El machismo. Machismo is a Spanish word for the sense of hyper-masculinity that haunts the Latinx community. Toxic masculinity has been making its way into the limelight through forms of social media and news outlets as a result of being an issue that has continuously tormented society and been assumingly accepted. Despite its cross-cultural presence, toxic masculinity has sparked attention particularly in the vibrant culture of the Latinx community. Outdated attitudes towards masculinity and femininity continue to pervade in Latinx homes. Latinx boys and girls both feel the effects of these ingrained attitudes towards masculinity and will continue to face the pain from the reinforcement of it unless we become aware; we can only change that which we are aware of and for this reason must make an effort whether big or small to stop the habits that …show more content…
Boys don’t wear makeup. Boys do things on their own. Boys don 't need help from a girl. Men don 't clean; that 's the women 's job. Men are tough and stand up for themselves. Suppress all and any signs of femininity. Why? Because it makes you look weak. All of these ideas comprise areas of the concept of machismo. In many cultures, it seems that masculinity is a quality prized particularly with the addition of the ideal "femininity ". In a so-called "ideal" household, the woman stays home and cooks and cleans. Meanwhile the man goes to work then comes back home. Nothing more, nothing less. This lifestyle restriction is far more common among older Latinx folks. However, they still have an effect on younger generations. We usually grow up with abuelo and abuela (grandpa and grandma) as they serve to be types of role models to us. It is this older generation also that raised prior generations to millennials. With these strict upbringings comes a strong sense of machismo. Toxic masculinity isn 't a myth, especially in the Latinx community. It is a social phenomenon that many of us have witnessed in our own