Books about Machismo from Amazon.com

"Rambo took the barrios by storm: Spanish videotapes of the movie were widely available, and nearly all the boys and young men had seen it, usually on the VCRs of their family's more affluent friends. . . . As one young Sandinista commented, 'Rambo is like the Nicaraguan soldier. He's a superman. And if the United States invades, we'll cut the marines down like Rambo did.' And then he mimicked Rambo's famous war howl and mimed his arc of machine gun fire. We both laughed."--from the book
There is a Nicaragua that Americans have rarely seen or heard about, a nation of jarring political paradoxes and staggering social and cultural flux. In this Nicaragua, the culture of machismo still governs most relationships, insidious racism belies official declarations of ethnic harmony, sexual relationships between men differ starkly from American conceptions of homosexuality, and fascination with all things American is rampant. Roger Lancaster reveals the enduring character of Nicaraguan society as he records the experiences of three families and their community through times of war, hyperinflation, dire shortages, and political turmoil.
Life is hard for the inhabitants of working class barrios like Doña Flora, who expects little from men and who has reared her four children with the help of a constant female companion; and life is hard for Miguel, undersized and vulnerable, stigmatized as a cochón--a "faggot"--until he learned to fight back against his brutalizers.
Through candid discussions with young and old Nicaraguans, men and women, Lancaster constructs an account of the successes and failures of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, documenting the effects of war and embargo on the cultural and economic fabric of Nicaraguan society. He tracks the break up of families, surveys informal networks that allow female-headed households to survive, explores the gradual transformation of the culture of machismo, and reveals a world where heroic efforts have been stymied and the best hopes deferred. This vast chronicle is sustained by a rich theoretical interpretation of the meanings of ideology, power, and the family in a revolutionary setting.
Played out against a backdrop of political travail and social dislocation, this work is a story of survival and resistance but also of humor and happiness. Roger Lancaster shows us that life is hard, but then too, life goes on..
Price: $11.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this compelling study of machismo in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico and offers a sensitive and often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex. This tenth anniversary edition features a new preface that updates the stories of the book's key protagonists..
Price: $16.96 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the first cross-cultural study of manhood as an achieved status, anthropologist David D. Gilmore finds that a culturally sanctioned stress on manliness--on toughness and aggressiveness, stoicism and sexuality--is almost universal, deeply ingrained in the consciousness of hunters and fishermen, workers and warriors, poets and peasants who have little else in common..
Price: $11.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Spectacular Bodies unravels the complexities of popular action cinema, a genre too often dismissed as ``obvious'' in its pleasures and politics Yvonne Tasker here argues that films such as Rambo, Thelma and Louise, and Basic Instinct should be analyzed and understood within a cinematic as well as a political context. Tasker asserts that today's action cinema not only responds to 1980s shifts in gendered, sexual and racial identities, but also reflects the influences of other media, such as the new video culture. Her detailed discussion of the homoeroticism surrounding the muscleman hero, the symbolic centrality of blackness within the crime narrative and the changing stature of women within the genre marks the re-constitution of these identities through the shifting categories of race, class, ethnicity, nation, sex and sexuality..
Price: $28.07 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the search for quality entertainment, a man must be heavily armed against the snobbery and derision of a Leonard Maltin or a Janet Maslin. Here, at last, is a movie reference guide that doesn't look down its nose at action films, but actually celebrates the genre. Based on rock-hard decades of macho wisdom, The Manly Movie Guide is your ticket to movies that shoot first and ask if it makes sense later. Yet this masterful compendium goes way beyond Arnold, Sly, and Bruce. While it does list hundreds of your favorite films and categories, The Manly Movie Guide is far more than just a collection of capsulized reviews. Like the brawniest heroes, this book has wit, sensitivity, and a real brainy heart. Not to mention the guts to use them all with extreme prejudice. Part movie reference, part pop culture guide, part humor and part homage, The Manly Movie Guide is a must for film fans of every gender and testosterone level. .
Price: $29.55 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A Jungian psychoanalyst and a mythologist teach men how to recover the warrior within themselves and to use this aggressive energy to improve their careers, their family lives, and their roles in the community. 75,000 first printing. Major ad/promo..
Price: $15.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From the Homeboy to the Latin Lover, America cherishes a host of images about Latino men, yet all are based on the belief in macho men, virile and brash, full of violence and testosterone. With the gender correctness of the 90s challenging all men to embrace a new masculinity, how do Latino men of today--grounded in the "macho" tradition -- define this new identity?

From today's best-known, as well as emerging, Latino writers, poet and editor Ray Gonzalez has gathered personal essays written especially for Muy Macho on machismo and masculinity. The result is a rich and exciting collection of men talking about themselves, about other men, about their wives and lovers, about their fathers and their sons. In "Me Macho, You Jane," Dagoberto Gilb contrasts how he perceives himself with how others, particularly women, interpret his behavior, while in "Whores," Luis Alberto Urrea chronicles a rite of passage for many Latino men.  Most insightful and moving are essays like "The Puerto Rican Dummy and the Merciful Son" by poet Martin Espada, which portray the fragile love between fathers and sons and the process by which men learn from and teach each other how to be men.

Muy Macho contains photographs of all contributors, while Gonzalez illuminates the cultural context of Latino masculinity in his introduction. Emotionally honest and powerfully written, the voices of Muy Macho break the "cult of silence" between Latino men which prevents our culture from understanding the true nature of machismo..
Price: $7.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Lehman brings together new work on masculinity in film by established film scholars, new academics, performance artists, and cultural critics. The essays analyze trends from the role of gay men in saving heterosexuality to masculinity, masculinity in World War II films..
Price: $24.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

comic drama, "machos are regular guys too" .
Price: $6.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Straight, gay, macho man, or great big sissy, it's tough to be a guy. Brian Bouldrey is a bona fide sissy - but he was also an Eagle Scout and a member of the Order of the Arrow with a secret Indian name that translates as "Active One."

In "Monster" Bouldrey goes undercover and over the top to stalk machismo in action. At the same time Bouldrey bares his own soul - and imperfections - with disarming, and often hilarious, honesty..
Price: $2.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]