Review of Matthew C. Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996)

Citation

Viadro, Claire Isabel (1997). Review of Matthew C. Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996). American Journal of Sociology, 102(5), 1482-1483.

Abstract

With his ethnography of “what it means to be a man” in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann embarks on a social science crusade “to imagine and invent new ways of describing, interpreting, and explaining cultural emergence and variation” (p. 13). Acknowledging his debt to feminist anthropology and gender studies, Gutmann ventures into the still largely uncharted territory of male gender identities. Although Gutmann’s primary goal is to challenge “exaggerated” depictions of Mexican men as macho progenitors, the book also furnishes fascinating evidence of the ways in which stereotypes propagated by social scientists (e.g., machismo) trickle down and influence ordinary citizens, becoming part of their symbolic capital

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/231110

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

1997

Journal Title

American Journal of Sociology

Author(s)

Viadro, Claire Isabel