ABSTRACT
The concept and cultural imperatives associated with masculinity in Latin American cultures; the Latin American word for the mystique of manliness. Machismo stresses male physical aggressiveness, high risk taking, casual and uninvolved sexual relations with women, and elective penile insertion in other men. Machismo and conventional conceptions of masculinity and gender roles have typically been associated in the literature with backward rural Chicano/Latino culture. In conventional social science model and in popular thought, patriarchal family ideology and structure were considered to be part of the "cultural baggage" that would be replaced by a modern sex role ideology. Whereas the Bem Sex Role Inventory conceives of masculinity and femininity as individual attributes, a new measure was introduced, the Mirande Sex Role Inventory, which looks at masculinity and femininity within a cultural and situational context. The chapter suggests that what is assumed to be universal in the study of gender roles and masculinity and femininity is, in fact, particular and culture specific.
