Macho women exist, and these 5 attitudes define them.
Internalized misogyny is not only a male thing; it also affects women.
Machismo is a complex phenomenon that, over the centuries, has found different ways of expressing itself. This means that in different cultures it is expressed through different attitudes and actions. However, there is another aspect that adds to the complexity of the issue: machismo is not only expressed in men.
The result of the inequality and discrimination that women have suffered for millennia is also reflected in the type of values, ideas and attitudes that many of them, like the rest of society, have adopted.
Macho women are a realityeven if their ideas about gender roles put them in the spotlight. This article is dedicated to exploring some of the basic actions and ideas through which this sexism manifests itself.
Why are there sexist women?
It must be taken into account that machismo, being the product of a collective phenomenon and not an individual one, cannot be analyzed as it is done, for example, with the experience of pain. Most people avoid painful situations, but machismo does not necessarily entail immediate negative consequences for women who reproduce it.
Thus, being a woman is fully compatible with being macho, at least in practice, although in the long run it is detrimental to her. But Obviously, this does not mean that women should be criminalized, however.In the end, their actions harm them by feeding the rigidity of gender roles in which the female gender bears the brunt.
Raising awareness and improving the material livelihoods of these people must be the goal, but to do so, it is necessary to to be able to detect the internalized misogyny that occurs in people of both sexes.
Macho attitudes that appear in some women
These are some patterns of behavior that occur relatively commonly in macho women. All of them are also present, with some variations, in macho men, but there are some nuances that are worth taking into account in the first case, since in this case the internalized misogyny is usually more subtle.
1. Criticizing others by judging them on their sex life
Women with internalized misogyny may come to judge others very harshly for no reason at all, simply because in their view they do not fit their gender roles well. Y one of the most deeply ingrained gender roles is that of the is that of the private, family-oriented person, in which all sexual and reproductive potential has to be the exclusive preserve of one man.
As much as we have now passed through the decade of supposed sexual liberation, the idea that women must preserve their virginity until marriage continues to leave an imprint on the morals of many people.
2. They negatively judge women who get promotions.
As we have seen, the traditional role of women has been confined to the domestic sphere. has been confined to the domestic sphere. That is why, in the case of women, the possibility of building a career is seen as a phase prior to marriage and, therefore, something in which it does not make sense to invest a lot of effort and time.
That is why women who are advancing and progressing in their careers are viewed with suspicion. are viewed with suspicion by those who have internalized misogyny, among whom are macho women.
3. They assume that motherhood is destiny
By traditional standards, reproduction is a woman's raison d'être. Moreover, it is not just any type of reproduction, but that which goes hand in hand with the nuclear family model: husband, wife and children. Often, the mental complexity of the female gender is reduced to the tasks related to the care of children, emphasizing the role of genes in the family. emphasizing the role of genes or of "the feminine essence". over learning or the freedom to choose other ways of life.
Thus, these people use their position as women to speak with authority to point out what is feminine and what is not, setting up a kind of competition to find a husband and have children before passing a certain age threshold, and allowing themselves the luxury of criticizing whoever does not follow these rules of the game.
4. They make the exit of youth pay dearly
Since, from a macho perspective, aesthetics talk a lot about the value of women (as the reproductive elements they are supposed to be), those women who pass a certain age are ridiculed and undervalued for it. It is It's a kind of discrimination that targets what you are, not what you do, just like racism.just like racism.
5. They strictly enforce compliance with the canons of beauty.
For the same reason that we have seen in the previous section, the macho woman looks with a magnifying glass at the possible aesthetic imperfections that occur in others, and they point them out publicly. The result is an increase in social pressure that orients the female gender towards an obsession for beauty in its smallest details.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)