UNDRESSING MARIANISMO AND MACHISMO: REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN MEXICAN EROTIC COMICS

Abstract

Machismo and marianismo are among the most significant and pervasive concepts ascribed to gender behavior and values within Latin America and its diaspora. Yet, little research addresses the problematic origins, applications, effects, and continued tenacity of this binary. The present study contributes to the contested debate over the machismo-marianismo dichotomy and questions the legitimacy of this paradigm for studying and characterizing gender in Latin America. Through a content analysis of a hundred-unit sample, the present paper sets out to examine how gender is presented in pornographic comics sold throughout Mexico and to what extent those representations align with the characteristics outlined by the marianismo machismo model of gender. Many inconsistencies were found between theorized gender practices in Latin America and the portrayals of men and women found in the comic imaginary. The narratives and sketches of men and women examined here raise questions about the ways in which Latin American and Latino masculinity and femininity have been traditionally understood and studied.