Ecuadorian society is very traditional: men are men, and women are women. Girls go to high school in dresses and more often than not heels, boys in suits with ties. You must always greet your elders, say your please-and-thank-yous, etc. In the rural areas, you seldom see women driving. Men don't cook or clean. An anectode: just yesterday, after eating dinner with Sarah's host family, I offered to do the dishes. The women thought it was hilarious, made jokes the entire time about how I am the "man who washes dishes," and they even took pictures of me doing it!
These attitudes are also apparent in more subtle ways. For instance, when it comes to dealing with technology, machinery, plumbing, etc, women defer to men. I'm talking about university-educated women, who say things like "I was waiting for a man to come so he could help me fix the printer." At the school in my town, there are 3 men and 4 women. The women teach grades 1-4 and the men teach grades 5-7; the unspoken assumption is that women are more suited to dealing with small children than men. Actually, they may not be wrong about that one, from what I've seen... (cue my sister leaving an angry comment :->).
Basically, life in the rural areas is like an episode of Mad Men. These gender attitudes are reinforced by both men and women. In the cities, however, gender roles seem to be much more progressive, so I imagine that the trend will slowly work its way outwards.
Where was I going with this? I'm glad you asked. It turns out that there's a publicity campaign in Ecuador with the tagline "machismo es violencia" (machismo is violence). Its goal is to try to change some of these harmful habits that are deeply ingrained in Ecuadorian culture.
Let's watch a few of the videos. Don't worry, I'll translate.
We'll start with a sobering one. Here's what they say near the end:
Women have the right to a life free of violence. If it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. React, Ecuador! Machismo is violence.
There are several other ones that deal with the issues of physical violence and overt sexism. I'm not posting them all, but if you search for "machismo es violencia" on youtube, you can find more.
Moving right along. Many of these ads are funny, such as the following one:
Ecuador 2045
[Narrator] This is an Ecuadorian Machista, who lived in a time when men drank too much, beat their wives, or treated women with disrespect. They could belong to any social or economic class [boy opens his mouth in wonderment]. Thanks to the fact that Ecuadorian society reacted and evolved, as you can see, he is part of an era that should never be repeated.
[Man]: Man, we were so backwards back then, huh?
[Boy]: Good thing they're extinct!
Love it. Here's one that I think is very interesting, for reasons I'll explain:
[Narrator]: Machismo is a learned trait: you have the power to eliminate it.
React, Ecuador! Machismo is violence.
I think it's great that they're trying to curb machismo, but this reminds me of something you'd see on Sociological Images; to Ecuadorian people, it is perfectly normal to define gender roles from birth. Notice how the girl is dressed in pink, her entire room is pink, she's playing with dolls; everything screams "girly girl".
The boy is similarly macho in every respect; everything is blue, he plays with guns and has boxing gloves (that he will ostensibly possibly use to beat his future woman). Side note, the word "mujer" (woman) is used to refer to someone's wife, and it's perfectly normal here--"la mujer del Pablo," literally translated, means "Pablo's woman."
OK, now that I've shown you some serious videos about the serious problem that is machismo in Ecuador, let's end on a lighter note. I just saw this ad on TV as I was typing this post. It's for the Gym Form Duo:
Just watch the first minute. This is what ads are like in Ecuador, and it's perfectly normal. Sidenote: There is one rule that must never be broken in Ecuador: if a woman is on TV, she must be young and hot. It's not unusual to see a really old male anchor and a girl that could be his daughter next to him.
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