Fabian Peña
My project is about machismo and its problematic ideology within the Hispanic community. The goal of my project is to show how machismo affects young children by going after the roots of the problem, child abuse and generational trauma. Additionally, I want to highlight problems with machismo in relationships, hoping to get victims of this abuse to speak up and break the normality of machismo after seeing my work. I want these “macho men” to look at my work and reflect on themselves, hoping they can realize the damage they’ve done and how much it affects their loved ones, and how this ideology affected them as a child.
Machismo is under the umbrella term misogyny. What makes it a little different is just the fact that it’s more commonly seen in the Hispanic community. There are different levels and extremes of misogynistic ideals; it’s seen in all ages and genders. What makes machismo dangerous is its normality; machismo is in the household and it’s backed up and supported by a huge community. My goal is to open my community's eyes, to get them to understand that any kind of abuse is amoral and horrible. Machismo is a never ending cycle that poisons our youth. I hope I can reach kids my age to reject or unlearn these harmful values to better the safety of our future children and loved ones.