Analysis Of Real Women Have Curves

Ana Garcia, the protagonist of the film Real Women Have Curves, is a perfect example of the contemporary Latina in the United States. She is an ideal illustration of the intersectionality between race, culture, gender, and class. When deciding what she would do for her future, Ana had to choose between her cultural values and mainstream expectations, between her Mexican heritage and her American mindset. After deciding to continue her education at Columbia University, Ana holds a feminist conference aiming to bring more attention to gender and race-based discrimination within the workplace and the unrealistic beauty standards set forth by society for women. These two issues are particularly prevalent in the United States and have widespread effects, therefore Ana would primarily focus on them. Both issues are applicable to Ana herself and could very easily have negative repercussions on her own life.

Josefina Lopez writer of the play and co-screenwriter of the movie “Real Women Have Curves” created two important characters, Ana and Carmen, to demonstrate real life issues in the Mexican-American culture. In the movie Carmen becomes the antagonist that constantly torments Ana. Several identities were pushed onto Ana, forcing her have to break through her family’s old-fashioned cultural beliefs as well as her community’s stereotypes. Ana remained resilient regardless of what her mother put her through which led to her own self-love and comfort.

In the play the men are made out as bad guys and Ana is waiting to hear from NYU through financial aid. More so in the movie it is Ana’s mom who does not want her to go away to college and make a better life for her only because she want’s Ana to grow up how she grew up. Ana strives to be an independent woman who wants to find love. But her mom just wants her to find a husband to take care of her.

Today play review is going to be “Real Women Have Curves” by Josefina Lopez. This story is about five women that know each and they have to make 100 dresses by the end of the week because Estela needs money to pay for a lawyer to get her papers because the Glitz Company will pay her for the last two weeks and this week if she gets all 100 dresses in. This story takes time on the first week of September 1987 and place in a house located in East Los Angeles. The context of Immigration Law is part of the story, therefore, it allows them to get her legal papers and it brings them together because they are all afraid of the migration, always forget that they are legal so, whenever they see a van they run back home and hide. Another context to this story is Gender

Young Chicana women typical expectations are to follow the parents’ rules. In the films “Mosquita Y Mari” and “Real Women have curves”, the young Chicana women resist these gender cultural norms. The resistance of these gender norms is not a challenge to others but away to voice the opinion that I am my own person and not somebody else.

Throughout the movie Real Women Have Curves, Ana deals with a fairly common issue: body image. Despite being constantly told by her own mother that she is fat and that she’d be pretty if she was skinny, she comes to realization that her body is part of who she is and she should be proud of it, but, really, she is so much more than her weight. She demonstrates confidence in her body and in herself as a person. She sets clear examples of the first two components of the female gaze: (1) Women possess the gaze or do the looking, and (2) Women enjoy and control their own bodies and/or sexuality.

Women go to extremes to try to change themselves to have what society visualizes as “the perfect body.” They try changing everything about themselves to try to be accepted. This leads to eating disorders and young woman getting sick, sometimes

The film adaptation of Real Women Have Curves shows us the ideology of the individual struggle. It seems as if everyone is only worried about their own well-being, making them to appear selfish. In the movie for example, Ana’s primary goal is to succeed and puts her sisters needs in the factory to the side. She is not cooperative and sabotages her sisters business out of spite when she burns the dresses that need to be urgently done. Carmen is shown as a reliant woman who only wants her daughter's to be good mothers and wives. She does not want them to prosper and is holding them back from accomplishing their dreams. When Ana decides to go to Columbia University, Carmen’s stubbornness is displayed when she was adamant about not telling her daughter goodbye as she left to the airport for New York. Although Estela hints support towards Ana, her main focus was on her business and making sure it was going to be

The last factor that influences body image is social influences, especially family. In the Essay, Sirena often acknowledges her family’s opinion of her weight. When she lost weight family members made it known that they couldn’t believe it was her and some told her they knew she would eventually grow out of her “baby fat” to become a beautiful woman. Since her weight was fluctuating, her family always had their opinions. Her grandfather offered to pay her a thousand dollars if she lost weight. In this type of setting negative body image is inevitable. Furthermore, at the point in her life where she lost weight people at her school started treating her better. This shows that society only praises wat is identified as the norm.

In addition to my love of coming of age films, I was also engrossed in Real Women Have Curves because Ana and I share the same dream of graduating from college. I was glad to know that education was important to Ana. In many of the contemporary films, education doesn’t seem to be a high priority to young characters, and especially minorities. Ana had a teacher, Mr. Guzman, portrayed by George Lopez that encouraged her to attend college. He helped her with college applications, and pleaded with Carmen to let Ana attend Columbia University when she received a full scholarship. Similar to Ana, when I attended Harold Washington College, I had an educator who inspired me to achieve not only for a Bachelor’s, but a Doctorate degree.

The mother in “Real Woman have Curves” believes that she should worry about taking care of herself for her future husband, staying pure and religious and be skilled to take care of him, whereas Ana believes that she needs an education, pursue her dreams, and not worry about her purity. Ana and El Chivo both don’t acknowledge the religious backgrounds that they are being shown. El Chivo is blinded with anger towards Zopilote. Ana believes that getting an education is more important than her own purity which falls back into believing her religion. The mom and priest both very religious try to shape the young minds of Ana and El Chivo for what they believe their own benefit. The mom and priest believe that being right with god has its advantages in the world and the after world. The mom believes that staying pure will get her a good husband and a healthy family, while the priest is trying to make El Chivo take the right path and walk away from the anger he has.

Being on the verge of adulthood and having just left the simplicity of childhood, teenagers have always been particularly complex and enigmatic individuals. While most people struggle to see things from an adolescent perspective, Canadian playwright Joan MacLeod is well-known for her accurate portrayal of teenagers. In 2002, she published The Shape of a Girl, a play related to the dramatic story of a young girl named Reena Virk who was tragically affected by bullying, a characteristic behavior of adolescent development. Throughout The Shape of a Girl, MacLeod effectively exploits the Aristotelian dramatic elements and she uses Reena Virk’s story as well as the thoughts that it produces in the antagonist’s mind to portray both adolescent character traits and behavioral patterns.

Beauty is determined by society and their standards. Women are expected to be skinny, pretty and a size two which puts a lot of pressure on women. The pressures of society persuade women to go through extreme measures to fit in with society standards. This is evident in the short story “The Falling girl” and “They’re Not Your Husband” as the main characters are impacted by social expectations, insecurity and peer pressure.

We so often hear people talk about their high expectations for women, we usually don’t even give it a second thought anymore. Society expects women to be thin—but not too thin, be fit—but not too fit, be society’s definition of “beautiful”. Whatever that is. Women are judged no matter what they look like, how they dress, how they act. They are judged and it is fully accepted because it’s so

Beauty is determined by society and their standards. Women are expected to be skinny, pretty and to be a thin size which puts pressure on women. The pressures of society persuade women to go through extreme measures to fit in with society standards. This is evident in the short stories “The Falling girl” and “They’re Not Your Husband” as the main characters are impacted by social expectations, insecurity and peer pressure.