Often times, queer young adult literature highlights issues that plague adolescents without ever providing an account that feels authentic for its readers. Chulito by Charles Rice-Gonzalez is a gripping fictional account of what it means to be young, gay and Puerto Rican in New York City. Rice-Gonzalez is a lecturer at Hostos Community College and a longtime LGBT activist within the Bronx. Set in the South Bronx, Chulito explores a variety of themes, including masculinity, gayness, identity, and love. In this book, Rice Gonzalez highlights the importance seeing masculinity as being complex instead of dichotomous- that different forms of masculinity exist, even ones that do not conform to the societal standards of what it means to be “a man” in Nuyorican culture. Gonzalez also explores the impact of social networks and physical environments on whether a character is able to assert their identity or not, as seen through Chulito. …show more content…
He has grown up in the South Bronx, and has already established the group of people that he hangs out with, otherwise known as the fellas from the block. He lives a simple, comfortable life until he notices that his childhood best friend Carlos is involved with another guy. He sees Carlos kiss this man, which sparks feelings of rage and jealousy within Chulito. At first, Chulito struggles with his romantic feelings for Carlos, but is unable to He grapples with these feelings for Carlos throughout the rest of the novel, teetering between being a closeted gay man
In his historical novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz illuminates the dysfunctionality of the Dominican Republic under the oppressive regime of Rafael Trujillo. As a generational curse that follows the Cabral family throughout the diaspora of the Dominican Republic and the United States, the fukú serves as the foundation of the narrator’s (Yunior) depiction of Trujillo’s egregious legacy. This legacy, which was characterized by misogyny, censorship, and violence, accurately reflects Trujillo’s embodiment of an aggressive masculinity and causes Yunior to associate the typical Dominican male with terror, abuse, and the objectification of women.
In the memoir, The Prince of Los Cocuyos, the performance of masculinity of the people is illuminated. This is seen with most of the men conforming to the gendered expectations of a man, some confidently defying and conforming at the same time, and Riqui not daring to disturb the universe, but having a hard time conforming to all the expectations. As a child when it was just his grandmother giving him a hard time about acting and looking like a man, Riqui defied many of the gendered expectations. However, when these expectations started coming from friends then he started to attempt to act like he was expected. Riqui defies gendered expectations of a boy through his interest in the girly things like Cinderella, dolls and makeovers; however,
The role that gendered expectations plays in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao constructs detrimental limitations for males while reducing females to sexual beings. The prevalent Dominican males in the novel reinforce an absolute definition of masculinity characterized by dominance, attractiveness, manifestation of sexuality, and oppression of women. Such masculinity is constructed through every aspect that Rafael Trujillo, the ultimate Dominican male, embodies. Through the endorsement of expected Dominican hypermasculinity, females are overtly hypersexualized by means of objectification, while men are confined to fulfilling expected roles. In failing to embody Trujillo’s misogynistic, patriarchal ideal, males and females in the novel marginalize
In “No Face”, Ysrael narrates the same events instead of Yunior. Although these two short stories do not directly feature Yunior and Rafa’s father, they are as much about Yunior’s growth and development during his father’s absence as they are about Ysrael. In “Situating Latin American Masculinity: Immigration, Empathy and Emasculation in Junot Diaz’s Drown”, John Riofrio emphasizes that “Ysrael sets the stage for the picture of masculinity which will reveal itself throughout all ten of the stories.” At this point in time, Yunior is only a nine year old boy in the Dominican Republic, at a point in life where he is on
In Things Fall Apart, direct characterization, as well as indirect characterization, are key tools in defining masculinity
Rather than a single standard of masculinity to which all men and boys are taught to aspire to, studies have documented a variety of masculinity that define manhood differently across racial , ethnic, class, sexual , and regional boundaries.(Kathleen Blee) In this quote the author states that due to intersectional differences, different racial groups of men might have different definitions on what it means to be masculine and what it means to perform masculinity. Gender roles are also modified by life experiences over time across racial groups. In the next images I presented are all images of my guy friends and cousins. More specifically they are all images of African American males in my life choosing to participate in gender and masculinity.
Through Antonio and Ultima, readers identify the creation of a culture that has been forge by war, discrimination, and common hardships. With Ultima being a powerful curandera, the story shows the importance of the female character within Mexican culture. Today, this is prevalent in many Mexican-American households, as the elderly women are held in the highest respect. Another aspect of Mexican-American Culture is masculinity, which is shown in Bless Me, Ultima when Antonio’s father says, “a man of the llano does not run from a fight” (Anaya, 1999, p.37). There are countless examples of Mexican-American masculinity in this novel, like when it mentions that Gabriel’s two eldest sons are fighting in WWII.
Díaz illustrates throughout the novel how significant gender roles matter in Dominican culture. It is expected of men to exaggerate qualities of masculinity, this is known as machismo, whereas for women, it is important
Victor Rios begins chapter six by describing the way the Latino boys he studied used masculinity as a rehabilitative tool. He describes how the boys are constantly “questioning” each other’s manhood as a way of proving their own masculinity. “The boys’ social relations with one another and with community members were saturated with expressions and discourses of manhood” (pg.125). Rios continues to describe the affects criminalization and its gendered practices has influenced these young boy’s mentality of what it means to be masculine. In chapter six, the author explains that although the boys had easy access to weapons, they rarely used them because of their clear understanding the consequences associated with such violence.
The film explains about that masculinity is a cultural in America’s social. When boys youngest age, the people told to” Be a man!” “Stop show the emotion!” “Don’t cry!” “Don’t be sissy!”
Our lives are centered around our culture and beliefs, we are influenced by our peers about our beliefs to the point where it may cause things to fall apart, with many up and down situations. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we learn about an Ibo culture that believe in male masculinity and dominance, expected from a very young age for boys to be very masculine and rule over women. Anyone who disobeys those priorities are shunned by their own culture and considered weak worthless men.
“How has the author implemented stereotypical gender roles to reflect the society at the time?” Love in the time of cholera is a novel written in 1985, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The novel was written to expose the society during the time. This was done through a range of different techniques. One method is the implementation of the honour system and stereotypical gender roles.
A masculine person can be seen as someone who takes charge and suppresses any kind of weakness. During tough times, a “man” is seen as someone who steps up and takes charge. In Ernest Hemingway 's Indian Camp, Nick Adams learns what it means to become a man. Nick’s image of “ideal masculinity” is shaped through the examples of strength through suffering and violence by his father and the Native American husband. Nick’s father displays true masculinity because remains authoritative and displays an indomitable attitude through times of suffering.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was one of the best American authors of the 20th century and he is considered to be one of the main figures inside the contemporary genre He began his writer career as a journalist, who used to work for Kansas City Star, but he was always willing to have different adventures and those adventures took him to drive ambulances of the II World War. Hemingway was showed activities like fishing, hunting by his father, who was obsessed to show him the importance of being masculine. That masculinity is evident in many of his writings. Many symbolic figures are used by Hemingway to show different things such as the leopard, the hyena, the vultures and the Kilimanjaro.
Masculinity (also called boyhood, manliness or manhood) is a set of attributes, behaviors and roles generally associated with boys and men. But the culture doesn’t end at the definition, it starts from there. The first thing to come to mind when the word masculinity is heard is usually a man flexing his gigantic muscles, as the word might sound to suggest, and that right there is the current culture of masculinity because sadly, in the world we live in, not everyone has a “muscular body”. So far we know the concept of masculinity, but the culture is what is truly hampering.