Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses two different generations of gaúchas’ views and experiences of machismo, demonstrating that age and experiences lead to differing constructions, and a heterogeneous machismo. I then question whether this renders ‘machismo’ analytically meaningless in the South of Brazil.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will draw on ethnographic research in the Southern Brazilian city of Florianópolis to analyse women's views and experiences of machismo. It focuses on middle-class women who have migrated from the neighbouring state of Rio Grande do Sul, a state which is stereotyped as being hyper-machista, and whose women (gaúchas) are frequently described as long-suffering and subordinate. I separate the gaúchas I researched into the 'generation of mothers' and the 'generation of daughters' to demonstrate how the view of what constitutes machismo, and therefore whether a man is classified as machista, is mediated through generation and experience. I question whether this renders 'machismo' analytically meaningless, or whether enough similarity remains for it to be a useful analytical tool. Beyond this I question whether machismo requires a subordiate marianismo-esque counterpart and whether such an assumption tends to be assumed of women in places heavily associated with machismo, as has been the case for gaúchas. The women I researched saw gaúchas instead as typified by a comparable toughness and rugged frontier mentality to the male gaúcho of myth, women who to them are more than a match for even the most machista of men. My question will then become whether using a clearly heterogeneous machismo which seems to lack a clear female counterpoint as a frame through which to understand gender in the South of Brazil makes any sense, and what this might mean for understandings of gender in Latin American more widely.