Macho, 2000

Multicultural Education, Summer 2002 by Clark, christine

MACHO, 2000.

BROADBENT, LUCINDA. WOMEN MAKE MOVIES. 26 MINUTES, COLOR.$195.

Macho focuses on solving the problem of male violence through a model put forth by the Nicaraguan grassroots organization, Men Against Violence, or Hombres Contra la Violencia. Men Against Violence was started by a small group of men led, at least informally, by Xavier Munos. Munos serves as the primary narrator of the film.

Men Against Violence emerged in the wake of the Contra war in response to an epidemic of male violence toward women and children as well as other men in the absence of war; one out of two adult women in the country has been raped, and one quarter of the girls sexually abused. Using the war context as a starting point, Men Against Violence works with the military to help soldiers "unlearn the rules of machismo," and then to make connections between how the giving of orders in battle can lead to a proclivity for giving orders at home, making the past war between countries reemerge as a war in the home. The responsibility of men in the military as well as in the home is reinterpreted as both keeping peace and preventing violence.

The film acknowledges the cultural norms of Nicaraguans and Latinos that encourage machista, or extremely sexist behavior in men, but also challenges the stereotype that such norms are unique to the Third World, Latinos, or Nicaragua by pointing out the prevalence of male violence the world over. The Men Against Violence model-through the use of emergent role plays that draw men not only into their execution but into their very design-teaches collaboration and negotiation skills as part and parcel of the process of unlearning machismo or chauvinism and overcoming the propensity for violence. The model also creates the context for men to uncover their own histories of victimization, claim responsibility for their victimization of others-- especially women and children-expose their own vulnerabilities without fear of being taken advantage of, redefine masculinity in manners that enable them to express affection and sensitivity, and become more fully human, reclaiming the humanity that violent behavior takes from them and their victims.

The film shows men in the Men Against Violence group distributing literature about male violence and the group to other men at bullfights, cockfights, and in bars, as well as to teenage boys organized in gangs on street corners -contexts where the most extreme forms of male violence are often engendered to be unleashed and, yet, where antiviolence campaigns have rarely dared to go.

Because Macho focuses on the ability that each and every man has to change, to engage in a process of transformation, and, ultimately, to break free from violence, it is a particularly valuable educational resource for junior high, high school, and college level psychology and counseling courses, as well as human sexuality, women studies, gender studies, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender studies classes-subjects in which the capacity for on-going human growth and development, especially that related to behavior modification and reconceptualization of social identities, is paramount.

Macho would also be a valuable resource in community-based domestic violence/sexual assault/rape prevention programs (both voluntary and court-mandated ones, for survivors and perpetratons of abuse), military and paramilitary organization training initiatives, and prison education projects.

-Reviewed by Christine Clark