Group items tagged

In 2007, Mexico City proposed legalizing prostitution. Many believe if prostitution were legal, it would cause even more women and children to be forced to be sex slaves and prostitutes. Prostitution is already a dangerous and too common practice in Mexico City. As discussed in the article, legalizing it would be no means remedy the situation, it would most likely worsen it.

A Worldfocus contributing blogger writes that a zero tolerance policy intended to curb crime in Mexico has forced some street children into prostitution.

This article gives an overview of the origins of the AIDS pandemic in Latin America. It also discusses the need to monitor the male prostitution ring based on fact that their bisexual male partners often spread the disease to their heterosexual female partners. There is also a number of cases related to the use of infected needles and unsterile drug intake.

. This article discusses how Evangelicalism in Latin American has improved the well-being of communities. Evangelicalism has made a positive impact on prostitutes, alcoholics, and drug abusers to change their lifestyles and learned how to improve their economic situations in ways that would not exploit them or put them in danger. The discussion is then furthered when the author examines Evangelicalism's potential to help improve the economic situations in Latin America and whether or not it can create more social changes.

Evangelicalism provides a way for social and culture change to occur. Here the flaws of the movement is pointed out so that the movement can prove to be more effective.

The number of escapes at the Zacatecas prison in Mexico has increased over the past few years to an astronomical number thanks to the escape plans of Zetas, a paramilitary group. By paying off the prison guards, the inmates have been able to smuggle everything from cell phones and designer clothes to prostitutes in and bribe their way to larger cell blocks. The close knit relationship the drug cartel have formed with prison guards and federal officers begs the question: who in Mexico is actually fulfilling their duty to serve the public and protect?

A press release from the World Health Organization highlights the need for stronger Sexual Education in Latin America and the Carribean. The press release talks about the statistics of contracting HIV, and how programs can be implemented to cut down on the number of transmissions. One of the highlighted vulnerable groups for contracting HIV is sex workers and "men who have sex with men", the latter being connected strongly with the first chapter of "Fixing Men".

This is a music video from Shakira that demonstrates the sexualized status of women. In the video, Shakira, who is from Colombia, belly dances in a very sexual style. She also, at one point, is crawling in the mud. Finally, the lyrics are about how she will always be there for the presumed man. In the chorus, the line "estoy a tus pies" is repeated, which means "I am at your feet".

Many people in Latin America are living with HIV and although this region is often overlooked, it has a very high number of people living with the disease. Most levels of the infection in Latin America are found in men who have sex with men or MSM. This information, though, is often hidden due to the 'machismo' culture of men in Latin America.

this article talks about the prevelance of HIV/AIDS in latin america. It says that HIV is found mostley in "men who have sex with other men" and how not many people know this because of the machismo mentality in latin america.

More than half of Latin Americans living with HIV live in the regions four largest countries. The highest levels of HIV are found within men who have sex with men. Latin American countries make little effort to provide AID services that address the needs of men who are sexually active with other men. Drug use is also a major factor in the spread of HIV.

Although our current emphasis in class is the study of masculinity, this website details the problems that women and children face in Latin America. This pertains to our class in that it is important to understand why and how men (and other women) hurt women and children perhaps because of the pressure they feel to be "macho."

In this article from The New York Times in January 1993, the rise of AIDS in women in Latin America is discussed. Similarly to in Gutmann's findings, the fidelity of husbands is questioned as the reason for the rise in women's infections. With men having sexual affairs, they are contributing to the rise of AIDS in females.

This source is about the widespread sexual exploitation of underage girls in Paraguay, and the systemic exploitation of women is closely related to how we construct our views of masculinity.

Although the previously bookmarked article seeks to establish an outline of the human or women rights violations that occur within Guatemala, here, author Karim Velasco, sheds light upon newly distinguished laws and explains despite their hopeful goals, why they have ceased to work effectively. She argues that because of the "lack of effective investigation and prevention strategies of the Guatemalan authorities", women continue to be raped, tortured, and murdered at an increasing rate. Because of pressures from the European Parliament to abide by human rights laws, "on April 9, 2008, Guatemalan Congressed passed the 'Law Against Femicide and other Forms of Violence against Women Act' to severely punish any kind of gender-based violence..." However, because the violence stems from the power inequality between men and women in the first place, there is little belief or evidence that this Act will be implemented or strongly enforced by the men in power who seek to represent masculinity or display a constant idea of machismo.