforcement of activities considered to be masculine • “The most striking manifestation of attempts to inculcate machismo occurs in the adult adulation of the infantile penis. By praising and calling a great deal of attention to the penis, the parent can communicate to the child the literal or symbolic value of the male organ” (10).

  11. Machismo Writings • Repetitive • Uncritical • Machismo is manifested in an inequal manner in the class structure, with a lesser incidence in the higher classes because women have more economic independence from their husbands. Higher prestige, and more power

  12. Cont • Middle classes display the greatest manifestation of machismo • Women have more sexual freedom than their counterparts in other social classes

  13. Masculine Ideology • A social construction that favors the masculine and belittles the feminine • Places men in a universe of categories and symbols of power that reproduce daily • Although there is one ideology , there are various behaviors that vary according to the power and privileges that each man possesses • Least powerful men and those in greatest apparent competition with others to demonstrate manhood resort to acts of behaviors that exaggerate attributes of masculinity

  14. Culturally and Socially Constructed • Not physical, but common beliefs of what each sex should exhibit • Carrot and stick idea • Thorne (education) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nIXUjzyMe0

  15. Homosexuality vs Heterosexuality • Gender and privileged (McIntosh) • Not considered separately- bluntly sex is sex • Ancient and modern practice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84wHXT2KgWY

  16. Hegemony-manlyness (dominance) • Fight to be manly or seen as failure • Gilmore- provider • Hardworker • Bigness-achievement and physical • Personal accomplishment for “greater good” • Easy to survive without men-dangerous for us

  17. Androcentrism (men centered) • Godelier- Baruya- men vs woman • Unequal treatment • Boys into men, made nor born • Semen thing- men and boys • Richardson(language)

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