Masculinity In Mexican Culture

719 Words3 Pages
As constant as change, historical development of masculinity and gender stratification in Mexico and for Mexican Americans had been continuously occuring. Lies behind that development are myriad of factors and concepts that can be acceptable to many however prone to create critiques to others as well. In a working-class neighborhood in Sto Domingo Mexico, where Matthew Guttman conducted his ethnographic field work to delve into the changing males identities, several factors lead to a deeper understanding of this dramatic tranformation of what it really means to be a man and or a woman. Gender relations is always brought back by the shadow of historical past, which can only be revealed by tracing the roots using the national and cultural histories of Mexican Culture and exploring the differences particularly on how male and female played a significant role. Masculinity had been always synonymous to the word macho. However there is an unbalance representation of the word macho itself. The negative contructs sided to the alpha male that usually known to be _________ while the positive depict the men who are connected to the family and who is bound to the responsibility of protecting their family. Compare to the old times, Mexican me are no longer to the knitted to the stereotyped macho. Due to the ever changing gender categories that are variously defined nowadays, men and women are now thinking outside the box and enable development to take place. As discussed by Guttman,