Hajime no Ippo - Vol. 104 Ch. 1016 - Machismo VS Earnestness
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lemme hijack this comment section with a discussion on machismo.
Machismo is a really weird concept, a Latin American product of religious, historical and even political movements. To put it simply, machismo's a catch-all term for masculine qualities: power, self-pride, sexual virility, bravery, even honor.
Because of that "everything-manly" nature, machismo is used to hype up a ton of great ideas like self-reliance, courage and a immense desire to protect. There's a broader culture of machismo being a way for individuals to demonstrate their worth, an idea dating back to the subjugation of the Americas and the need to claw back power from an indifferent / cruel world. Also Christian lessons pushed by early missionaries.
The thing is, machismo is also tied up with some really fucked up stuff: constant aggression, male dominance over females, and immediate violence at the smallest slight. Worst of all, a complete inability to recognize men as humans. Any softer feelings are shameful and need to be hidden from everyone. Machismo can reduce men into ticking time bombs, where the response to any negative feeling is immediate violence until the weaker party submits.
When power = violence, every time you feel weak, you hurt people. "If all you have is a hammer ...."
Machismo comes up a lot in gender studies and that kind of stuff, but it can genuinely be a really good thing. The only problem is when you get too wrapped up in the "pride" part of it instead of the "bravery" or "power" parts. Boxing is a little of Column A and a little of Column B, so I'm curious to see how this manga handles machismo.
Machismo is a really weird concept, a Latin American product of religious, historical and even political movements. To put it simply, machismo's a catch-all term for masculine qualities: power, self-pride, sexual virility, bravery, even honor.
Because of that "everything-manly" nature, machismo is used to hype up a ton of great ideas like self-reliance, courage and a immense desire to protect. There's a broader culture of machismo being a way for individuals to demonstrate their worth, an idea dating back to the subjugation of the Americas and the need to claw back power from an indifferent / cruel world. Also Christian lessons pushed by early missionaries.
The thing is, machismo is also tied up with some really fucked up stuff: constant aggression, male dominance over females, and immediate violence at the smallest slight. Worst of all, a complete inability to recognize men as humans. Any softer feelings are shameful and need to be hidden from everyone. Machismo can reduce men into ticking time bombs, where the response to any negative feeling is immediate violence until the weaker party submits.
When power = violence, every time you feel weak, you hurt people. "If all you have is a hammer ...."
Machismo comes up a lot in gender studies and that kind of stuff, but it can genuinely be a really good thing. The only problem is when you get too wrapped up in the "pride" part of it instead of the "bravery" or "power" parts. Boxing is a little of Column A and a little of Column B, so I'm curious to see how this manga handles machismo.
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