After decades of gender research focused on femininity, the male condition entered the political and academic agenda of Latin America starting in the 1990s. At that time, groups of men interested in such studies emerged, influenced by North American schools of thought, under the impact of the dramatic consequences of HIV/AIDS and the mortality caused by machista behavior patterns. These groups showed openness to debate homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and homophobia—topics that had been taboo until then. Within ten years, the study of masculinity was introduced into universities through expanded curricula or specific research projects, although it still remains a marginal subject and progresses slowly.

Latin America has historically been the stage for nationalist projects that incorporated the stereotype of the macho into national identity. Such was the case in Mexico, where several men’s groups rejected the association between male identity and machismo. Latin American patriarchy, associated with social problems, has worsened crime and armed confrontations and contributed to the alarming levels of male mortality from violent causes. Colombia, for example, in 2006 had the highest homicide rate in the world and around two million people displaced from their homes due to violence. Two men for every woman were victims of bodily injuries attributed to fights (71%) and assaults (9%). Between 1996 and 1997, 88% of all victims of violent death in Colombia were men aged 25 to 34, at the peak of their productive and reproductive lives.

In 2020, according to Colombia’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, there were 17,265 deaths from violent causes: homicides 8,938; traffic accidents 4,185; suicide 1,297; accidental situations 4,185. The mortality ratio among deaths from these causes was 6.92 men for every woman. The behavioral basis lies in masculine stereotypes, which stem from the patriarchal structure of domination—“valor,” “bravery,” “courage”—that become risk factors for illness and death, worsened in relation to living conditions, territory, class, ethnicity, skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other intersectionalities.

Colombia’s situation is a regrettable model of structural violence. The murders of social leaders and femicides in 2020 reflect this: 315 women murdered during mandatory COVID-19 lockdowns, and 132 during the state of emergency. There is an urgent need to tackle the deconstruction of patriarchal structures of power—social, community, and institutional—that lead to the elimination of all forms of male violence, which permeates the social and symbolic construction of becoming a man based on traditional canons and the hegemonic patriarchal model of masculinity.