Machismo

Machismo is a quality that is still alive and thriving in American society today. Machismo is the quality of being a manly man, who is rugged, jacked, fears nothing and believes all women are his for the taking. In the American culture this definition of machismo is still alive and is fed into adolescent minds through cartoons and movies. Hardly ever do you see a superhero that is fragile and scared. In fact heroes such as Batman and Superman instill fear into their enemies. Other characters such as Johnny Bravo display the machismo quality by flaunting their muscles in an attempt to woo all women.  In Johnny Bravo’s case, every woman he sees is a potential wife, even though he has no prior knowledge of her character just like Bayardo from Chronicles of a Death Foretold, who decides he is going to woo Angela even though he doesn’t know her.

            In many cases the lack of machismo is actually looked down upon in American society. In many movies the machismo man always gets the girl such as James Bond does.  This portrayal of machismo instills in children’s minds that if you are not machismo you will never be able to woo a women. When it comes to superheroes, the sidekick tends to lack the machismo quality while the hero overflows with manliness. In the case of Batman and Robin, Batman attacks everything head on with a mixture of brute force and cunningness. Robin on the other hand lacks the ruggedness of a manly man. He is often held back in the shadows while Batman gets all the glory.  With superheroes portrayed as manly man and lonely sidekicks lacking this quality, it urges children to be macho or else they will be nothing but a sidekick all their life.