Machismo and Gender Equality in Argentina

Maverique

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I've just arrived in Argentina for 6 weeks to finish my thesis "Machismo and Patriarchy at the Heart of Argentine Culture" for my Masters in Gender Studies at U of T. One of my mentors wrote this interesting blog post:

“Machismo.” The word rings loud in my ears as I walk down the street each day, receiving numerous catcalls. I hear catcalls of “rubia. hermosa,” which means "beautiful blonde girl" in English. These catcalls are the soundtrack to my daily commute. Seemingly inconsequential words that shouldn’t roll off my back so easily but, after almost two months, are the unfortunate background noise that I’ve adopted here in Buenos Aires.

Machismo in Argentina

What are your experience with Machismo in Argentina?
 
This post was inspired by a post in my other thread, by a male saying there was no machismo in Argentina - as if he would know...
 
Some Canadian rolls down to BA to find and report on the patriarchy at the heart of Argentine Culture, got it.

I really hope you speak Spanish, because you're going to need it to get the subtlety. Probably 90% of Argentine woman you talk with will be happy to explain in great detail and with great energy that men are pigs, you wouldn't believe how men act like they own the place, they're basically children and it's impossible to get on with them in any way shape or form, etc. But, if you don't speak Spanish, you'll never get to see how annoyed most of these very same women get when men neglect to perform the appropriate male duties as prescribed by Argentine social and cultural conventions, how important these are to most people, etc.

You'll notice something odd about Argentina, which is that despite the economic turmoil that frequently roils the place, and the better opportunities elsewhere particularly for such a well-educated people, and the very large number of its citizens who possess EU passports and could leave - despite all these things, emigration from Argentina is very low for a country of its per capita GDP. You'll get this when you start talking with some Argentines, and this you can get even if you're only speaking English: Argentines just love Argentine culture.

So, the question is: if patriarchy is at the center of Argentine culture, that is, if both men and women want and even cherish the performance of cultural acts and relationships that you consider to be, at heart, patriarchical - then at what point is your seeing 'patriarchy' in these practices just you imposing some foreign value onto a different place, and declaring that the people who don't see it as 'patriarchy' suffer from false consciousness? Like, we're not talking about people trading slaves here, we're talking about Argentines in Argentina.

Like, seriously, Argentina.
 
the only the the OP seems interested in doing is starting threads with this message and not discussing anything. the first one didn't go as she hoped so a new one was started.
 
the only the the OP seems interested in doing is starting threads with this message and not discussing anything. the first one didn't go as she hoped so a new one was started.
I'm more interested in women's opinions on this. I just noticed there was a woman's forum. I would like to have this post moved to the women's forum and hopefully this will cut down on the mansplaining.
 
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