As one might imagine, there is no such distinction in Villa del Sol, where playos are simply men who sleep with other men; whether one is the active or the passive partner is considered immaterial. Of course, such a view is grounded in a rational-scientific understanding of sexual orientation, in which homosexuality is nothing other than a deviation from the heterosexual norm.
As we will seek to emphasize in the pages that follow, this translates into significantly different gender discourses in the two communities. While in Villa del Sol emphasis is placed upon gender 'psychology' when attempting to make sense of men and women's relationships, in Villa del Mar attention is focused instead upon the 'activity' or 'passivity' of particular individuals.
The Villa del Mar model
Economic stagnation and chronic unemployment are defining characteristics of Villa del Mar. In this environment, men are faced with the prospect of joblessness for much of the year, while women are forced to find waged work themselves order to make ends meet, either in the service sector, or in local maquiladoras and tuna-processing plants.
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Needless to say, economic marginalization has had far-reaching effects upon the community's social fibre, as attested to by high levels of family violence, divorce and single-parenthood among its population. Indeed, so poor are the prospects of many of the town's male inhabitants and so great is their level of alienation and anger that women will often prefer to leave their partners (either for another man or to live by themselves with their children) rather than stay in an abusive relationship.
However, despite the degree of economic independence which many women in Villa del Mar enjoy, this has not translated into heightened respect for the rights of women in general. Rather, one might argue that the reverse is true, given that the community is characterized by a more
'traditional' gender order than Villa del Sol, where feminism has made considerable headway, particularly among the community's younger members.
What then is one to make of gender relations in the town? In short, Villa del Mar's residents subscribe to an ideology centred upon the body and its physical activities. Within this model, women and men are defined according to their relative aggressivity or passivity, with roles and activities appropriate to each. In women's case, they are required to act as care-givers and nurturers, providing a range or personal services to their children and husbands. In men's case, they are expected to be the family's bread-winner and leader, and to protect it from external threats and dangers. Moreover, underpinning this division of labour are well-defined rules and conventions outlining the bounds of 'appropriate' behaviour. Thus, women do not need to be told that they should act, dress and talk in a 'feminine' fashion, just as men do not have to be reminded of the importance of always behaving in a suitably 'masculine' manner.
It is precisely in this context that the cachero derives his significance. That is to say, Villa del Mar encompasses a world view in which sexuality, rather than being defined through the elaboration of a series of psychological attributes (as is the case in Villa del Sol), is grounded instead in the dichotomization of dominator and dominated. Within this frame of reference, all those who are aggressive and dominate others are necessarily men, while those who are passive and dominated are by definition women.
Given this perspective, the object of desire, be it man or woman, becomes less important than the identity of the subject: playos, because of their femininity, are understood to be women in men‟s bodies, just as „butch‟ lesbians are thought to be men in women‟s bodies. Meanwhile, THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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those who behave in a manner „appropriate‟ to their gender - such as cacheros and feminine lesbians - are labelled heterosexual, regardless of whom their lovers happen to be.
Of course, it is no coincidence that this model is the predominant one in Villa del Mar. Since it is a community in crisis, whose menfolk feel emasculated and threatened by virtue of the fact that they cannot provide for their families, the latter compensate for their own sense of powerlessness by dominating others on a physical level. That is to say, men are encouraged to prove themselves by using violence to subjugate those around them, most notably their wives and children. Inordinately high levels of physical aggression were apparent throughout the research process, with young people relating any number of stories of beatings, sexual and physical abuse, rape and incest.
To il ustrate the degree to which violence have become part of young men‟s everyday lives, it is useful to consider the following statement by Kenneth, who was endeavouring to explain when one can legitimately force oneself upon a woman: „sometimes the eyes tel you, they say no, but their eyes and their body language say yes. In cases like that, it‟s okay to use force.'
Gender discourses in Villa del Sol
Not only is Villa del Sol a more affluent community than Villa del Mar, but it embodies a gender order that is itself conditioned by economic mobility, high levels of educational attainment, and a male population whose ready access to employment opportunities facilitates the fulfilment of bread-winning obligations to their families.
While these characteristics have undoubtedly played a role in discouraging divorce and separation in the town, they have also contributed to the elaboration of an understanding of
„appropriate‟ gender roles and relations which stands in sharp contrast to that which is predominant in Villa del Mar.
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How so? Quite simply, whereas gender discourses in the latter community focus on physical strength and the active-passive dichotomy, in Villa del Sol emphasis is placed instead upon the interplay of opposing (yet complementary) „psychologies‟. From this perspective, women are women not so much because of their supposed „passivity‟, but rather on account of their distinctly „feminine‟ mentality and thought processes. Moreover, it is precisely because of men and women‟s different mentalities that the latter are thought best-suited for care-giving and nurturing tasks, and the former for activities that are competitive, arduous or intellectually challenging.
The complementarity of this gender system should be obvious. It assumes that the mental development of men and women, whether by virtue of education, hormones or peer expectations, produces incomplete minds that need each other if they are to become whole.
However, despite its tendency to damn as „deviant‟ those who do not fal neatly into one or the other categories, it is nonetheless a model that is flexible in the face of changing realities. The reason is simple: male and female roles are interrelated. Thus, to the extent that being male in Villa del Sol means simply not being female, women can take on new roles or re-define existing ones without necessarily undermining the premises upon which the gender model is based.
Indeed, gains have been made in this area. No longer are household chores the sole purview of wives and daughters, as men are showing themselves increasingly willing (even if reluctantly) to assist in meal preparation and child care. Similarly, women can now pursue their studies or become career-minded professionals without risking the wrath of their partners. Still, this is not to say that gender discourses have ceased to be oppressive. For example, even though it is no longer unthinkable for young women in Villa del Sol to engage in pre-marital sex, they are still forced to contend with a pernicious double-standard. As Hilda put it, If a man goes around with a lot of chicks it doesn't matter, but a woman must make herself be respected. However, society is opening up and a woman who takes the initiative is no longer considered a slut. Still, men have to "fuck" a lot of chicks in order to be considered manly.
Moreover, women are also aware that they are the ones who will pay the price should they be unlucky enough to become pregnant within the context of a pre-marital relationship. At best, their family wil forgive their „mistake‟ and continue to lend support; at worst, they wil be abandoned by their boyfriend and left to fend for themselves. Indeed, there are some who THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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might argue that, at the same time that middle-class women are gaining access to new rights and new possibilities, their partners are placing new burdens upon them ( eg. in the area of emotional support), undermining the gains made in the process. Thus, for a woman like Maria, true gender equality remains a faraway and elusive goal: „What I am saying is that women suffer more than men, it's always the woman who gives more love, and then we are ridiculed for it. It would have been better to have been born a man and not suffer so much.‟
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VIII
Assimilation of Scientific Discourses
Background
Given the complexity inherent within the sexual discourses of Science, arising as they do from any number of disciplinary contexts, it would scarcely be feasible for us to attempt to make sense of all of them in this chapter. Rather, we will focus instead upon that which is most relevant to the work at hand, namely the discourses that fal under the rubric of „reproductive health‟4.
As one might imagine, the latter is heavily influenced by the biomedical model, in which
„problems‟, be they an over-abundance of teenage pregnancies or the spread of STDs, can be corrected through the application of the appropriate „cure‟. Prescribed by physicians, nurses or social workers, these cures generally take the form of education and prevention campaigns, in which „scientific‟ information is mobilized in the fight against diseases (or, in the case of pregnancy, „irresponsible‟ behaviour) and the conditions which facilitate their propagation.
However, before we set out to explore the impact of reproductive health discourses upon Costa Rica‟s young people, we must first provide some background information. As was made clear in Chapter 2 above, the country‟s indigenous population is estimated to have been between 20,000 and 30,000 at the time of first contact with the Spanish colonizers. Needless to say, disease brought from Europe would soon take its toll, and by 1611 this figure is believed to have 4 Hundreds of articles were read on the subject of reproductive health. Most of them have been published in the Revista de Ciencias Medicas (Medical Science Review) San Jose, Costa Rica: Imprenta Nacional.
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dropped to 15,000, and it would take close to a century before it returned to its pre-contact level (Thiel 1977). In more recent times of course this rate of growth has accelerated considerably, with the population climbing from 300,000 to 800,000 in the 50 years between 1900 and 1950, and to well over 3 million in the early 1990s (CELADE 1990).
However one wishes to account for this surge in Costa Rica's population, especially in the post-World War II era, there can be little doubt that state-led industrialization and „modernization‟
were key contributing factors. In short, this was a period when vaccination campaigns, combined with improved living conditions and access to primary medical care conspired to slash the country‟s mortality rate in a dramatic fashion, from a rate of 25 per 1,000 in the 1940s, to less than ten per 1,000 in the 1960s (AD,C 1987).
While much of the ensuing growth was initially absorbed by the countryside, it was not long before the latter‟s carrying-capacity was reached, prompting ever-larger numbers of people to relocate from their rural homes to urban areas. To the extent that the nascent industrial sector was unable to provide jobs for the new arrivals, over-population became a growing concern for state officials, whose response included the creation of a National Programme for Family Planning and Sex Education in 1968 (since renamed the Reproductive Health Programme).
Needless to say, it was at this moment that family planning moved from the private realm to that of the public, and became a legitimate object for state intervention. With support provided by a number of agencies, including the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and various non-governmental organizations, the Programme gave women access to a range of contraceptive options, as well as providing them with information on the benefits of birth spacing and means of avoiding unwanted pregnancies. Without wishing to downplay the degree of opposition to the Programme's objectives, it was clearly successful in promoting widespread contraceptive use, as is attested to by the fact that Costa Rican women are now more likely to be users of contraceptives than their counterparts anywhere else in Latin America (CCSS
1994).
However, if state actors achieved their declared aim of reining in an unsustainably high birth rate, their interventions also served to achieve another, perhaps less welcome, end, namely that of exposing Costa Rican society to a plethora of new discourses related to sex, sexuality and THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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reproductive health. In short, not only were technical advances in these areas widely discussed in the mainstream media, but the country became immersed in a series of debates over the morality of such practices as contraceptive use, abortion and sterilization. As one might imagine, religious groups took the lead in denouncing any hint of liberalization in these areas, and there can be little doubt that their opposition explains, at least in part, the continuing il egality of abortion and sterilization in al cases except those where the patient‟s own health is at risk.
Moreover, once matters of sex and sexuality had entered the public sphere, the terms of debate soon broadened to encompass other contentious issues as well, adolescent sexual practices most notable among them. Quite simply, this was the time when experts 'discovered' the dangers inherent in young people's sexual impulses, with the case of teenage pregnancy cited as a key example. That is to say, not was there deemed to be a physical risk to mother and child, but their emotional and psychological well-being was thought to be in a high degree of danger as well.
Of course, this is part of a larger movement, reflective of broad socio-economic changes taking place in the country as a whole, away from the notion of 'youth' and towards that of
'adolescence'. How so? In short, while there had previously been little differentiation between adulthood and youthfulness - after all, this was the time when most people got married, had children (in the case of women) or became apprenticed to a trade (in the case of men) -
adolescence was increasingly portrayed as the stage in one's life when one prepared oneself for the burdens of adulthood. Thus, it was understood above all to be a waiting period, meant to instill in young people a greater preoccupation with their future as wage-earners, consumers and parents. Needless to say, 'waiting' in this context also referred to sexual initiation, with the country's opinion-leaders adopting the position that, if individuals were not yet ready to set out on a career and life of their own, how could they be trusted to engage in 'responsible' sex?
Still, despite the proliferation of messages regarding the importance of a (relatively) care-free adolescence to individuals' personal development, it is clear that not all young people are able to enjoy this stage in their life to an equal degree. Poorer families, with fewer resources, simply do not have the luxury of keeping children at home who do not contribute substantively to the THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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social reproduction of the household, just as they cannot afford to send them to university or provide them with the means of embarking upon a profitable career trajectory.
Be this as it may, there can be little doubt that all Costa Rican youth were touched, to a greater or lesser degree, by this new understanding of adolescent sexuality. Beginning in the 1960s, state actors, in association with non-governmental organizations, launched a series of health programmes in the country's secondary schools, at the same time that dominant discourses became increasingly strident in their condemnation of youthful sexual activity. Moreover, as part of this process, parents were expected to control and monitor their children's activities, all the while implanting in them the capacity to exercise self-control over their impulses and urges.
While one might argue that school-based sex education was meant to provide further reinforcement to these latter messages, the Ministry of Education's efforts in this regard were effectively undermined by vocal criticism on the part of Church authorities, who were strongly opposed to any move which weakened their grip on the moral instruction of the young. As one might imagine, the ensuing debate was both raucous and emotive, as well as progressively broad-based. Should family planning methods be discussed with boys, girls or both sexes?
What about sexual intercourse? Abortion? Homosexuality? Masturbation? What forms of contraceptives are legitimate? Should birth spacing be recommended or not?
Obviously, there are no simple answers to these questions, yet even as religious discourse structured and circumscribed the terms of debate, other, competing discourses were entering the fray. One of these was of course Science, which proposed its own, wholly secular perspective on sex and sexuality. Another was the street, which offered young people the chance to learn about sex in an environment that was far removed from the disapproving gaze of authority figures.
However, in the 1980s a new ingredient was introduced into the debate: HIV/AIDS. In short, not only did its spread to Costa Rica arouse widespread fear and consternation among the population at large, but it also forced state actors, among others, to come to terms with the fact that many adolescents were sexually active, and hence at risk of contracting the virus.
Moreover, its arrival also had another significant effect, namely that of mobilizing the gay community against homophobic claims that the disease amounted to divine punishment for THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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perverse behaviour, in the process making it very difficult to deny the existence of homosexuality in the country, or to pretend that Costa Rica was a model for all its neighbours in the field of human rights.
This latter point is especially significant when considered alongside the fact that the government's initial response to HIV/AIDS in 1985 included measures that actively discriminated against sexual minorities, as though infection were the product of identity rather than practice (Madrigal and Schifter 1990). However, under pressure from donor countries and international organizations, state agencies were cajoled into removing overtly homophobic elements from their AIDS programmes. While this is not to suggest that these programmes ceased to be guided by a conservative ideology - amply attested to by the emphasis placed upon abstinence and monogamy as the prevention strategies of choice - the government began to recognize the value in a harm reduction approach. Motivated by fears of an epidemic of disastrous proportions, state agencies began to distribute information on the proper use of condoms, along with other ways that individuals at high risk of infection might protect themselves.
Indeed, it is precisely in this context that HIV/AIDS created the conditions necessary for frank discussion of a host of sex-related subjects that had previously been out of bounds as far as polite society and the mainstream media were concerned. Thus, in spite of the alarmist tone adopted by some, there can be little doubt that the public in general was exposed to positions and perspectives (for example, in the area of sexual orientation) that, ten years previously, would never have been allowed to see the light of day. In similar fashion, once state managers had decided to take an active role in AIDS prevention and education, it became increasingly difficult for them to sanction the dissemination of certain messages ( eg. always practice safe sex) while arbitrarily silencing others ( eg. women have the same right to sexual fulfilment as men).
However, given the extent to which the Church remains a potent political force in Costa Rica, the government has been loathe to risk alienating it altogether. Instead, one might argue that the two have reached an unofficial understanding, whereby 'illegitimate' practices are tolerated so long as they are not publicized. Female sterilization is a case in point. Denounced by the Church hierarchy as sinful and unacceptable, it is the contraceptive of choice for Costa Rican couples (Madrigal 1994), and is widely available to women in hospitals throughout the country.
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Scientific discourses and young people
Regardless of the state's motives in promoting a 'scientific' understanding of sex and sexuality, it is clear that young people have assimilated the latter in the same way that they internalize any other discourse: accept that which is expedient and reject the rest. Indeed, there is little reason to believe that the young people who took part in this study are even aware of the basic tenets of scientific thought. If they were, one presumes that they would be willing to modify their perspective in the face of countervailing evidence. As it stands, however, their support for scientific postulates is limited to those instances where these validate already-held positions and beliefs.
For example, in some of the focus groups we called into question young people's view of the origins of homosexuality by informing them that there is no scientific basis to the belief that most gay or lesbian individuals are born into dysfunctional families. While Villa del Mar youth, who generally subscribe to an essentialist understanding of homosexuality in any case, were entirely willing to accept the veracity of this claim, those from Villa del Sol rejected it out of hand, since it was inconsistent with their belief that being gay is the result of environmental factors.
Needless to say, this in turn supports the view that young people's assimilation of scientific discourses is fractured along lines of class and gender, with the latter acting in a fashion reminiscent of 'barriers' or 'filters'. How they do so, and the effects they produce are among the issues which will be addressed in detail in the paragraphs that follow.
Male discourses in Villa del Sol
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As has been suggested in previous chapters, young men in Villa del Sol were among the most likely of all research participants to espouse rational-scientific discourses, and the least likely to have internalized religious ones. Of course, in this connection it is useful to recall that Villa del Sol is a relatively wealthy community, and hence its members have access to monetary, educational and psychological resources that are quite simply unavailable to their counterparts in Villa del Mar.
Needless to say, these resources, together with the social and educational mobility with which they are associated, have served Villa del Sol's young men well, giving them self -confidence in their reasoning skills and shielding them from the physical dangers that are all too prevalent on the streets in Villa del Mar. While this in turn has made them that much more likely to listen to and act upon 'scientific' advice in the area of AIDS or STD prevention, it has also prompted them to emphasize rational thought at the expense of emotions and intuition.
This perspective is evident in their view of the differences between men and women. Making liberal use of Freudian categories and explanations, male participants from Villa del Sol see the sexes as the product of contrasting processes of psychological development, which serve to create adult men and women whose minds are at once opposing yet complementary. Given this view, it does not matter that women are now engaging in activities that were once seen as exclusively male ( eg. attending university), since their femineity is understood to rest elsewhere, for example in their way of thinking and interacting with others.
Of course, it bears emphasis that young men do not necessarily subscribe to this 'scientific'
explanation of gender differences because it has been judged to be the most logical or reasonable. Rather, they do so, at least in part, because it offers them a stable world-view and justification for the status quo.
Interestingly, male participants' self-interest is also discernable in their defence of government-sponsored family planning programmes, which they justify through reference to a range of economic arguments. In short, not only did they suggest that large families amounted to a serious financial drain on household resources, but they alluded to the dangers of overly-rapid population growth as well. For example, consider the following statements made by Carlos and Alexandro, respectively:
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Before having a child, you have to plan, you have to know how much money you're going to spend, how many children you're going to have, and when you have them, what you're going to do.