Machismo In Mexico: Downfall Due To Women’S Progression?

Mexico is a country that has long been in a struggle to find a concrete national identity. This struggle transcends the boundary of gender identities as well. This is the precise issue in which Matthew C. Gutmann addresses in his book The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. In his book, Gutmann dispels the macho generalization that has been applied to all Mexican men, as a result of their struggle for an identity. The thesis of his book is that the terms macho and machismo, no longer exist, if they ever actually did, and the generalizations that accompany those terms and are subsequently applied to all Mexican and other Latino men are off-based. Due to the dependence of the identities of macho Mexican men to their relationships with women, those same women have an advantageous position of the power to tear down the stereotypes. Although these Mexican women play a central role in the changing of gender roles and the ideas of machismo, the manifestations of these stereotypes are often upheld by racist and ethnical tendencies, both within Mexico and abroad.

In trying to dispel the generalizations of machismo that have been placed upon all Mexican men, Gutmann places the emphasis of his argument on the range of differing definitions of what it means to be a man throughout Mexico, and even from man to man. He supports this argument through his diverse findings from his time and studies in Colonia Santa Domingo, a self-built working class neighborhood of Mexico City. He also focuses on the role of women as catalysts behind the changes in not only what it means to be a man in Mexico, and specifically in Colonia Santa Domingo, but also gender identities.

The relationship between women and machismo in Mexico is very complex and one of interdependency. This relationship can also be linked to the struggle for men to establish a national identity for themselves. Connected in the sense that the way in which a “macho’s machismo” has been commonly defined is through “his relationship to female bodies.” There have even been parallels drawn between the Spanish conquest of the indigenous people of Mexico and the conquest of Mexican women by Mexican men. The men found this sexual and power conquest necessary in order to establish themselves as Mexican menвЂ"as Paz feels they have denied their true heritage and are in search for one they can create. Part of this so-called conquest required that women be completely passive to the wills of men or chingones. The dependence of the macho identity on women creates an extremely advantageous position for the women. It allots them an enormous power to change things. Because as Gutmann expresses it, “if women who play an integral role in the construction of masculinities are changing, so too are their men.” Not only could this opportunity for women to change things, improve things for themselves, but it also can lead to the decline of the negative usage of the Mexican macho, making it a concept that only exists in old movies and literature. This power to change and possibly eliminate the usage of the macho Mexican stereotype can be expressed through the changes that have resulted from women’s roles in leadership, their move to the workplace outside the home, and their demands for intellectual independence.

Throughout the post-conquest history of Mexico, the role of women has primarily been that of taking care of the domestic responsibilities and child-rearing. This leaving the role of the men as the providers and protectors of the family. Providers in the sense that they are the ones who are working outside of the household, part of the more formal work force in any various number of occupations. This role breakdown created a very conducive environment in which the macho ethos could perpetuate itself. As one of Gutmann’s subjects put it, “It’s a situation which is still widespread in Mexican society: the man has to be waited on, has to have his wash done…because he is the one who works and brings home the money. This makes men act like machos.” Although things are not entirely changed, there has been in recent years a trend of more women leaving the home for the workplace. In 1970, only seventeen out of every one-hundred Mexican women over twelve years old were working outside the home, but twenty-five years later, in 1995, that number had more than doubled to thirty-five out of every one-hundred. This demographic shift has resulted in several changes in the way gender identities and roles play out in Mexico; many of which Gutmann has observed and recorded in his book. First of all, it can serve to pressure a reevaluation among families of how the domestic chores are delegated. Where typically, the woman would do the majority of the work in the household while the man worked outside the home, with both working outside the home, the responsibilities inside the home would need to be shared as well. This is to maintain equilibrium. Women in this situation make it known to their husbands that it is no longer an acceptable excuse that he is the sole provider for the house and should not have to complete household chores. But, as Gutmann points out through a family he observes, even after sharing the domestic responsibilities for a period of time, if a family goes back to being provided for solely by the man, the domestic work is no longer shared at all. This implies that the Mexican men are not abstaining from housework to fulfill their macho role, but rather as a result of a lack of necessity. The man does not expect the woman to accompany him to his workplace in order to assist, so neither, to a reasonable extent, should the woman expect the man to pervade her workplace in assistance. As Gutmann puts it, “the gendered division of labor is less a manifestation of subordination than of difference, where difference does not necessarily involve inequality: her husband works outside the home, and she works in it.”

Another way in which women have utilized their position to assist in the demise of the machismo attitude is through the active leadership roles they often take on. For instance, the role in which the women of Santo Domingo played as the daytime defenders and builders while their husbands were out working. They have also played major roles in new social movements (NMSs) in Santo Domingo. The instance of these women playing these roles in Santo Domingo, and the way in which Gutmann presents the environment there to be free from the stereotypical Mexican machos, illustrates the effectiveness of women changing. While every situation and every town is different in regards to this, Gutmann owes much of the credit of dispelling the machismo myth to the active women of

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