Marianismo
Evelyn Stevens' essay was very significant to this area of study. However, since its publication, her argument has been debated by other researchers and critics. Although her argument addresses marianismo in Latin America at large, many of the sources she uses mainly focus on Mexican culture, thus severely limiting her frame of reference. Also, she is criticized for implying that, despite other differences among various socioeconomic classes, the ideal woman's characteristics are ultimately the same across social classes. Her critics claim Stevens ignores socioeconomic factors, saying "her description of women as altruistic, selfless, passive, [and] morally pure" is inadequate. There have been some responses in the literature to the concept of marianismo that assert that its model of/for women's behavior is very class-based. In other words, the idea that men do all the hard work, while women remain idle, on a pedestal, is a life that rarely exists, particularly for the peasant, poor and working class women that make up the majority of Latin America women. As Gil and Vazquez remind us, "most of her [Stevens's] data came from middle class Mexican women".
Marianismo
According to Marianismo beliefs, women are expected to be naïve about sex, which means that many girls and women are not taught about the spread of HIV. Women receive social status when they maintain the appearance that they know little about sex, including the extramarital affairs of their husbands. Many husbands have extramarital affairs as a way to prove their machismo, both with women and men. Men who have sex with men (MSM) often do not identify as gay, and in Peru, one study found that 47% of MSM reported to have had sex with a woman in the previous year, often without condoms, and many were married to a woman. This behavior, combined with the willing ignorance from wives of these affairs, puts women at risk of HIV contraction. Most women in Latin American cultures with HIV contracted it from their sole sex partner, their husband. Regardless of the sexual monogamy associated with Marianismo purity a woman adheres to, her status as HIV-positive threatens the identity she wants to associate with.