14th International AIDS Conference Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. WeOrE1283)

Fernandez Davila P, ceres CF, Rosasco AM, Salazar X, Aggleton P
Redess Jovenes, LIma, Peru

BACKGROUND: The importance of gender constructions in the shaping of sexual health problems is well documented. In a study on gender, an analysis of masculinity constructions was carried out.

METHODS: An ethnographic study was conducted in 5 contexts: Lima/working and middle class, fishermen in the Northern coast, peasants in an Andean city, and drivers in an Amazonian town. Individual and group interviews were conducted with young adult males and women. Accounts were analysed with regard to gender discourses/practices.

RESULTS: A broadly egalitarian but tokenistic discourse exists among men in all sites, which condemns machismo and traditional gender roles. However, practices normally contradict such discourses and reinforce traditional norms. Variations across sites occur: Men in the fishing town and the Andean city enact typically patriarchal roles. Among fishermen, the father represents authority even in daily activities. In the Andean city, women must always serve their spouses. Among the Lima working class, ownership of the street space and the domain of the biological (instinct, aggression) coalesce in the image of a macho man whose role is problematic because of unemployment and social exclusion. In the Amazonian town, while predominance of the domain of the biological leads into abuse of power, violence and parental irresponsibility, women interact with men more equally. In the Lima middle class, a more equitative discourse on gender prevails, but in practice women experience a tension between the norm to support their partner's professionally and another growing norm, that of working for their own progress.

CONCLUSIONS: Constructions of masculinity are diverse. While machismo is discursively stigmatised in most contexts (and it adopts a globalised equity formulation), what is understood as such tends to exclude actual norms,and traditional gender roles are still commonly enacted. Sexual health implications of this finding will be discussed.

020707
WeOrE1283

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