Machos and Sluts: Gender, Sexuality, and Violence among a Cohort of Puerto Rican Adolescents

During the past decade, interpersonal violence increasingly has become a public health concern. As a result, prevention programs now aim to decrease violence among diverse populations. This article describes the beliefs and rationale for gender-based violence among a cohort of low-income, predominantly second-generation, mainland Puerto Rican adolescents. Based on a three-year (1989-91) ethnographic study, the findings describe how these young people, through the use of gender-based social constructs such as "machos" and "sluts," justify violence by linking it to beliefs about gender roles, sexuality, and biology, and thus perpetuate gender-role conformity, particularly heterosexual male dominance. The findings suggest that if the public health community is going to reduce gender-based violence among Puerto Rican youth, it needs to acknowledge that gender and sexuality are important ingredients that support violence and avoid a simplified and stereotypical model of culture that ignores other social factors and changes in traditional Latino gender roles.