“Es que para ellos el deporte es matar”: Rethinking the Scripts of Violent Men in El Salvador and Brazil

While it is acknowledged that gangs are predominately made up of young men, many of whom engage in violent behavior, they are rarely analyzed as a gendered phenomenon. In Rio de Janeiro and the cities of El Salvador, stories of violence are presented in highly sensationalist terms and rely on a predetermined cast of actors—stereotypically, young, poor (black) males who live on the urban margins. This representation of violent masculinity lacks rigorous and nuanced examination and fails to interrogate masculinities as relational, complex, and multidimensional. Through an examination of the “everyday scripts of violence,” this chapter locates gender relations within the broader political economy of violence in Latin America. The authors situate this in the debates on men and masculinities, paying particular attention to the “pull” of the stereotypes related to extreme forms of masculinities against which researchers are not immune.