Mexican and Brazilian Machismo: Cultural Tolerance
Mexican and Brazilian Machismo: Cultural Tolerance

Summary/Abstract: Thousands of Latin American women disappear on daily basis. The United Nations through the Women Unit classifies Mexico as an emergency State, and Brazil as an alarming country in terms of violence and murder against women and little girls. However, the key question is to analyse the tolerance toward violence and subjugation of women in Mexico and Brazil. The hypothesis of this work is based on the idea that violence against women in Mexico and Brazil is due to prevalent machismo in those countries, which is influenced by the political, social, economic and cultural structure. The present text aims to understand how machismo is embodied into Mexican and Brazilian culture, reflected into family and social structures and values, as well as inside the political establishment, which contributes not only to subjugating women, but also to increasing gender violence in these countries, where corruption and impunity are also critical. The text is based on an interdisciplinary perspective, with ethnographic data extracted by direct interviews conducted in the communities of Xochimilco, South of Mexico City, Mexico. The article exposes the main perspectives about machismo, offers a cultural description of family values and social tolerance towards machismo, provides a general picture about the levels of gender violence in Mexico and Brazil, and presents the role of political establishment in the development of machismo, and finally it offers some conclusive comments.

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