Synopses & Reviews
"
Fixing Men is terrific; sharp observation, tough-minded analysis, beautiful writing."and#151;Raewyn Connell, author of
Masculinities"By bringing together a focus on men's sexuality in relation to key sexual health issues such as HIV/AIDS, family planning and contraception, vasectomies, and traditional healing for sexual ailments such as impotence and infertility, Fixing Men makes a major contribution that should help to define the field for some time to come."and#151;Richard Parker, author of Beneath the Equator: Cultures of Desire, Male Homosexuality, and Emerging Gay Communities in Brazil
"This ethnographic study of male sexuality, reproductive health and health behavior makes new and needed contribution to several scholarly debates and literatures. It is certain to attract interest from medical anthropologists, along with researchers on gender, sexuality, Mexican studies, and reproductive health."and#151;Carole Browner, University of California, Los Angeles
"In this consistently engaging study of male reproductive health, Matt Gutmann has produced an original contribution to Latin American ethnography, the study of masculinity, and medical anthropology. Gutmann listens carefully to the life stories of men in Oaxaca and discovers among them a rich range of emotions, opinions, and behavior. As with his previous influential work, Fixing Men presents a serious challenge to stereotypical portraits of what it means to be a man in Mexico. Once you start reading this riveting volume, you will not be able to put it down."and#151;Stanley Brandes, University of California, Berkeley
"Matthew Gutmann draws on his magisterial understanding of Mexican masculinities in demonstrating how taking male subjectivities and migration seriously can illuminate the dynamics of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. In Fixing Men, a conspiracy of silence recedes in the face of his dialogues with Oaxacan men, whose words, labor, and bodies challenge the cultural, sexual, and neoliberal logics that have enabled scholars and public health practitioners alike to avoid these complex questions."and#151;Charles Briggs, author of Stories in the Time of Cholera
"Fixing Men is a path-breaking study of men's reproductive health in Latin America. In a scholarly field where the focus is almost entirely on women, Fixing Men shows us that men are important reproductive actors, whose problems, needs, and desires must be addressed in the fields of family planning, sex education, and HIV/AIDS. This book represents an important contribution to the anthropology of reproduction, the new masculinity studies, and to Oaxacan ethnography. Global health practitioners would also benefit from Gutmann's insights about the need to address men directly in reproductive healthcare delivery."and#151;Marcia C. Inhorn, author of Local Babies, Global Science
Synopsis
AIDS has been a devastating plague in much of sub-Saharan Africa, yet the long-term implications for gender and sexuality are just emerging. AIDS and Masculinity in the African City tackles this issue head on and examines how AIDS has altered the ways masculinity is lived in Uganda--a country known as Africa's great AIDS success story. Based on a decade of ethnographic research in an urban slum community in the capital Kampala, this book reveals the persistence of masculine privilege in the age of AIDS and the implications such privilege has for combating AIDS across the African continent.
Synopsis
Most studies on reproductive rights make women their focus, but in Fixing Men, Matthew Gutmann illuminates what men in the Mexican state of Oaxaca say and do about contraception, sex, and AIDS. Based on extensive fieldwork, this breakthrough study by a preeminent anthropologist of men and masculinities reveals how these men and the women in their lives make decisions about birth control, how they cope with the plague of AIDS, and the contradictory healing techniques biomedical and indigenous medical practitioners employ for infertility, impotence, and infidelity. Gutmann talks with men during and after their vasectomies and discovers why some opt for sterilization while so many others feel "planned out of family planning."
Synopsis
In this compelling and readable study of machismo in one of Latin America's most populous cities, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico. In their place he offers a sensitive, wide-ranging, often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, socialize among themselves, and talk about sex in their daily lives. Gutmann finds that men and women are responding to sweeping social forces in Mexico, just as they are in the United States, with women often initiating changes in male attitudes and behaviors.
The Meanings of Macho takes the reader into Santo Domingo, Mexico City, the working-class neighborhood where Gutmann and his family lived. Exploring women's conceptions about men as well as men's ideas about themselves, Gutmann uncovers intriguing, complicated sexual politics among friends and informants. He discovers that, against stereotype, many men's nuanced, complicated sense of sexual identity encompasses considerable child care responsibilities and recognition of a newfound female autonomy. He also considers the kinds of homosocial space men are afforded in their culture, how violence against women plays itself out in this community, and the role of alcohol in male socializing.
Synopsis
"At long lasta carefully researched and wonderfully written ethnography that explodes the ubiquitous stereotype of Mexican men as invariably "macho" while tackling head on the inequality between men and women. Challenging the notion that men, masculinity, and male gender identity are simple and homogenous categories, Gutmann skillfully weaves together stories of working class men in a Mexico City colonia, including an outstanding in-depth consideration of 'men's domesticity.' This book does for the study of men what two generations of feminist anthropologists have done for the study of women."Lynn Stephen, author of
Zapotec Women"This is a significant addition to the literature on masculinity. In this well-constructed ethnography Gutmann's originalityto say nothing of his intellectual honestyshines through. His focus is on what men do and on what they say they do, and on the role of women in affecting both. He does not shy away from ambiguity but embraces it as a key theme in the attempt to understand how male identities are negotiated. A deft and subtle piece of scholarship."Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
"The Meanings of Macho is a highly readable book, full of interesting vignettes recounting masculine behavior and conversations among men in a Mexico City colonia. Matthew Gutmann carefully critiques the stereotype of the 'macho' male and shows us how Mexican men are changingfrom holding babies, to helping with the housework, to accepting female leaders in the colonia. There is still public drunkenness, male violence, and wife abuse, but there is also a center for family violence, support groups for spouse abusers, and much discussion about the 'culture of violence and machismo.' Guttman presents a nuanced portrait of the variety of men he studied and the social and economic context of change."Louise Lamphere, University of New Mexico
"Recent scholarship has taught us much about what it means to be a woman world-wide. But what does it really mean to be a man? In this extremely important and pathbreaking work Matthew Gutmann deftly, carefully, beautifully answers this question, exploring the multiple meanings that manhood holds in the lives and thoughts of working class men and women in Mexico City."Ramón Gutièrrez, author of When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away
Synopsis
In this vivid ethnography, Harri Englund investigates how ideas of freedom impede struggles against poverty and injustice in emerging democracies. Reaching beyond a narrow focus on the national elite, Prisoners of Freedom shows how foreign aid and human rights activism hamper the pursuit of democratic citizenship in Africa. The book explores how activistsand#8217; aspirations of self-improvement, pursued under harsh economic conditions, find in the human rights discourse a new means to distinguish oneself from the poor masses. Among expatriates, the emphasis on abstract human rights avoids confrontations with the political and business elites. Drawing on long-term research among the Malawian poor, Englund brings to life the personal circumstances of Malawian human rights activists, their expatriate benefactors, and the urban and rural poor as he develops a fresh perspective on freedomand#151;one that recognizes the significance of debt, obligation, and civil virtues.
Synopsis
"This is an exceptionally interesting and well researched book on a topic of enormous importance. It brings careful ethnographic fieldwork to bear on the new 'culture of rights' that has developed in democratized post-colonial African states such as Malawi, and by doing so develops a powerful and consequential critique."and#151;James Ferguson, Stanford University
"In this exceptionally rich and thought-provoking study of human rights fundamentalism in Malawi, Harri Englund makes an original contribution to debates on democracy, freedom, civil society, and poverty in Africa. His vivid ethnographic prose brings to life Malawian human rights activists, their expatriate benefactors as well as the urban and rural poor. This is a major contribution on a major topic."and#151;Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
Synopsis
In this compelling study of machismo in Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann overturns many stereotypes of male culture in Mexico and offers a sensitive and often surprising look at how Mexican men see themselves, parent their children, relate to women, and talk about sex. This tenth anniversary edition features a new preface that updates the stories of the book's key protagonists.
Synopsis
Praise for the first edition: "Gutmann has done the hithertofore seemingly unthinkable. [A] wholly other vision of Mexican gender relations emerges."and#151;Josand#233; Limand#243;n, American Anthropologist
"This book does for the study of men what two generations of feminist anthropologists have done for the study of women."and#151;Lynn Stephen, author of Zapotec Women
About the Author
Matthew Gutmann is Professor of Anthropology, Ethnic Studies, and Latin American Studies at Brown University and is the author of The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City (Tenth Anniversary edition, 2006) and The Romance of Democracy: Compliant Defiance in Contemporary Mexico (2002), both from UC Press.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Situation of Human Rights: Debating Governance and Freedom
2. Rights as Freedoms: Translating Human Rights
3. The Hidden Lessons of Civic Education: Training the Torchbearers
4. Watchdogs Unleashed? Encountering and#147;the Grassrootsand#8221;
5. Legal Aid for Abused Labor: Individualizing Grievances
6. Crimes of Exploitation: Dehumanizing a Lorry Boy
7. Human Rights and Moral Panics: Listening to Popular Grievances
8. Redeeming Freedom
Notes
References
Index