In Josefina Lopez’s play Real Women Have Curves, a group of Hispanic women discuss their sex appeal in terms of their body image. They judge their psychological aspect of sex appeal based on how well their physiological aspect of body image agrees with society’s ideals. In Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, he explains that society is an amplified Panopticon that causes its members to observe one another and themselves. This theory explains these women’s compulsion to peruse their bodies to make sure that they fit within society’s standards of sexiness. Although these women are described in a collective manner, Lopez delineates each woman’s character distinctively. Their differing characters are greatly influenced by the opposing cultural values of Latinas working in sweatshops and that of White-American feminists. According to Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought, these conflicting cultural values develop oppositional knowledge in these women, which alters their perception of the female sex appeal. Hill Collins also explains that when individuals communicate their diverse ideas in a unified manner, it precipitates a unanimous definition to a society. This theory supports why the Latinas in Lopez’s play demonstrate a progression towards similar ideologies. In summary, using Foucault to explain the idea of self-surveillance, and Hill Collins to explain oppositional knowledge developed by contrasting the cultural values of White-American feminists and Latinas working in sweatshops, it is possible to describe the social phenomena of defining female sex appeal in terms of body image in Lopez’s play.
In Real Women Have Curves, the Latinas in a sweatshop reveal their perception of their sex appeal by discussing their body...
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...some try to break away from society’s definition of the female sex appeal and create their own definitions. The reformists among these women use the oppositional knowledge they get as outsiders-within the White-American feminists’ culture, to change the perception of the Latinas who choose to suppress this knowledge. When these women share their individual perspectives in a unanimous voice, they become a self-defined community. This community is not limited by the ideals of society, rather it opposes society and creates its own definition of the female sex appeal.
Works Cited
Hill Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought. Blackboard. Arizona State University. Web. 3 May 2014.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish. New York: Random House Inc, 1978. Print. 3 May 2014.
Lopez, Josefina. Real Women Have Curves. Illinois: Dramatic Publishing, 1990. Print. 3 May 2014.
Sandra Cisneros “Never Marry a Mexican” and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are stories that reflect on the cultures in which the characters grew up in. In Never Marry, Clemencia, the narrator, reflects on her past sexual relations as well as her childhood. She speaks of her parents’ marriage and then transitions into her relationship with college professor and his son. In Oscar Wao, Yunior, the narrator, gives a second-hand retelling of Oscar’s experiences in New Jersey growing up as well as in the Dominican Republic. A person’s identity is largely influenced by their culture, this is especially the case in Hispanic cultures. The social constraints that these cultures place on social class, sexuality, and gender norms can be very detrimental to a person’s self-esteem.
In 1975 the death of Franco and forty years of dictatorship and censorship offered Spanish women the freedom to reexamine their identity and question their role in a patriarchal society. At the same time on another continent, African-American women are also struggling to find their identity among the numerous American literary images that, until the 20th-century, had not realistically represented their gender or race. Notwithstanding the different histories, geographies, and ethnicities between African-American and Spanish women, a common thread that appears to bind them is their inheritance of a legacy of struggle against the internalization of controlling patriarchal perceptions and images of women that lead them to believe that they are, indeed, the stereoty...
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
The play “Real Women Have Curves” is written by Josefina Lopez, and the story is based on her own experiences when working in her sister’s sewing factory without legal documentation. The main plot in “Real Women Have Curves” is the daily life of works revolve around the production deadlines. The play is also adapted into a film in 2002. In the play there are only five female characters dominate the whole story while the movie give a more complete view of protagonist’s life outside of factory rather than just telling the story within the sewing factory, such as including the father and grandpa’s reactions and actions. Both the play and movie are set in a sewing factory in Easy Los Angeles. In the play, the story is focusing on the sewing factory’s owner, Estela, and she is an undocumented worker and afraid of being catch by the INS. However, in the movie, the story is told from the point of view of Ana, Estela’s sister, who just graduated from high school.
Moreover, she feels that the "U.S society is gendered and racialized: it expects certain behavior from women, certain bearings from men, certain comportment from queer mujeres, certain demeanor from queer hombres, certain conduct from disabled, and so on"(65 Anzaldua).
The Latino women and girls in the novel are extremely concerned about their appearances, because they feel that if they aren't attractive then they won't be noticed by men, and they are raised to believe that they need a man to fulfil their life, and that they need a husband to support them, and if they don't look attractive then they are not going to be noticed, and if they are not noticed, then they think they won't end up getting married. A good example of this is Marin. When Marin talks about a real job Marin says that the best place to work is downtown, not because of the work that is there, but because "you always get to look beautiful and were nice clothes." She also tells the girls that the only thing that matters is if your skirts are short, and your eyes are pretty, so that you are noticed by guys.
We daily see many common terms of body type in media like long legs, small waists, flawless skin, and nice clothes represented by actresses or models. The ABC’s episodic introduced to all Americans “Modern Family”, supports this stereotype with the role of the actress named “Gloria.” Gloria Delgado is a sexy Colombian woman that represents a ditzy person, often misusing phrases, mispronouncing worlds and saying whatever is on her mind even though it might come off wrong. The character always acts as unintelligent, but that does not matter to people because she has a good appearance that controls the audience to just laugh at her and not to realize the stereotype the show is giving. People look at her because of her physical appearance, not
Yet, the sexual revolution and the changing lifestyles of the decade has also arrived, but in the form of often “alien” women, who are presented in exclusively little clothing, some wearing no more than bathing suits or bikinis, while at the same time representing the ideal of youth and beauty. The newfound openness in clothing reflected the openness in behavior.
As much as men are working, so are women, but ultimately they do not face the same obstacles. For example, “Even if one subscribes to a solely economic theory of oppression, how can one ignore that over half of the world's workers are female who suffer discrimination not only in the workplace, but also at home and in all the areas sex-related abuse” (Moraga 98). This gives readers a point of view in which women are marginalized in the work place, at home, and other areas alike. Here Moraga gives historical accounts of Chicana feminists and how they used their experiences to give speeches and create theories that would be of relevance. More so, Moraga states how the U.S. passes new bills that secretly oppress the poor and people of color, which their community falls under, and more specifically, women. For instance, “The form their misogyny takes is the dissolution of government-assisted abortions for the poor, bills to limit teenage girls’ right to birth control ... These backward political moves hurt all women, but most especially the poor and "colored." (Moraga 101). This creates women to feel powerless when it comes to control one’s body and leads them to be oppressed politically. This places the government to act as a protagonist, and the style of writing Moraga places them in, shines more light to the bad they can do, especially to women of color. Moraga uses the words, “backward moves”
The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, an essay written by Judith Ortiz Cofer, discusses the racial stereotypes Cofer struggles with as a Latin woman who travels across America. Throughout her life, Cofer discusses her interactions with people who falsely misjudge her as a Latin woman. Additionally, Cofer mentions other Hispanic women she has met in her life, who also suffer with racial assumptions. Although several people would disagree with Cofer and claim that she is taking racial remarks too seriously, racial stereotyping is a significant issue that should not be overlooked in our society. People should not base someone’s worth by their outward appearance or their ethnic background.
Foucault wrote a book called Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison explaining his thoughts on how he discipline should be taught. Discipline and Punish is a book about the emergence of the prison system. The conclusion of the book in relation to this subject matter is that the prison is an institution, the objective purpose of which is to produce criminality and recidivism. The system encompasses the movement that calls for reform of the prisons as an integral and permanent part. Foucault states that The more important general theme of the book is that of “discipline” in the penal sense, a specific historical form of power that was taken up by the state with professional soldiering in the 17th century, and spread widely across society, first via the panoptic prison, then via the division of labor in the factory and universal education. The purpose of discipline is to produce “docile bodies,” the individual movements of which can be controlled, and which in its turn involves the psychological monitoring and control of individuals, indeed which for Foucault produces individuals as
The eternal endeavor of obtaining a realistic sense of selfhood is depicted for all struggling women of color in Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands/La Frontera” (1987). Anzaldua illustrates the oppressing realities of her world – one that sets limitations for the minority. Albeit the obvious restraints against the white majority (the physical borderland between the U.S. and Mexico), there is a constant and overwhelming emotional battle against the psychological “borderlands” instilled in Anzaldua as she desperately seeks recognition as an openly queer Mestiza woman. With being a Mestiza comes a lot of cultural stereotypes that more than often try to define ones’ role in the world – especially if you are those whom have privilege above the “others”.
Suaréz, Lucia M. “Julia Alvarez And The Anxiety Of Latina Representation.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 5.1 (2004): 117-145. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 25 Mar.2014.
Foucault, M. (1995) Discipline and Punishment The Birth of the Prison [online]. 2nd ed. USA: Penguin Books, Ltd. [Accessed 01 January 2014].
Sandra Cisneros’ novel, The House on Mango Street, examines various key issues within established social systems. As a bildungsroman story, not only is there much growth and development experienced by the character, but from the reader as well. This is because the novel challenges false preset notions that one may have of the main character’s culture. In tearing down custom barriers and voicing out painful truths, there is a deeper understanding of Latina culture in the United States of America. Sandra Cisneros empowers the women who are living in a patriarchal society and her main character, reinforced by her name, Esperanza, gives women just that, hope.