The “Macho” Superstructure in Latino Advertisement & Alternative Images

Imagine Ramon Novarro, the "Latin Lover"as a Clown?  

I grew up in a Puerto Rican household, where men came first, mothers second, boys third, women fourth and the girls, dead last.  Men were to be taken seriously.  Boys were expected to follow and encouraged to act like “little hombres,” not be viewed like clowns.  All the while mothers were to be adored, protected, and once of age, sons were expected to correct them; daughters came second in just about everything, their brothers were their keepers.  Men could go around and pick up as many women as they wanted; treat them in any manner they pleased; have no shame, and still be viewed honorable.   But, once a woman exhibited any similar semblance, she was viewed as a "whore."   Machismo is embedded in the Latino/Latina psyche.  What role has machismo played in advertisement?  What is the relevance of the “Macho Superstructure” and its  nexus to Latino advertisement? Machismo is best described as a strong or exaggerated sense of masculinity stressing attributes such as aggression, physical courage, virility, and domination of women.

To understand the complexity and inter-relationship of machismo (or its counterpart, "marianismo") and mass media, I find relevance in exploring the positions that they hold in our “Superstructure,” that ideological theory that society consist of two parts: (1) the Base; and (2) the  “Superstructure.”   The Base is made up of all of us; no one is excluded from the Base.  We are either active or passive participants, consuming, working, producing, creating, benefiting or managing aspects of society.  We develop relations from this participation that determine other relationships and ideas.  The latter form the core of the “Superstructure,” and include culture (norms and mores), institutions (mass media), power hierarchies (machismo), roles (gender stations), rituals (“rites of passage”), and the like.  It is the Base, made up of the powerless through the powerful, that determines, conditions and influences the Superstructure, by way of mass media, family, religion, education.  The Superstructure reciprocates, maintains and legitimates the Base.

An interesting extension of this concept forms a major part of Anthony Cortese's narrative in "Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertisement," which is that advertisement is the foundation of the mass media.  The articles by Anthony Cortese, Douglas Kellner, Gloria Steinem, and Jean Kilbourne provide insight and explanation as to how I understand the Superstructure perpetuates the culture of machismo by legitimizing it as a core value in American-Latino life aligned with the much larger, Patriarchy. These commentators explain the various forms in which images are packaged in advertising in mainstream media, with direct and indirect nuances of sexism and racism and the power hierarchy, which is just as applicable to machismo Latino-advertisement.

Is machismo Latino-advertisement different from chauvinism? It is an extension of sexism and discrimination?  Does it convey racism?  A 1970's advertisement reveals more than the great taste of Puerto Rican coffee called "Cafe Yaucono," (which I grew up drinking – No, Cafe Bustelo in our house! - ).  Here, you have the image of women in the kitchen making coffee, preparing it, and placing it on the table for the male spectator. What is also subtle and indirect is the placement of two women, both are stationed in their perceived status.  The first is presented as the "kitchen help," while the other, the lighter-skin woman, is represented as the "lady of the house," but both appear to "share the same man."  Thus, what I conclude is that the Macho Superstructure at play not only strengthens and enforces the Patriarchy by conveying the dominant male role, but also stations the  "lady of the house" over the "woman in the kitchen."

The Latino advertisement market constantly bombards the community with images that dress the female gender in a way that is not far from the kitsch of the 1960s, described by Douglas as "flying nuns, witches, genies, twig-thin models and go-go-boot clad dancers in cages" (Susan Douglas, "Where the Girls Are, Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, p 5). Indeed contemporary Latino advertisement portray Latina women with less and less cloths.  Latina women appear to be portrayed with more mascara, less clothing, "eagerly available" to the male spectator and presented as a role model for the female viewer. As noted by  Jean Kilbourne, "[f]emales have long been divided into virgins and whores" (Jean Kilbourne, "The More You Subtract, The More You Add", p 145).

Calvin Klein / Zoe Saldana

Images from Google).Machismo Latino-advertisement can be described in words best framed by Cortese as to all advertisement regardless of community, which is "a pattern of symbolic and institutionalized sexism . . . [consisting of]  . . .  any attitude, behavior, institutional arrangement, or policy that favors one gender over another" (Cortese, A, "Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertisement, p 45).  

What is the "pleasure" conveyed in these examples other then enhancement of the machismo culture and a candid (at times overt) interest in sex.  But, what is different in machismo Latino-advertisement from mainstream advertisement is the absence of  thin, walking dead, females on the runway.   Unlike the pervasive image portrayed in mainstream media, what Jean Kilbourne described as “[g]irls of all ages get the message that they must be flawlessly beautiful  and [skinny]” (p, 132), Latina women are portrayed as "meatier."  Unlike Anthony Cortese’s “Perfect Provocateur,” which he contends is portrayed by mainstream advertisers as “young, beautiful, and seductive,” is the opposite – no lines, no wrinkles, and indeed “not human, rather, she is a form or hollow shell” (Cortese, A, supra, p 54), the machismo Latino-advertisement "machine" re-engineers the female image of the main stream into its own,  she is ""Latina-nized" into  what I call: "La Mamasita -Provocadora Perfecta"!

The purpose is twofold: (1) to perpetuate the Macho (Mamasita) culture: and (2) to convince HER that this is the image HE wants, HE desires, and having it will bring HER pleasure. At its core,  machismo Latino-advertisement is both chauvinism and reactionary and much like racism an oppressive ideology.

If there is an alternative to this landscape, it has to begin at the Base (discussed, supra), which will  influence the Superstructure and in turn the norms and mores, mass media, and power hierarchies in our society.   Educating children from head-start to third grade (formidable years in education) with a focus of de-emphasizing rigid gender roles - which left unaddressed evolve into barriers - is a start.  Early education with children, focusing on their behavioral/emotional expressiveness, including verbal and nonverbal, with teaching tools that emphasize gender neutral roles in society as well as social orientation, will influence the Base once these children become active and/or passive participants in society.  Young children will  develop relations from their participation that ultimately will form the core of the Superstructure, thereby influencing our culture, mass media, the power hierarchies (machismo),  and the like.  They will become the next consumers, marketers, buyers, users of products, and the images they convey in that process will be influenced by how they see themselves and others. This is not an easy task and for those who are only myopic, unfathomable.  But, if one looks at the bigger picture there is room for "mucho" improvement.

Sources:

1.   Susan Douglas, "Where the Girls Are, Growing Up Female with the Mass Media," Random House, 1994, New York, NY, 1994

2.   Jean Kilbourne, "The More You Subtract, The More You Add,"  DEADLY PERSUASION, The Free Press, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1999

3.   Anthony Cortese, "Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertisement," Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999


4.   Douglas Kellner . Reading Images Critically: Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy,  Journal of Education, v170 n3 p31-52 1988

5.   Gloria Steinem, "Sex Lies and Advertising," - Ms. Magazine, v 1, July 1990