Macho, macho man...?



Gutmann, M. “Gender Conventions” in The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. By Matthew C. Gutmann. Pp. 1-10 Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Gutmann enfoca su trabajo etnográfico en los significados asociados a la masculinidad y la paternidad en ciudad de México. Uno de sus objetivos es cuestionar la premisa con que han operado hasta ahora los estudios etnográficos en asumir apriori una categoría homogénea del "hombre mexicano" que frecuentemente es caracterizado como macho-machista, violento, borracho y ausente de la crianza de los niños. De hecho, Gutmann está preocupado por la forma como las/os antropólogas/os han contribuido a fijar este estereotipo, haciendo notar que es imposible encontrar una identidad masculina unitaria debido a fracturas generacionales, de clase, región y etnicidad; y que los significados sobre qué significa "ser macho" han ido cambiando a través del tiempo. De hecho, a Gutmann le parece un poco problemático y racista apuntar constantemente a esta figura del macho, implicando que el sexismo más extremo se encuentra sólo en México. Para él la situación es bastante más compleja, con patrones más variados e inestables, con una relación no directa entre lo que los hombres declaran y cuales son sus prácticas cotidianas concretas.

Comments

  1. JonSeptember 8, 2009 at 12:26 PM

    This sounds like an interesting book... so men aren't as stereotypically macho as is assumed (and even as they say they are?) in Mexico? I wonder if the situation is similar in Chile.

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  2. Manuela Valle-CastroSeptember 11, 2009 at 12:05 PM

    Studies about masculinity in Chile have proliferated since the late 1990's, when José Olavarría, Ximena Valdés and other scholars from FLACSO activated the “Red de Masculinidad” (http://www.eurosur.org/FLACSO/masculinidad.html), an academic research oriented group that held the seminar “Primer Encuentro de Estudios de Masculinidad: Identidades, discursos y deseos” in Santiago in 1999. From the beginning, this scholarship explored the links between aspects of hegemonic masculinities, identity, power, violence and discourse, and understood “masculinity” as a relational category that is always constructed in relationship to femininity. Currently, a very active network called Eme (http://www.eme.cl/) works connected to regional and international networks on masculinity, along with some academic programs on masculinity. It is also noticeable that these scholarship builds bridges between identities and power domestic relations, and recognizes both the importance of engaging men in the transformation of gender relations, and the role of the state and public policies in shaping gender discourses. Some of the findings summarized in the webpages both of FLACSO's Red de Masculinidad and Eme indicate, among other things, the existence of competing versions of masculinity and point to the inconsistencies between normative notions of masculinity and concrete everyday practices.

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