Could someone please explain what machisomo is?

Question

Could someone please explain machismo and how it is part of the med culture.?

I am trying to explain this to a family member and I just can't find the words! It is a culture thing. When they met my new friends family they thought they were being rude. It is not being rude to be aggressive (both males and females) it is just..um...machismo! Please explain!! Thanks!!

Answer 1

You could try using the expression "male chauvinism"......

I loved the Alitalia-God joke but I don't think this describes machismo at all. I'll do my best to explain.

Let's say you have a family with 1 brother and 1 sister. The brother can go partying whenever he wants, sleep out of his household, s***w many girls, and he's even praised for all this. On the opposite, the sister isn't allowed to do ANY of this: she's not supposed to be back home late, go out alone, hook up with many guys, etc. The brother is expected to become independent (live on his own), find a woman and marry. The woman is NOT expected to leave her parents' house UNTIL she finds someone to marry, gets married and moves to her new husband's house.

Also, in some families women are expected to serve men. My best (girl) friend had an older brother; if he was watching TV and he wanted to drink some milk, their mother would tell my friend: "dear daughter, don't you hear your brother wants some milk?? Please go and bring him a glass"........ another friend of mine cooks dinner for her brother and father as her mom passed away.

Also, there will be employers who won't hire women because they don't consider them as capable as male for X position. OR, maybe they will but they'll feel that a woman doesn't deserve to get paid the same $$ they'd pay to a guy, so she makes less for doing the same job.

All of the above are expressions of MACHISMO. I hope it helps to explain this to your relative.

Answer 2

i have always understood "machismo" to be associated with latino men who are very masculine, but kind of preppy/slightly feminine in a way. you are right in that it is very difficult to describe. and after reading your experience, it seems that it varies from culture to culture. interesting, good luck!

this is how wiki is defining it:

Machismo is a prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme masculism. In many cultures, machismo is acceptable and even expected.

Answer 3

I’ll tell you a purely Italian joke, with a “macho” bit  of truth in it.

“ A guy knocks on St. Peter’s celestial door in Heaven and is given a warm welcome. He is shown around and sees a figure hunched over a cloud shooting by. “Who’s that ?" he asks St. Peter ?” “Take no notice, that is the Lord himself, but he’s playing at being an Alitalia pilot.”. Then they meet another figure sitting on a throne, surrounded by pretty girls. “And who is that  ? “ the guy asks.  ÃƒÂ¢Ã‚€Âœ Well that, is an Alitalia pilot, he just thinks he is God”.

Now, with due respect to the Lord and no trace of blasphemy, the Macho “thinks he is God” and behaves as if every body else is convinced of the same  "fact".

ps.  OK I over simplified, but I think that “machismo” as we knew it in Europe, especially in Italy, is definitely on the way out. I wouldn’t even call it male chauvinism any more, that went out with the Cultural revolution of the seventies. So what is left: habit, simple bad habit. The habit of voting men to Parliament, of giving top jobs to men, because they don’t have babies and families to care for. If society as a whole can improve on that score there won’t be any “room” for machismo. In brief, “Machismo” is still that atavistic belief  that “Mother Earth”, the ancient European goddess, who the Indo-Aryan nomadic invaders turned into “the Gorgon”, is at the complete service of the male population. It’s time Mother Earth, with  all it’s connotations, got a square deal.

So what it all boils down to, in order to explain it in your family, is the excessive pride in being a "male", with nothing more to show for it than "the little difference". The French very gallantly turned the tables and stated "Vive la difference".