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- Convenor:
-
Jimmy Turner
(University of Edinburgh)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Suzanne Clisby
(University of Hull)
- Location:
- ATB G114
- Start time:
- 12 April, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel seeks to draw together views from across disciplines on machismo and marianismo in 21st Century Latin America, particularly questioning whether there is any regional commonality and continuity. A variety of theoretical and substantive paper proposals is encouraged.
Long Abstract:
From the seemingly solid ground of Evelyn Stevens' (1973) theoretical framework of Machismo and Marianismo in Latin America through its subsequent debunking by Tracy Ehlers (1991) and the explosion of interest in masculinities across the region (there are many important contributors, but perhaps Matthew Guttman has been the most influential) the field of Gender Studies in Latin America has seen an increasing atomisation and fracturing. Driven also by Queer Theory this trend leaves us in a position where thinking of gender in a Latin American regional sense becomes difficult, and perhaps damaging. This increased recognition of diversity should be welcomed, but it does leave us needing to question whether in the 21st Century it is at all possible, and indeed desirable, to speak of machismo or marianismo in the sense of being gendered markers for a region. If they are, then how should they now be theorised to account for the diversity which we know to exist across Latin America, and if not then should we not now find new national, local, racial, ethnic, and classed terms and concepts which escape the totalising history of machismo/marianismo? This panel seeks to draw together views from across disciplines on machismo and marianismo in 21st Century Latin America, particularly questioning whether there is any regional commonality and continuity. A variety of theoretical and substantive paper proposals is encouraged.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Maria Calderon Muñoz
Paper short abstract:
The women I interviewed in Quito as part of my research consider the Virgin as a brave and empowered woman. Their ideas differ with the Church’s views that emphasise Mary’s purity. Thus, I argue that the Virgin has become the property of these women and an icon of resistance of male imposed Catholic rules.
Paper long abstract:
The quintessential role model for catholic women is the Virgin Mary. She represents the church's ideal feminine characteristics: obedience to God, chastity and a complete dedication to motherhood. In regions where Catholicism is important such as Latin America, many academics have argued that the Virgin strongly influences how women behave and are socially judged. For some, the influence of the Virgin is positive. However, for others the effect of the Virgin is damaging as she presents a limited and essentialist model of femininity that gives an inordinate amount of importance to sexual purity. However, the actual way that women perceive and relate to the Virgin has not been adequately explored. In this paper I will look at the cult of the Virgin Mary in terms of its practices and its meanings. I did fieldwork in Quito, Ecuador from 2004 to 2006; I interviewed middle class women, most of them married and between 30 and 50 years old. I found out that these women strongly identify with the Virgin Mary; they view her not only as a role model but mainly as a protector and a mother. Furthermore, the Virgin is not regarded as an afflicted figure or victim but instead as a brave and empowered woman. The image they have of the Virgin contrasts with the Church's views that emphasis her obedience and sexual purity. Thus, I argue that the Virgin has become the property of these Catholic women and an icon of resistance of male imposed Catholic rules.
Rosa Garcia-Orellan (Universidad Publica de Navarra)
Paper short abstract:
The study compares Latin American Marianismo with the national Catholocism of Franquista Spain, focusing on three themes: fertility control, contribution to the family wage and woman as heart of the home. It concludes by considering women’s role in the 21stcentury
Paper long abstract:
The paper begins by comparing the literature on Latin American marianismo with Spanish National Catholicism of Franquismo, as found in the Basque port of Pasaia between 1939, the end of the Civil War, to the end of desarrollismo in the 1970s. There, the ideal woman was a housewife, a model promoted by the Falange, through its Sección Feminina, which promoted the image and values of the ideal woman. Key elements included marriage, especially regarding reproduction; the wife's work as "contributing the family wage"; and the image of the ethereal woman: the woman, heart of the home, submissive and attentive to her husband. This ideological framework permeated the world of the woman defined as housewife, which was consolidated in Spain through large, extended families. By the 1970s, however, the ideal was the woman in the nuclear family and she was being forced by economic necessity to occupy a public space alongside her traditional private one. It is in this new reality that we find the roots of the changes, conflicts and newly emerging norms that combined to produce a new reality for women in the twenty-first century. Analysing marianismo within this framework will give us a fresh approach to understanding women's emerging roles.
Marjorie Murray (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
Paper short abstract:
Starting from my ethnographic research on early mothering in different contexts in Chile today, in this paper I reflect upon marianismo as a theoretical tool that, regardless of its limitations, remains important for an understanding of the maternal self and kinship in this country.
Paper long abstract:
For decades, several authors have claimed that marianismo is a fundamental concept for understanding kinship, gender and the maternal self in Latin America (e.g. Stevens 1977, Morandé 1984, Montecino 1991) claiming that the cult of feminine spiritual and moral superiority leads, in turn, to abnegation or the infinite capacity of sacrifice and humility. At the same time, anthropological accounts of mothering in different contexts in the region have turned down this theoretical tool as either too general to account for the specificities of ethnographic findings or as simply inadequate.
In my ongoing ethnographic research on early mothering in different contexts in Chile I have studied the process of becoming a mother -concretely from late pregnancy until the child turns one year of age - of 32 women in Santiago and the Araucanía Region, including women of different class and ethnic identities, living in urban and rural locations. The focus on this process accounts for the materialization of different personal and normative expectations regarding motherhood as well as the everyday coping and decision-making. Based in my findings in this paper I discuss the affordances and limitations of marianismo as a theoretical frame for an understanding of motherhood in Chile today. I claim that regardless of its unsuitability and inaccuracy in a range of cases and contexts, marianismo remains a useful tool to account for class and ethnic differences regarding mothering and kinship, as well as for the various existing tensions between normative expectations and women's everyday experience.
Sarah Parry (University of Liverpool)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses representations of masculinities in relation to urban violence in Colombia, focusing on peripheral young men as presented in recent Colombian testimonios and documentaries. It aligns a particular model of violent masculinity as constructed and imposed upon peripheral urban men.
Paper long abstract:
Colombia has an unquestioned history of violence. This violence has taken place in various locations and to varying degrees of severity, however, it has been a constant since independence. Throughout the many periods of violent conflict, particular violent actors have been overwhelmingly focused upon as its principal perpetrators. In this paper, I focus on the most recent cycle of urban violence, from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, and its focus on peripheral young men as protagonists of this form of violence. Using a number of Colombian testimonios and documentaries from this period, this paper will explore representations of young men in peripheral urban communities through a discussion of the resurgence of the civilisation and barbarism discourse and its imageries. Although the concept of machismo has been significant historically in constructing representations of masculinities in some areas of the Latin American region, this paper suggests that, in Colombia at least, it is not sufficient. Here, masculinities related to violence are aligned with a more global model of violent masculinity, based on a generally peripheral urban location rather than the nation states or geographical regions.
Jimmy Turner (University of Edinburgh)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses two different generations of gaúchas’ views and experiences of machismo, demonstrating that age and experiences lead to differing constructions, and a heterogeneous machismo. I then question whether this renders ‘machismo’ analytically meaningless in the South of Brazil.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will draw on ethnographic research in the Southern Brazilian city of Florianópolis to analyse women's views and experiences of machismo. It focuses on middle-class women who have migrated from the neighbouring state of Rio Grande do Sul, a state which is stereotyped as being hyper-machista, and whose women (gaúchas) are frequently described as long-suffering and subordinate. I separate the gaúchas I researched into the 'generation of mothers' and the 'generation of daughters' to demonstrate how the view of what constitutes machismo, and therefore whether a man is classified as machista, is mediated through generation and experience. I question whether this renders 'machismo' analytically meaningless, or whether enough similarity remains for it to be a useful analytical tool. Beyond this I question whether machismo requires a subordiate marianismo-esque counterpart and whether such an assumption tends to be assumed of women in places heavily associated with machismo, as has been the case for gaúchas. The women I researched saw gaúchas instead as typified by a comparable toughness and rugged frontier mentality to the male gaúcho of myth, women who to them are more than a match for even the most machista of men. My question will then become whether using a clearly heterogeneous machismo which seems to lack a clear female counterpoint as a frame through which to understand gender in the South of Brazil makes any sense, and what this might mean for understandings of gender in Latin American more widely.
Daniela Ramos (University of Brasília)
Paper short abstract:
How are gender and political roles connected, generating distinctive ways of relating to the political field? Women’s and men’s representations on gender and politics have been captured through in-depth interviews in Brasília. Based on these, the concepts of marianismo and machismo are discussed.
Paper long abstract:
The article presents some preliminary results of a doctorate thesis. It analyses to what extent and how social gender roles - both female and male - are related to political roles, generating distinctive ways of relating to the political field. Since the feminist literature argues that there is an association between gender roles and patterns of insertion on the political public sphere, the article explores how this association is manifested empirically in a specific social context through a qualitative case study in the city of Brasilia. Women's and men's representations on gender and politics have been captured through in-depth interviews. Based on these, the concepts of marianismo and machismo are discussed.
Even though Brazilian society has been transforming masculinities and femininities, some important structural dimensions that shape gender identities are still in place. The sexual division of labor has not been significantly altered even if it is true that both women and men (the latter, on a slower pace) have changed their ways of using time regarding non-paid work. Also in terms of changes, both groups are ready to accept that women have achieved more prominent social roles, including in politics. Nevertheless, traditional gender practices and representations are strongly accepted. Women's participation in politics is viewed under the lens of female stereotypes, such as honesty, compassion, and kindness. In addition, religion is one of the greatest sources of gender representations and political references. Religion provides powerful gender narratives that are used by interviewees to talk about a phenomenon that remains largely naturalized.