This paper presents a speech analysis of 11 focus group data obtained during a masculinities research conducted with Guatemalan university students. The existence of social pressure to transform male practices in gender relations is named and recognized by students, pressure that leads to diverse reflection levels and stands. There are four speech models that can be identified in the analyzed data. The first, a shallow speech that doesn’t recognize the male chauvinism it defends; another one that considers change as personal need and in which men are presented as victims of gender-related unfair situations; the next model is the theoretical-conceptual, a speech in which men state to have a deep understanding of reality and take a stand according to it, but don´t see themselves as a part of that reality; and the last one, a speech based on personal experience, a result of authentic reflection that is filled with emotion and is mainly a result of bodily experience.
Each speech model shows a different commitment levels, a diversity of strives, tensions and questionings surrounding masculinities; likewise, they high lights the challenges that university must face on promoting the necessary transformations of masculinity.
Keywords:
Men’s speech, tension with masculinity, day to day practices, current argumentations
Bolaños Valenzuela, J. H. R. (2020). From speech to body: Guatemalan university students’ opinión regarding masculinities. Revista Punto Género, (13), pp. 25 – 49. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7473.2020.58190
