HIST 461 - On Machos, Virgins, and Mothers: Gender in Latin American History

Credit Hours: 4
Frequency of Offering: Offered in alternate years, usually in the spring semester

While popular misconceptions of Latin America claim that gender identities were fixed and static, this course wishes to highlight how contested gender prescriptions were, and how the negotiations over what was accepted and appropriate for women’s and men’s behavior shaped the social and political history of Latin America. What made men “honorable” or “macho,” for example, just as women’s role as mothers and caregivers acquired various meanings over different historical periods. Sexuality (what was accepted for both men and women) also cannot be understood without a historical perspective. And gender identities, throughout, were much affected by race, class and ethnicity. This course, in short, examines the construction of gender identities in Latin America over 500 years of history.