Machismo and Male Chauvenism in the gay community in Bogotá

The study of gender has always been something that has interested me. I have always been fascinated by the changing roles of men and women in various cultures around the world, particularly in Spanish speaking countries, where both concepts of Machismo and Marianismo dominate Latino culture.  If there is one word which is unambiguously associated with Latin America, it would be the term ‘macho’. 

Whilst at University, during my undergraduate degree, I often opted to study modules that dealt with these issues, and must have spent hours upon hours trying to get my head around the concept of Latino male identity. It wasn’t until 6 months ago, when I moved to Bogotá, Colombia that for once I finally started to question gender identity in Latin America and specifically that of Machismo and the role it has to play amongst the homosexual community.

It goes without saying that the area of Gender and Power relations in Iberian culture is far too vast to cover in a blog and surely to form a well-constructed argument we would have to study in-depth Colombian history, especially regarding the influence that colonialisation has had on gender.

 Furthermore, how easy is it really to define what machismo is? In essence, there is no solid definition that can surely fully and accurately describe it. Gender roles in Colombia seem to change between regions and more explicitly from rural to urban areas. It goes without saying that attitudes towards homosexuality in Bogotá will differ significantly to those on the Pacific or Caribbean coast. 

The concept of machismo creates social problems in Latin culture, particularly for women and for other minorities, for example homosexual men who may have an especially tough time in the Latino community given that cultural taboos are strong and gender roles particularly rigid.

To most people, I would imagine that it would appear that machismo (often described as ‘strong or aggressive masculine pride’, ‘manliness’ or ‘manhood’) and homosexuality are two completely different, polar opposite concepts. Nonetheless I think that we all have to be careful in acknowledging the power and danger in labelling different representations on gender in society.

 Is that to say, that all straight, heterosexual men play rugby, drink pints and sit with their legs so far apart that you could drive a bus through them and that all gay men are interested in fashion and listen to Madonna, Kylie and Lady Gaga on repeat? I don’t think so…

Therefore, within this blog, I simply intend to share my personal opinions and observations regarding machismo and homosexuality in Bogotá. As I say, these are merely observations, and I have only been living in Bogotá for six months now. As a result, my words are not necessarily right or correct, so please feel to disagree or challenge what I have to say.

Before arriving in Bogotá, I imagined that it would be a city, not unlike most other Latin American capitals in that it generally is pretty unaccepting of homosexuality and had a strong Catholic Church influence. Surprisingly, within my first couple of weeks living and working in Bogotá, I soon came to realise that it has a thriving gay community, situated in the neighbourhood of Chapinero, or ‘Chapi-gay’ as it is often referred to. Chapinero is the hub of Bogotá’s gay community, hosting more than 100 gay bars/clubs, with the largest undoubtedly being Theatron which opens its doors to over 6,000 people on a Friday and Saturday night. Friends and I have described Theatron as a sort of ‘gay Disneyland’. It caters to all music preferences and you can find yourself dancing salsa, raving or slut-dropping to some reggaeton. And for a measly 27,000 peso entrance fee (little under a tenner) and a free bar, you can dance away until the early hours of the morning. 

Nonetheless, despite having a ‘gay district’ and one of the largest gay clubs in all of Latin America, it doesn’t seem to ease the situation at all for many gay Colombian friends that I have, neither does it make homosexuality any more acceptable. Therefore, I believe that this is the reason for such a thriving gay scene in the city. I have never been anywhere in the world which seems to have as many gay bars, clubs, gyms, saunas and even restaurants. It has become more and more evident to me over the past few months that in a city as large as Bogotá (with a population over 8million people) it is relatively easy to live a double life, one out of the closet and one in it.  

Many gay Colombian men simply chose not to come out of the closet, for various reasons. They don’t want to be seen in certain areas of town, won’t hold hands with their partners and won’t kiss in public, all for various reasons. Andres Duque (a Colombian gay rights activist) stated that, “Our culture sometimes pushes them away from it by not acknowledging the full spectrum of male sexuality— or human sexuality for that matter—and painting anything that does not conform to the heterosexual norm as being evil, sinful and bad.” In other words, the insidiousness of machismo is manifested when individuals feel they must lie to themselves, their families and society. 

Nonetheless, if you ever find yourself in Theatron on a Friday or Saturday night in Bogotá, take yourself off to the salsa room. It is in this room, more so than the reggaeton room that machismo in the gay scene can really be observed at its best. Machismo is evident in all aspects of Latino culture, mainly the arts. For example, let’s take salsa. When dancing salsa, it is the man who is expected to lead the woman, therefore arguably giving him a sense of natural superiority. Therefore, it raises a question as to what happens when two men or two women dance salsa together. Of course, in a ‘normal’ salsa club this would simply never happen. For two men or two women to dance together would simply be absurd, breaking with tradition and gender roles which have existed since before the conquista. 

I remember the first time I saw two men dance together, I thought ‘good for you! You’re breaking the trend!’ thinking that it was a form of refusal to conform to the norms of society given that many homosexual men chose to live all their lives in the closet. However, as I saw this more and more, I soon began to change and develop my opinions. Really, it seemed that it wasn’t that different to watching a man and woman dance salsa together. There wasn’t a clash of gender power on the dance floor. Instead, both men appeared to ‘fulfil their role’ in either taking the male or female part, according to their ‘level’ of masculinity or femininity. I soon quickly began to realise that machismo wasn’t something that was only reserved to heterosexual couples, but that it is something that affects all members of society, straight, gay, bi and everything in-between.

This led me on to think more about stereotypical, pre-dictated gender roles and the need to ‘fit in’ somewhere on the spectrum. That is to say, to be able to be categorised and be labelled as either heterosexual or homosexual and on a deeper level ‘the masculine one’ or ‘the feminine one’. 

“Soy tan macho que me cojo otro hombre”—I'm so macho that I fuck another man—is a Colombian saying. Within the gay community in Bogotá, it would appear that the stereotype of homosexual men as effeminate and passive is so powerful that a man who takes the “active” or “masculine” role, even with another man, is not necessarily seen as homosexual. Therefore, even within gay relationships there is a hierarchy, and to some extent a sense of what is good or bad, right or wrong and fitting with the characteristics of machismo and ‘being a real man’. 

Even the Spanish language itself seems to be plagued with machista undercurrents. In Latino culture, passive partners are often derisively called puto, joto and maricón (all roughly translate to “fag”) while active partners are called mayate, chichifo, chingón (“penetrator,” “male prostitute,” “fucker”), labels that are still derogatory but less stigmatized. Passives are seen as having “abdicated their masculinity,” while actives often still consider themselves to be straight. In the same way, in the Spanish language when a man is referred to as ‘zorro’ (fox-literally) he is seen as a “lad” whereas if we label a woman as ‘una zorra’ she is a slut or a whore. Again, following the rules of machismo, it is always the man that comes out on top whilst women and other minorities including homosexuals are prejudiced against. 

Of course, homosexuality as I have grown up is not something that is always easy to understand. It is neither black nor white. Everyone is different and unique and in the same way that we all have different likes and dislikes about food, fashion and music, we have preferences about who we develop feelings for or fall in love with. Unfortunately, I have found that in Bogotá, the need to fit the mould to such a high degree has to some extent created homophobia within the gay community.

This is something that is not only localised to the gay community in Bogotá, but something that I have experienced on a wider scale, and even back home. I have many gay friends that would claim to dislike lesbians, complain that they have ridiculous hair styles or wear too many checked shirts or look like boys. In the same way, I have heard lesbians show the same degree of homophobia towards gay men claiming that they are all catty, bitchy and drama queens. I too have most likely been guilty of making such ridiculous, unnecessary statements. As I have got older, I have realised that this is exactly the kind of homophobia that we should be completely disregarding. The simple fact that it exists within the gay community should come as a shock, however sadly it doesn’t.  

In conclusion, I believe that whilst Bogotá at first glance may seem to be a lot more progressive than other Latin American capital cities, it still suffers from the same hierarchical, machista society which has existed since the time of the Spanish invasion. It should also be noted that machismo is not solely isolated to Latino culture or to Colombia for that matter. Furthermore, it isn’t only gay men that suffer in machista societies, any minority whether that is gay, bi-sexual or transgender members of the community. In November 2001 Colombia's Ministry of Culture published its vision of the future for the next decade: the National Plan for Culture in which two of the main principles are striking: the recognition of a multi-cultural society, and the importance of ‘remembering’. In some respects I would say that Colombia is a very multi-cultural society already, and in some ways I have found it to be a lot more open-minded than where I am from in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, machismo doesn’t seem to be going away anywhere fast. 

In an interview with Doctor Homero del pino (in which I have copied the link in at the bottom), he states that machismo is simply sexism, and that somehow when we say ‘machismo’ it implies that Latino sexism is in some way egregious. Sexism and misogyny is an issue in most countries and cultures, even the most ‘developed’. Therefore, what we are trying to make sense of is not only an issue localised to Bogotá or Colombia, but the world. Machismo, is it a word that is simply over-used and appears too much in Spanish or Latin American literature or cinema, or is it a significant problem in our societies? 

Given that gender is not a black and white issue, I doubt that the answer is going to be as easy to put our finger on. Nevertheless, machismo is one area of Latin American Studies that cannot simply be ignored. I have never been a massive fan of Germaine Greer, and I can’t believe I’m actually about to quote her, but I have to agree with one thing that she has said, and I will decide to stop writing here before I start running in circles around my head trying to make sense of it all: “The tragedy of machismo is that a man is never quite man enough.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j3UO9Acg5M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Br68aY4nI