Researcher Gloria González-López says heterosexual norms are created, maintained, and changed in different national locations. González-López goes so far as to sayMarianismo has done damage to our understanding of gender relations and inequalities among Latin American and U.S Latina women...Now discredited, marianismo was originally an attempt to examine women's gender identities and relationships within the context of inequality, by developing a model based on a religious icon (María), the quintessential expression of submissiveness and spiritual authority. This notion of Latin American women is grounded in a culturalist essentialism that does far more than spread misinformed ideas: it ultimately promotes gender inequality. Both marianismo and machismo have created clichéd archetypes, fictitious and cartoonesque representations of women and men of Latin American origin."