(Page 20 of 20) - Activo/Pasivo and Gay Mexican Male Homosexualities: A Social Class Analysis authored by Thing, James.

James Thing

Empirical Paper Draft, 12.08.03

ENDNOTES

I use a standard socioeconomic definition of social class which incorporates looking at education levels,

income levels and wealth for both the men that I interview and for their parents. I also asked each of the
men that I interviewed directly about their social class standings while they were growing up. Also, given
that I am more interested in the formation of their sexual identities in Mexico and given that most Mexican
immigrants become working-class post migration (regardless of their previous social standing), I do not
find that their social class standing in the U.S. is as important for the analysis in this paper. That said,
however, surely social class in the U.S. is important for the construction of homosexual identities, however,
that discussion is beyond the scope of this paper.

Furthermore, I plan on refining my definition of social class in my dissertation work. I plan on

developing my usage of social class to possibly include discussion of social/cultural capital and/or habitus.
That is, I want to try to expand my usage beyond such a straight-forward definition so that I may be able to
show how social class is relational and produced by many factors (not only occupation, in

While historical examinations do posit the existence of gender-stratified forms of homosexuality in pre-

colonial and colonial Latin America, ambiguities regarding the devaluation, stigmatization or conversely,
the celebration of the passive role, suggest that perhaps the boundaries delineating acceptable gender and
sexual behavior were more fluid than contemporary applications of the activo/pasivo model allow for.
Mejia (2000) notes that Aztec and Mayan cultures, both of which were present at the time of colonization
by the Spanish, had different viewpoints of homosexuality, the former being intolerant, unless within the
context of religious ritual, and the latter being fairly tolerant of sexual diversity. It is widely documented
and generally accepted by most anthropologists and sociologists that many indigenous cultures from the
Americas (Asia and Africa), including Mayan cultures, allowed for and continue to allow for the existence
of more than two genders. A “third sex” category, more common for biologically sexed males

living as

“women,” (this phenomenon for women is understudied) was part of their gender and sexuality systems,
and those who adopted this identity were widely accepted and even highly respected in certain societies
(Williams 1986; Mejia 2002; Murray 2000; Stephen 2002).

Mejia (2000) and Stephen (2002) argue that in Mexico’s southern states, contemporary Zapotec

indigenous societies, derived from the Mayan, are quite tolerant of male homosexuality as long as gender
remains the organizing principle of homoerotic encounters. Stephan notes that Zapotec women often enjoy
more privileges relative to women in many other parts of the country, and suggests that these groups’
complimentary (instead of hierarchical) gender roles promote gender equality which allows for more fluid
constructions of gender and sexuality. In analyses of Latin American homosexuality, most humanities and
social science scholarship privileges the influence of the Spanish colonial system of gender and sexuality,
which was both sexist and heterosexist, and ignore important ethnic differences that have interacted
historically to produce variations of the activo/pasivo binary.

iii

Scholars recognize that there is not one unified understanding of homosexual identities in the U.S.

(Cantu and other references???) However, in the U.S. and in most post-industrial western societies
definitions of homosexuality rely on an object-choice model in which the sex of the object of one’s desire
or behavior determines one’s sexuality. The sexuality of any man who engages in sexual relations with
another man is held suspect of being “a homosexual” regardless of conformity or non-conformity to gender
conventions. That said, however, in the popular imagination in the U.S. male homosexuality is often
associated with effeminacy.

Vestida can be roughly translated to mean transvestite. In Mexico, the popular imagination often holds

that homosexual men are usually vestidas, that is, that they engage in cross-dressing. Homosexuality,
including effeminacy and sexual passivity, is implied by the term.