"Defining Machismo, No Es Siempre Lo Mismo": Latino Sexual Minorities' Machoflexible Identities in Higher Education

Abstract

Seven gay Latino undergraduates offer their individual definitions of machismo and speak to the ways in which they construct their own masculine identities on the college campus. Through a grounded theory analysis of in-depth interviews, photographs, and personal reflections, I identify three prominent themes that capture the complex interplay of gender and sexuality and the construction of seemingly progressive gendered sexual identities in a process I term machoflexibility. The forging of these machoflexible identities is made possible through the students’ individual definitions of machismo, their reconstructions of a fluid masculinity spectrum, and finally their understanding of socially acceptable masculine performances that enhance their identities as men and downplay their sexual orientations. In dissociating themselves from more effeminate gay men and identifying themselves as real men, the participants ultimately fail to challenge the pervasive gender norms in their social environment, positioning masculinity as hierarchically superior to femininity and consequently reproducing heteronormativity.