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Wrapping up
So I finished my 20-page Spanish paper about community health, didn't think that was gonna happen so soon. However, where one paper falls, two take its place, and I have to write a reflective piece on my internship and a summary of my internship (although that can be in English fortunately). In the meantime, I'm slowly amassing more and more stuff to take home; while I planned for bringing home gifts for others I did not plan for receiving gifts from my families. I might have to pick up a second bag of luggage. Anyway, I've got some more photos to upload, some are animals from the zoo I went to, which was pretty cool.
Machoism
So I have to head back to Riobamba soon, although as you can see from the countdown I´ve put up to the right I won´t be there much longer. I really like being in Quito this weekend, and being able to discuss politics and philosophy with my host mom here. One of the things I most enjoyed talking about was machoism, assertive or aggressive manliness; get ready, this is gonna be a lesson-y blog.
I already knew that machoism in Ecuador is pretty bad; in 2006 42% of all Ecuadorian women had experienced violence in their life. What startled me during my discussion with my host mom was that she felt that women were to blame, because they would not defend or stand up for themselves like she has done with her own spouse in the past and because men are by nature macho. Fortunately we came to the conclusion that since machoism is learned behavior from parents its really a societal problem.
Now my mom said that we dont have that sort of problem in the US, and I was inclined to agree, certainly not to the extent in Ecuador. But then I decided to rethink that. At first I couldnt really think of any examples, until I started to think about it more like racism. I´m sure all of you already know about how racism is still active in US society today, especially through subtle stereotyping, and I realized machoism persists in the US in a similar manner. Nowadays a lot of the old stereotypes are being proven way wrong: women CAN drive, women CAN play sports, effetively women CAN do anything men can do and better. But I think there is an underlying notion that women are still supposed to be somehow fragile and dainty on top of that, and moreover, men are not supposed to be this way. However, when I think about it I consider myself rather fragile and dainty. Even I feel that statement is somewhat strange, and I´m sure there´s something uncanny about it for many of you as well. I ask why?
I already knew that machoism in Ecuador is pretty bad; in 2006 42% of all Ecuadorian women had experienced violence in their life. What startled me during my discussion with my host mom was that she felt that women were to blame, because they would not defend or stand up for themselves like she has done with her own spouse in the past and because men are by nature macho. Fortunately we came to the conclusion that since machoism is learned behavior from parents its really a societal problem.
Now my mom said that we dont have that sort of problem in the US, and I was inclined to agree, certainly not to the extent in Ecuador. But then I decided to rethink that. At first I couldnt really think of any examples, until I started to think about it more like racism. I´m sure all of you already know about how racism is still active in US society today, especially through subtle stereotyping, and I realized machoism persists in the US in a similar manner. Nowadays a lot of the old stereotypes are being proven way wrong: women CAN drive, women CAN play sports, effetively women CAN do anything men can do and better. But I think there is an underlying notion that women are still supposed to be somehow fragile and dainty on top of that, and moreover, men are not supposed to be this way. However, when I think about it I consider myself rather fragile and dainty. Even I feel that statement is somewhat strange, and I´m sure there´s something uncanny about it for many of you as well. I ask why?
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