User:Su235940/Marianismo

"Marianismo" originally referred to a devotion towards the Blessed Virgin Mary (Spanish: María). The term was first used by political scientist Evelyn Stevens in her 1973 essay "Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo". It was coined as a female counterpart to machismo, the hispanic ideal of masculinity. Marianismo is the supposed ideal of true femininity that women are supposed to live up to—i.e. being modest, virtuous, and sexually abstinent until marriage—and then being faithful and subordinate to their husbands. Although Stevens was the first to use the term, the concept probably originated at the same as machismo, during the time of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

In their book The Maria Paradox: How Latinas Can Merge Old World Traditions with New World Self-esteem (1996, G. P. Putnam), Rosa Maria Gil and Carmen Inoa Vazquez credit Stevens with introducing the concept of marianismo, citing the "ground-breaking essay written by Evelyn P. Stevens in 1973". They also discuss use of the term by academicians such as Sally E. Romero, Julia M. Ramos-McKay, Lillian Comas-Díaz, and Luis Romero. In their book, Gil and Vazquez use it as applicable across a variety of Hispanic cultures.

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