Similarly, thee was widespread consensus among participants that condom use and family planning are reasonable measures in the face of present-day realities, which include the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and lacking sufficient resources to care for a large number of children.
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company that markets contraceptives in Costa Rica: 'have only the number of children you can afford to make happy.'
Finally, with respect to prostitution, it should be noted that the majority of young men interviewed indicated that they were opposed to it. Among the reasons cited were the sense that it was preposterous to pay for sex, and the belief that most prostitutes could engage in other forms of work if they so wished. To quote Aaron, 'sex is about love rather than money; there are other jobs that don't take away from a woman's dignity.' However, like their female counterparts, the men were sensitive enough to realize that there are situations in which prostitution becomes unavoidable, for example to meet basic living expenses or support children. As Alan put it, 'if a woman's doing it to buy food, it's not a sin.'
Community religious discourses
In previous chapters we have argued that social class plays a significant role in influencing processes of discourse internalization and development. This claim is borne out when we turn our attention to religious discourses in Villa del Mar and Villa del Sol. While the middle-class population of the latter community tends to see religion as dynamic and adaptable in the face of new circumstances, for the relatively poor inhabitants of Villa del Mar not only is the Church more important in their day-to-day lives, but religious belief is much less flexible. That is to say, it is expected that religion will confront and challenge new realities, rather than adapting to them.
Thus, one is not particularly surprised to learn that religion has lost much of its importance for Vil a del Sol‟s young people. Interview participants felt that it was no longer necessary; that it was akin to idol-worship or, in once case, that it should be rejected because it was imposed by Spanish colonizers. As one might imagine, the relative sophistication of the arguments put forth in this regard are closely related to the participants‟ privileged socio-economic status. Most have stayed in school far longer than their counterparts in Villa del Mar, and as such have been exposed to information about other religions or alternative perspectives on the Spanish conquest and the imposition of Christianity in the Americas.
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Moreover, despite the fact that most households in Villa del Sol are characterized by two parents living under the same roof with their children (in other words, the ideal „Christian‟
family), the young people from this community who participated in the study were generally quite sceptical of the Church‟s expectations in the area of on pre-marital sex and contraceptive use.
With regard to the former issue in particular, several participants said that it was „impossible‟ to remain celibate prior to marriage. Of course, it hardly needs to be emphasized that Villa del Sol youth tend to get married much later in life than is the case in Villa del Mar, as most of them go on to some form of post-secondary education following the completion of high school. It is for this reason that long-term celibacy, as demanded by the Church, is not considered feasible.
Kenneth, for one, argues that although abstention is a worthy aim in principle, „it doesn‟t happen that way in real life, since most people have had sex by the time they‟re 17.‟ Along similar lines, both Gisella and Adriana felt that it was up to each person to decide whether or not to have sex before marriage. As Adriana put it, „it‟s my choice, not the Church‟s.‟
Moreover, several young people commented that they had forsaken Christianity precisely because of the emphasis placed upon chastity and virginity. For example, Hilda said that she resents the Catholic Church for its opposition to premarital sex and wishes that it was „more understanding.‟ Gianina, meanwhile, criticized the Church for its refusal to countenance sex education in schools, and longs for the day when Mass wil more „fun‟ and sex judged less harshly. Others‟ attacks were more general in scope, with Paula commenting upon priests‟
negative attitude towards young people, and José exclaiming that he is sickened by al the „lies‟
he is told in church.
In Villa del Mar, by contrast, young people look upon Christianity in far more favourable terms.
Although the reasons for this are undoubtedly complex, one factor is undoubtedly the preponderance of singe-parent families. In a community where stable marriages are the exception rather than the rule, children and adolescents have every reason to become staunch defenders of the Church's position on divorce and the sanctity of marriage.
Even as one acknowledges that there are some young people in Villa del Mar who have rejected the values and dictates of Christianity, most are fervent supporters of them. For instance, Juan said that 'church is an interesting and good place to go,' a statement reiterated by Ursula: 'I'm the one who gets up at seven in the morning to do the housework in order to go THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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to Mass. I've always liked it, I like everything they say.' Interestingly, even Guillermo, who is not a devout Christian, stated that religion is 'very important,' and provides a means of escaping from the troubles he faces in his everyday life.
This last point is an important one, highlighting as it does the fact that many in Villa del Mar turn to Christianity because they expect it to be able to solve their problems, whether these be family break-up or the threat posed by poverty, drugs or alcohol. Moreover, this expectation is evident in the words of participants. Rosangela, for one, stressed the importance of abstaining from sex before marriage, and said that she often tells her recently divorced sister 'to go to church to learn what it is was that she did wrong.' Meanwhile, Juan indicated that he believes 'religion to be important because it keeps young people away from vices.' Finally, Ursula, who is single and lives with her parents, said that she respects the Church for 'making people stay together in order to save marriages.'
In similar fashion, many interview participants in Villa del Mar placed particular emphasis upon the importance of meeting the Church's requirements in the area of fornication. Indeed, for some, being able to dress in white at their wedding was one of the most appealing aspects of Christian ritual. In short, while women tended to see it as a way of guaranteeing a good marriage in the future, men considered it to be a useful gauge of their future wife's moral character.
Substance abuse and prostitution are other issues that young people living in Villa del Mar hope will be resolved through faith in God. Several participants indicated that they thought religion was capable of helping drug abusers and prostitutes to make the right choices. In the words of Isidro, 'the greatest benefit the Church has to offer is that it makes people abandon drugs.' Of course, it need hardly be added that religion has actually to be successful in dealing with these problems if it is to keep young people's respect. However, there is evidence to suggest that this success is not always forthcoming, with several participants expressing disappointment at the reluctance of many priests and ministers to speak frankly about issues that concern them, such as sex and substance abuse.
Fundamentalist religious discourses
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In the preceding pages, we have endeavoured to highlight some of the ways in which sexual discourses can be transformed by socio-economic status, changing gender ideology and technological innovation. However, even as one acknowledges the degree to which these developments have undermined traditional views of sex and sexuality in Costa Rica, it is clear that not everyone has embraced these new values with open arms.
Religious fundamentalists in particular have taken it upon themselves to defend Christian mores in the face of what they perceive to be an increasingly self-absorbed and permissive social order. However, this is not to say that their only concern is the past. Rather, they seek to confront modernity and restructure it to its very core. Finding a ready source of recruits among that segment of the population that has benefited least from the country's economic development, fundamentalists have challenged head-on the 'immorality' of fornication in general and the practices of sexual minorities in particular.
Still, this is not to suggest that there is only one stream of fundamentalist thought. Most notably, there are significant differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic varieties. Inter alia, Protestants reject the authority of the Pope, priestly celibacy, the divinity of the Virgin Mary, and the presence of images in church. Whether or not these difference are important in and of themselves - after all, only one of the young people interviewed was able to distinguish between Protestant and Catholic religious doctrine - it is clear that the Protestant churches in particular are closely allied with (and funded by) the American religious right, and as such have adopted many of the latter's views on such subjects as feminism, homosexuality, scientific progress and family planning. Indeed, one might even go so far as to argue that evangelical Protestants in Costa Rica are more doctrinaire and inflexible with respect to sexual matters than their Roman Catholic counterparts.
How so? As one might imagine, fundamentalists place great stress upon the extent to which modern society has abandoned traditional Christian morality. In the words of a study participant who is also the leader of a Christian youth movement, 'these days ... promiscuity is a terrible problem, especially because we live in a world that encourages it. Homosexuality is widespread in today's society.' Moreover, it is obvious that most of the young Protestants whom we interviewed have internalized a highly essentialist understanding of 'appropriate' sexual roles and relations. For example, consider the following statements by Alexandra: THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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I believe the natural order of things was established by God. That's why you shouldn't start trying to change things.
By imposing His law, God's aim was to eliminate the filth and impurities within us.
Temptation can only be avoided by carefully following established norms.
God made Man and Woman so that they would complement each other in marriage.
If it's part of God's plan that Man and Woman be together, there shoudn't anything different.
In similar fashion, fundamentalists are clearly distrustful of sexual pleasure in all of its forms. To cite Jonathan,
I believe sex is bad; people go berserk doing filthy things. That's why I find sex disgusting and prefer only to give kisses...Young people surrender to pleasure too easily. Sexual urges are very strong in young people; that's where all vice comes from.
Sin is everywhere, it's like a current that flows and drags everything down with it, it's very strong and difficult to stop.
Of course, closely related to the opinions expressed above is the zeal with which evangelical Christians denounce the principle of gender equality. As one might imagine, their disdain for the latter was made abundantly clear during the course of the focus group sessions, where it blended into manifestations of blatant misogyny and homophobia:: Women are characterized by softness and men by strength. That's the way it should be and it shouldn't be changed. What we need to do is develop the qualities that are innate within each sex.
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As far as femininity and masculinity are concerned, women are more delicate, they don't go around lifting weights or heavy bags. Men are stronger. That's a basic biological distinction.
The wife should be submissive. In a Christian marriage it's the man that's boss.
When women go around dressed in really tight-fitting mini-skirts or T-shirts, I find it offensive. It irritates me.
I believe that in societies where women are more liberated there are more homosexuals, because men have a harder time relating to women in these places.
As one might imagine, this last statement is an especially telling one, since the speaker is attempting to draw a link between female assertiveness on the one hand, and male homosexuality on the other. However, while it is clear that fundamentalists see both as
'deviant', to the extent that they challenge traditional Christian morality, there can be little doubt that their condemnation of homosexuality is particular severe, as is amply shown by the comments below:
By destroying their body, these young homosexuals have also destroyed their soul My experience with homosexuals leads me to believe they're negative people. They're defensive, secretive fault-finders, they debase themselves; they pretend to be happy but they only sow discord.
It's difficult to be with them, they always try to disguise themselves because they feel bad and it's because they're flawed.
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AIDS, from this perspective, is considered to be a divine punishment imposed upon (and spread by) homosexuals because of their sinful behaviour:
AIDS is...a warning. There is a divine plan, a certain order; if men don't comply with it, they're going to be punished.
We knew the AIDS problem was coming; it's written in the Bible, the thing is people don't know it, they ignore it. In a world like ours, so full of evil, destruction, men kill each other, there are vices, homosexuality. That's why AIDS came.
The other day there was a special program on television where homosexuals were shown on the street kissing and hugging each other, touching each other's buttocks.
Many of them have AIDS and live together because they're not afraid of anything, not even death or God.
Moreover, given their views on the origin of the AIDS epidemic, it is not surprising that many of the young fundamentalists who participated in the study were also opposed to the ethos of scientific enquiry, particularly when the latter calls into question Biblical assertions: We have nothing, Jesus has converted us. It's a mystery, it has no rational explanation.
Psychologists can't do anything, they can't even reach the spirit. You can be intellectually and academically accomplished, but if you can't reach the unconscious, that is the Spirit, your profession is useless.
I think what's really important is God's word ... science can only help.
God alone can cure the Spirit, I have friends who study psychology and they can reach a certain point, but when they can't do any more, they tell them to go read the Bible.
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Of course, messages such as these are appealing to those whose socio-economic marginalization prevents them from overcoming the problems that they, along with their communities, are facing. It is for this reason that the Pentecostal Church has won over as many followers as it has in Villa del Mar. Quite simply, its uncompromising and activist stance on issues such as drugs, prostitution, adultery and other 'deviant' behaviours is precisely what its adherents expect from their church.
As well, many find the grass-roots leadership style of evangelical Christianity appealing, especially when contrasted with the extremely hierarchical and elitist management structure of the Catholic Church. In this way, not only are individuals who have little opportunity to take charge in their day-to-day lives given a chance to become religious leaders in their own right, but many are also attracted by the genuinely spontaneous and participatory nature of church services themselves.
Along similar lines, it should be noted that, despite strongly patriarchal tendencies within most fundamentalist churches, they do tend to offer women greater scope to play a leadership role than is the case with Roman Catholicism. This, combined with their attacks upon male infidelity and those who shirk their responsibilities as husbands and fathers, helps to explain why Protestant fundamentalism is so popular among female residents of Villa del Mar.
Turning to the question of how successful evangelical Christianity has been in promoting premarital celibacy among young people, there can be little doubt that most members of such churches do indeed plan to abstain from sex until their wedding day. However, the same might be said of religiously devout Roman Catholics, and, as our in-depth interviews made clear, not all fundamentalist youth are successful in avoiding the temptations of sexual activity prior to marriage.
Leidy is typical in this regard. 19 years of age and a longstanding member of an Adventist congregation, her sex education - both at home and at church - has been limited to vague warnings concerning the 'dangers' of sex and the importance of 'saving' oneself for one's future husband. Moreover, the adults in her life have sought to ensure that she does save herself by carefully monitoring her activities. As she put it, 'I was never allowed to go to dances, wear make-up, or go out with boys.'
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Not surprisingly, given this information vacuum, Leidy learnt about sex elsewhere, from girlfriends at school and from boys on the street. 'They were very clever,' Leidy admitted, and before long she (and many of her friends as well) had a 'secret' boy-friend of whom her mother and church were completely ignorant. However, knowing nothing about contraceptives and safe sex, not only was she soon pregnant, but, once she had revealed her condition to her boyfriend, she was single as well, as he quickly left her in order to avoid having to support the child once it was born. Although she is the first to admit that she had made a mistake, she feels that this is in large part due to the fact that she 'had no one to talk to about sex.' Needless to say, this has made her somewhat resentful towards her church: 'I don't believe women have to remain virgin until marriage, many young people do it all the time, it's not something you can avoid.'
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VII
Assimilation of Gender Discourses
Background
Patriarchy is so firmly entrenched in the West that most people take it for granted. However, this does not alter the fact that it is a gender-based system of domination, whose existence directly benefits men at the same time that it exploits and demeans women.
Moreover, in the relatively underdeveloped countries of Latin America, patriarchal social relations are more in evidence than is the case in Europe or North America, where women have been more successful in countering gender discrimination in their daily lives. Costa Rican women, for example, continue to be treated like second class citizens, the victims of a culture of
„machismo‟ which denigrates the „feminine‟ while celebrating al things „masculine.‟
Needless to say, instillation of macho values and norms into children begins at an early age, and consists in the first instance of socializing them into acceptance of the view that men and women are mirror reflections of one another: the one is strong, the other weak; the one is aggressive, the other passive, the one is rational, the other emotional; the one is a bread -
winner, the other a home-maker. Of course, once these tenets have been accepted as fact, it is but a short step to the „self-evident‟ view men complement women (and vice versa), and thus that heterosexual union is the natural state of being for humankind.
However, if it is natural for men and women to be united in matrimony, it follows (according to the peculiar logic of patriarchal ideology) that all forms of emotional and sexual expression that cannot be readily subsumed under this model are, by definition, „unnatural‟. In this way, homosexuality, voyeurism, masturbation and any number of other non-procreative sexual practices are conscribed to a netherworld whose existence is tolerated only so long as it remains hidden from view.
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Of course, it need hardly be added that, despite the enthusiasm with which many Costa Rican men embrace machismo, the patriarchal system did not originate in this country. Rather, its roots lie far in the past, obscured by the mists of history and subject to continuing debate among scholars in a wide range of disciplinary fields. While it would require a book in itself to do justice to the complex arguments put forth by these writers, one might nonetheless refer to Engels‟
(1970) The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State. Although it was published more than a century ago, its line of reasoning is plausible, and has provided the basis for muc h subsequent writing on this topic.
In short, Engels argues that pre-historic societies were characterized by systems of governance that were at once matriarchal and communist and, despite the existence of a sexual division of labour, women‟s status was in no way inferior to that of their male counterparts. However, all this changed as agriculture replaced gathering-and-hunting as the principal means of subsistence, with men taking it upon themselves to keep any surplus generated, and, ultimately, to pass it along to their descendants. Moreover, as the locus of sexual power shifted, matriarchal governance structures fell increasingly into disuse, to be replaced by ones grounded in patrilineal succession and patriarchal control.
Needless to say, Engels‟ thesis has been greatly developed by feminist scholars in the 1970s and 1980s, who took it upon themselves to engage in further analysis and interpretation of the origins of female subordination and exploitation in Western societies.
Many of these writers posited a biological basis for patriarchy. Jane Schefer (1970), for example, sought to explain the domination of women by men in terms of the latter‟s capacity to experience multiple orgasms. Within this frame of reference, women were subordinated in order to circumscribe and control their procreative potential. A similar position was advanced by Susan Brownmil er (1976), who argued that women‟s oppression derives from their relative physical weakness. In this view, patriarchy‟s roots can be traced to the moment Man first realized that he could use his sexual organ to rape Woman.
Others, meanwhile, placed their emphasis somewhat differently, downplaying the importance of biology while highlighting instead the role of a changing political economy. In a particularly notable example, Gerda Lerner makes the case in The Creation of Patriarchy that it was THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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women‟s subordination at the hands of men that provided the basis for the latter‟s subsequent domination of nature and other human societies. Interestingly, this position is analogous to that adopted by Firestone when she argues that the workings of the economy are grounded ultimately in sexual relations, rather than relations of production.
Finally, it should be noted that some feminist scholars have gone so far as to reject the notion that there is any biological basis for patriarchy at all. The work of Monique Witting (1971) is typical of this school of thought. Quite simply, not only does she contend that all sex roles and relations are socially constructed, but that even supposedly immutable physical processes (such as childbirth and hormone production) are responsive to changing cultural contexts. In this way, if one is to explain the patriarchal system, one must ground one‟s analysis in political rather than anatomical explanations.
What is one to make of the discussion above? Certainly, it underscores the difficulty in arriving at any clear-cut explanation of patriarchy‟s origins. However, be this as it may, there can be little doubt that it is remains a potent force in Costa Rica and elsewhere, subjugating and oppressing women while at the same time dictating the bounds of the „normal‟ in al matters pertaining to sex roles and relations.
How are sex roles internalized?
From a very early age, boys and girls are taught how to act, think and speak in ways that are
'appropriate' to their gender. Their teachers are many, ranging from parents, siblings and peers, to television, popular music and magazines. Moreover, not only are these messages ubiquitous and multi-variate, but they are constantly reinforced through the threat of ridicule, humiliation and physical violence should an individual fail to abide by them.
As one might imagine, the internalization process is both conscious and unconscious, starting at home and continuing throughout the life-course. Yadira Calvo (in Berrón 1995), a distinguished Costa Rican feminist, recalls learning her subordinate role as a child, in the small details of daily life: in the amount of food served to men and women (the latter are served less), or in processes of household decision-making (all the important decisions are made by men). Moreover, Calvo's experiences are validated by the findings of academic studies of the impact of gender upon THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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