Why Do We Act Macho?
"I am the King: the Macho Image" written by Rudolph Anaya is a an essay all about being "macho." In it he explains in great detail why he thinks men try to be both stronger and better than each other. Macho in the Spanish dictionary means "man," but for a lot of people it is more than just that. The author and I both agree that we learn to be macho from other men we interact with on a daily basis. Anaya stated that "Many cultural forces (from literature and religion to the latest musical fad, movies, MTV, or car styles) play a role in promoting the behavior of the macho, and these influences are the issue here." This makes sense because it is true that the culture around us has a lot to do with the way we live our lives. In short, Anaya said that the women in the world also have much to do with men wanting to be macho. Being a man I know that men always try to compete with each other to be better at anything. We start acting macho when we are little boys and it just continues. Anaya agrees saying, "Little boys like to brag about the length of their penises, or they have contest to see who can piss the furthest. Acting out "I'm bigger, I'm better"," the game begins to have its built-in power aspect".
I think this is so true because as a kid my friends and I would always have contests such as this. If you would piss the shortest or if you had the smallest penis than you were going to be made fun of by your friends, and that would just make you want to be better. One thing that I know for sure is that a man is a liar if he say's that he has never wanted to be more macho than another man. I do not think that I am the only one who has told my mother that she could not buy me jeans at Wal- Mart because I needed the expensive Tommy Hillfigers from Dillard's. I wanted these pants because I saw men who I thought were manly wearing them. When we try to be better than each other by wearing nicer clothes, or buying the fastest car all we are doing is keeping our economy alive. I know we all spend lots of cash trying to look the best or be better than someone else. I finally realized it is not worth trying to be more macho. I cannot say I will stop my manly behaviors, but I know my time can be spent doing much more creative stuff than competing with other males. It may be hard for us men and women to admit it, but because of the mentality we have this will be a never-ending cycle lasting generations. People (especially men) will always try to make themselves bigger and better because our families and communities have taught us this. Someday I hope that we will be able to change the idea of wanting to be macho, but until then boys will be boys. Anaya makes points in his essay, that I could relate to because we are both men, but more so because we are both Hispanic. I was very familiar with most of the stories such as "La L
Some common words found in the essay are:
Santa Fe, La Virgen, Macho Spanish, Hillfigers Dillard's, Acting I'm, Rudolph Anaya, Wal- Mart, Macho Image, sometimes jealous, try compete, macho gym, consider macho, little boys, acting macho,
Approximate Word count = 1099
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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