Aasof’s Reflections

Machismo is central to the theme in the novel ‘The Honorary Consul‘ by Graham Greene. While the novel was a risible take on machismo in Latin America, it never sought to alter the meaning of the word. I can’t remember if Greene’s novel was my introduction to machismo but when I read it, the loanword machismo wasn’t in common use. Neither was the calque ‘macho,’ now widely used by females synonymously with Neanderthal.

Language being one of the many subversive elements used to change society,  which is now moving inexorably towards that portrayed in ‘The Worm That Turned’. How long will it be I wonder before this transformation is complete? The male becoming mere chattel, a plaything, not worthy of education, relieved of his suffrage. How long I wonder before his role in the reproductive process becomes a myth, leading to his acceptance that procreation occurs when the female turns her hindquarters towards Boreas?
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