Many of the 16 articles in this collection are from the conference on “Male Friendship and Homosociality in Latin America” held at Brown University in April 2001. The goals of the volume, broadly, are two: (1) to make scholarship on men and masculinities by Latin American specialists who most typically write to and for a Latin American audience available to non–Latin American scholars (this includes translating some of the essays into English for this volume) and (2) “to extend feminist theory and gender studies in Latin America in new directions” (p. ix). The editor, Matthew Gutmann, notes in the introduction that the volume attempts to provide much needed insight into “men-as-men” in Latin America (p. 1) while grounding the research within gender–sexuality analytic tools. Within the larger goals of the volume, Gutmann highlights three areas of particular concern; these include an interrogation by various authors of the connection between local and global changes in gender and sexuality, whether any aspect of gender and sexuality among Latin American men is “typical and/or sui generis” (p. 2), and the merits of studying men rather than studying gender–sexuality (in Latin America or anywhere). Although these three issues are implicitly addressed in many of the chapters, the first (the issue of the relationship of local and global changes on gender and sexuality) receives the most attention.

Throughout the volume, the concept of “hegemonic masculinity” (as evident in dominant male ideological expressions, e.g., of homophobia, machismo, and misogyny [p. 3]) is used as a means to rethink the complexities of normative versus practical (and actual) gendered behavior across various settings and contexts. Indeed, this volume is to be commended for the interrogation of mundane, taken-for-granted situations focusing on men but examined through an analytic lens of gender–sexuality. The men highlighted in this volume range from what we in the United States might call “deadbeat dads” to “philanderers” (Claudia Fonseca), “soldiers” (Peter Beattie), and “Mr. Mom wannabes” (José Olavarría). Moreover, the volume covers much geographical territory, including Brazil, urban Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina. Rather than focusing only on homosexual, minority, or other marginalized men (which is often typical of men’s studies), this volume provides a much-needed example for others specializing in men and masculinities and gender–sexuality studies by focusing on men in various stages of their lives and across a range of classes and ethnicities.

After the introduction by Gutmann, the volume showcases one of its strongest articles in chapter 2; this chapter by Mara Viveros Vigoya (translated by Gutmann and María Elena García) makes a rich body of literature on Latin American gender and sexuality accessible to English speakers–readers. Vigoya situates the study of Latin American masculinities within the frameworks of (gender) scholarship by Latin American feminists, the history of men’s studies, and literature on masculinities. This chapter is indispensable for anyone studying masculinity/ies, in general, and Latin American gender–sexuality issues, in particular.

Fonseca’s contextually specific and nuanced article—“Philanderers, Cuckolds, and Wily Women: Reexamining Gender Relations in a Brazilian Working-Class Neighborhood”—is especially interesting not only for the topic and her entry into it (jokes and gossip) but also because she demonstrates through interviews and field observation the ways in which women view men’s behavior and judge it. Through this perspective, Fonseca shows the intricate ways in which hegemonic masculinity (and femininity, for that matter) is (re)produced inconsistently depending on (at least) two variables: (1) the blood relationship between the joker–gossiper and the object of the joke or gossip and (2) the actual effect the joking–gossip has on the individual’s life. This latter variable is especially noteworthy given that an examination of the actual impact that being the object of a joke or gossip has over an individual clearly demonstrates that power is not unidirectional; that is, depending on the context, as Fonseca shows, hegemonic masculinity (or gender norms, in general) can be rejected, subverted, and even ignored, potentially having little power over the assumed victim.

This volume adds greatly to the gender–sexuality and masculinity literature currently available. Although the articles cover a range of masculinities, the extent to which the men included in the volume represent normative men is not transparent to the non–Latin American specialist (such as this reviewer); nonetheless, the volume does well by implicitly questioning the notion of “normative” masculinity by providing rich, detailed ethnographic accounts of various styles of masculinities throughout Latin America.