The reading, Gay, Latino and Macho, explores four men’s struggles with being gay in a Latino culture. These men share their stories on how they are treated by society for being different. In their communities, men need to show machismo attributes and men who do not meet the standards are not seen as real men. I don’t believe there was a clear thesis to this reading but I do believe there was a purpose, and that is to address how harsh the machismo Latino culture can be to those who homosexual. In order to fix this problem, people need to bring about a more accepting culture for gay people to live in. Some ideologies addressed in this reading included jobs, family roles, and machismo ideology. Some jobs are not suited for men, like working …show more content…
The first institution is family and it explains how family reinforces the ideologies of the machismo culture. For instance, one mother pushed her son to get a job working with his hands rather because that is what men do. She did not allow her son to become a fashion designer like he wanted to because that was a job for women. Religion played a crucial role in one man’s life because he was shown that you cannot be religious if you are gay. This man was taken from his home by church members and forced to denounce his sexuality. Members wanted to cure his problem by removing the demon that was making him gay. A third ideology presented is culture. Latinos already have a set representation of masculinity and those who don’t meet the expectations are not seen as full masculine. Society is another institution and the author explains how people around you will constantly check on each other to make sure you are conforming to the masculine …show more content…
One intersection is race, such as Latino males needing to have an increased sense of masculinity. They need to fit the standards their ethnicity sets for them. Another intersection is religion, where you cannot be both gay and religious, and also where being gay is the result of having a demon inside of you. I believe sexuality is the main intersection addressed. Being gay is seen as something to avoid, it is seen as a problem needing to be fixed. Most men feel the need to hide it from their families and society. The impact ideologies presented by the people in the story create a picture of what it means to be a Latino male. Institutions enforced the ideologies of masculine Latino culture. Family, religion, and culture uphold the standards for machismo. The intersections showed how various aspects of Latino male lives and contribute to their perceived levels of masculinity. People born into the Latino macho community need to carry on the appearance of increased
“O it’s against the laws of nature for a Dominicano to die without fucking at least once,” (174) said Yunior, during a night in his college dorm room with Oscar Woa. These two characters are from a book titled “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Woa” a story about Oscar trying to find real love for the first and the journey his friends and his family go through during this time. In this book there is a reappearing theme that continues to show itself, that theme is Dominican masculinity. Dominican masculinity is described as a manly man who can pull women and that also has this certain type of mojo that defines their personality. The only things is that this certain masculinity rather than representing a healthy self-esteem and sense of power, Dominican masculinity represents a cocky kind of self-destructive personality that seems to emotionally stunt the men characters. Most of the male characters seem to have this certain masculinity, except our protagonist Oscar.
In this short interview with Betye Saar, it depicts the gay rights in the Los Angeles are still disputed. California was the first state that legalized gay marriage. One of the hopes people move to Los Angeles is to have a better life that includes the human rights. Although the gay rights have already been established in Los Angeles, but in reality they are still outcast by the society. This shows another side of Los Angeles that people are not only struggling in getting jobs, but also human rights. The city of Angels fails to give hope to its citizens. The disappointment that most of the authors in the readings experience has leaded some extreme action, such as riot in Nathanael West’s the Day of the Locust, and this reading as well.
Richard Rodriguez in his piece “Late Victorians” paints a picture as an outside observer of gay culture in San Francisco. He opens and closes with thoughts from St. Augustine and continues through the paper to write of his heavy Catholic influence in his thinking. As a gay male that migrated to San Francisco, Rodriguez speaks of the stereotypes within the gay community, always putting himself in a different if not elevated category.
Montoya, Margret E. "Masks and Identify," and "Masks and Resistance," in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader New York: New York University Press, 1998.
In Hombres y Machos Alfredo Mirandé attempts to rectify what he considers misconceptions about Chicano/Latino masculinity that have been perpetuated in the writings of foreign social scientists, whose research is based on "meagre, nonexistent, and misinterpreted evidence" (5). Mirandé calls into question the negative, monolithic view of machismo and Latino masculinity according to which men are powerful, aggressive, and dominant and women are weak, submissive, and self-sacrificing. He further suggests that these negative images are used to legitimate the economic and political subordination of Latinos.
The normalization of being a heterosexual presence would classify you as normal and you’d feel accepted by many different groups and communities by default. Certainly no one would deny that being true. What seems to be the issue is why is being heterosexual is the only type of normality society seems to accept. While reading Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/ La Frontera, the author brought up her personal struggles with her sexuality within her culture and with society. As well as other difficulties when being a female and being lesbian (Anzaldúa and Saldívar-Hull, 41). The scope of this essay should cover the many different borders we face as humans when it comes to where we draw the line on sexuality.
Latino homophobia still exists and continues to be a problem in today’s society. The Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community is growing stronger because more people are coming out to rebel against the systems of society. Since the systems of society are based on cultural norms, the homophobia should be addressed because the LGBTQ community face different forms of violence and as a result new generations will be coming to be accepting them as normal individuals.
Political leaders like Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and Hipolito Mejia are enforcers of such societal norms of masculinity. Many people in the Dominican Republic looked up to them during their time in office. In order for society to possess these ideas of masculinity, there has to be someone who will reenforce it everyday. Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic for 31 years, oppressing and doing as he pleased. The novel focuses on many aspects of his dictatorship and how it affected Beli. We can also say that Hipolito Mejia also reinforces these ideas of masculinity whenever he says “llego papa” (daddy is here) during his electoral campaigns (Horn Maja 8-9). These words suggest that the father of the house will bring solutions and fix everything is the house once he comes.This goes
Queer Latino/as encompass both of these states of being, which often clash with each other and society in general, creating a “busy street with lots of foot traffic”(Servera, 141). Using concepts like “homemaking,” “choreographies of hope” and clear examples throughout
Ojeda, L., Rosales, R., & Good, G. E. (2008). Socioeconomic status and cultural predictors of male role attitudes among Mexican American men: Son más machos?. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 9(3), 133.
Masculinity is an idea that people, usually men, set, to achieve their ego. From generation to generation, men put on this mask of masculinity to hide their true self, to put up a front that’s made up of lies and discomfort. In the collection of stories Drown, by Junot Diaz, Diaz portrayed, through the perspective of Latino men, an overall idea of masculinity, and how masculinity is being used and misunderstood. From Ramon to his two sons, Yunior and Rafa, Diaz portrayed a pass of this idea of masculinity through family, passed down from the first to the next generation. Ramon, during the youth of Yunior and Rafa, sets up an image of how a man should be, how to show people their masculinity. The concept of masculinity, portrayed by Diaz through
“The unprecedented growth of the gay community in recent history has transformed our culture and consciousness, creating radically new possibilities for people to ‘come out’ and live more openly as homosexuals”(Herdt 2). Before the 1969 Stonewall riot in New York, homosexuality was a taboo subject. Research concerning homosexuality emphasized the etiology, treatment, and psychological adjustment of homosexuals. Times have changed since 1969. Homosexuals have gained great attention in arts, entertainment, media, and politics. Yesterday’s research on homosexuality has expanded to include trying to understand the different experiences and situations of homosexuals (Ben-Ari 89-90).
Up until recently, the definition of what a man or a woman should be has been defined, with boundaries, by society; males should be strong, dominant figures and in the workplace providing for their families while females should be weak and submissive, dealing with cleaning, cooking and children. Any veering away from these definitions would have disrupted the balance of culture completely. A man playing housewife was absurd, and a woman being the sole provider for the family bizarre. In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” and Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”, conflict arises when expectations based on gender are not fulfilled by the characters.
It suggests that it is meaningless to talk in general about 'women' or any other group, as identities consist of so many elements that to assume that people can be seen collectively on the basis of one shared characteristic is wrong. Indeed, it proposes that we deliberately challenge all notions of fixed identity, in varied and non-predictable ways. Moreover, Queer theory is a rapidly growing field in the critical theory tradition. Often examining the intersection of capitalism, gender, heterosexism and the state, queer theory is constantly seeking to break down norms and question the status quo. It is in the realm of male homoeroticism that we may see the potentially reactionary and/or misogynist implications of queer texts and queer reception: non-straightness does not necessarily embrace liberation. Perhaps the most prominent examples of this are the straight male-oriented genres such as gangster films, the Western, action films, and buddy films, which position male homoeroticism as a means to create and defend a “world of men” and buttress “hard” masculinity against the softening effects of domesticity and heterosexual commitment. There may be readers, including those who have not encountered such ideas before, who are dismayed to find in the pages of a socialist publication a word which they had previously taken to be a gross homophobic insult. For most,
ion. “For many if not most future homosexual adults, their childhood families are organized around compulsory heterosexuality, rendering homosexuality invisible or taboo.” Green makes several statements similar to this when he could have provided any evidence or statistical data reinforcing his findings. This section of the study is structured more like a short biography of each participant. This weakens the study and suggests a personal connection not only between Green and each participant, but also between each participant and the readers of Green’s study. Conveying the stories of these black, gay men’s lives to emote stories of desperation and a lack of perseverance is a subtle form of exploitation that Green clearly did not realize when he was conducting these interviews. Green does not realize this because his identity as a white, gay man is privileged with not having to have his story be one that is compared to other white, gay men and used as a standard for which all other stories as considered related to. Within the gay community, the white, gay man is shielded with the being the face for movement for all LGBTQ people and being represented more in mainstream media (television shows, movies, pornography). Without accusing Green, fetishisizing black, gay men is an inexcusable proclivity within the gay community especially within urban areas