Maquilapolis Privileging Of Subalterns

This essay will be discussing how gender is portrayed in the films Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) and Tacones Lejanos (High Heels), both directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The use of the theatre and performance, along with the audiences that come with it, enables these films to explore the manner in which gender is unstable. Gwynne Edwards writes that Almodóvar often pays tribute to the stage . Almodóvar dedicates All About My Mother “to all the actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women” , which is also relevant to High Heels. He uses the stage setting as a platform to show the instability of gender, not only on a physical stage but also in the characters’ lives: “The dialogue of his films has the cut and thrust, and very often wit, of stage plays. There are also soliloquies, and one of them – in All About My Mother – is even delivered to the audience from the stage of a theatre” . Russell Jackson suggests that this is done as a method for the characters to “find the sometimes onerous ability to deal with and describe their past, and to create a future in the face of death and desertion.” The character ‘La Agrado’ in All About My Mother as well High Heels’ Femme Letal (Letal), will be considered - both the manner in which they carry themselves throughout the film, as well as the their performances on stage. In the following paragraphs, I will illustrate how performance and the stage are vital in Almodóvar’s exploration

This narrative describes a cultural clash between America’s mainstream views and opinions and Latin women who have to struggle with these stereotypes from a young age. Career Day is one of the examples in which Cofer experienced falling under one of those stereotypes and feeling like an outcast when the nuns at her school displayed the Latin girls as the negative models of Career Day. Cofer’s strong opinions against these stereotypes is made clear throughout the story as she explains random instances she remembers of how others view Latin girls and how the media often objectifies women comparing them to “Hot Tamales” and other offensive

The maquiladora industry has had a major impact on the lives of its employees. A documentary from 2006 Maquilapolis, by Vicky Funario and Sergio de la Torre, show different women talking about the type of products they assemble, from filters, toys, batteries, and electrical parts to automobile parts. In 1960, when maquiladoras emerged in border cities, it changed people’s perspective for better opportunities and a better future. The majority of people working in the maquiladoras were women. The reason for that was because women were considered to have smaller hands and could assemble the parts faster and more efficiently than men. Some of the women in the interviews talked about having to work double shifts and even night shifts, leaving their children home alone without sufficient

Brazil’s domestic worker system, the largest in the world and an unfortunate legacy of slavery, has persisted in the nation “due to high rates of poverty and inequality and poor investment in primary education” (Michener, 2013, 1). With few other job prospects, many Brazilian women have little choice but to works as domestic workers, despite the generally low pay and significant power-imbalance between the employer and employee. Such a survival method is evident in Anna Muylaert’s The Second Mother, which portrays the life of a Brazilian nanny, Val, living with a wealthy Brazilian family, led by matriarch Barbara. Throughout the movie, the audience witnesses Val going through her everyday chores, cooking and cleaning, and paying special attention to following social norms. She must not venture past the kitchen into the living or dining room unless she is cleaning or serving; she must not enter the pool, or eat with the family (The Second Mother, 2015). While Val is clearly treated as inferior socially, she understands that she must work within such a social framework in order to keep her job, earn a salary, and help support her daughter, Jéssica. When Jéssica comes to stay at the house, however, she quickly upsets the social dynamics of the house; she sleeps in the family’s guest room, eats with Don Carlos (the patriarch), and even swims in

This week’s reading, “Perspectives on Globalization”, and the film, “Maquilapolis: City of Factories”, both show how maquiladoras take advantage of cheap labor in Third World countries. The reading says, “These imperatives, coupled with inexpensive labor and other lower costs in Third World Countries, as well as technological innovations that make it relatively simple for manufacturing plants to shut down at one sit and re-open at another…” (289), companies will open up maquiladoras in one country for a while and then leave to another country once they find even cheaper labor. This is shown in the film when maquiladora worker Carmen Duran speaks about how Sanyo, the company she worked for, shut down their factories and left Mexico. Carmen

Venezuela see’s the role of women in different ways depending on where they live, by tradition women should perform household work and may work outside their homes but the work must be related to domestic services. In rural areas women must share the physical work with men to make a living. Women are legally equal to men in Venezuela but they live in a patriarchal societies which has a national brand of “machismo.” Machismo is the term when men are controlling and don’t allow women to be their own self. Although women had equal rights, the ones that had been active in the struggle for democracy found themselves deprived of its privileges. The Coordinator of Women’s Non-Governmental Organizations (CONG), united twenty-six women’s groups and

Femininity among the Latin American culture at the time revolved around a set of assumptions regarding feminine style, appearance, and behavior, including sexual behavior, that placed the role of women as subservient to that of men.3 Firm gender roles in the societies placed female responsibility as the care taker of the household, responsible for the family budget, the health of their children, and the creation of wholesome home environments.4 Harsh criticisms of women who joined the working class resulted in working class women fighting to maintain their femininity, in the eye of the public and their own eyes as well, as it often was seen as synonymous with a woman’s self-worth and self-respect.3 These criticisms of working class woman were seen from the working class men, for example in Sao Paulo where male textile unionists complained to Vargas that women factory workers was shameful and revolting as it lead to increased male unemployment.5 Criticisms also arose from middle class women, who are often depicted by working class woman as mocking and insulting.6 With criticisms and obstacles presenting themselves from all directions, working class women had very little alternative than to cling

Every society in the history of mankind has assigned work by gender; without work done by each gender economies could not thrive. Chapter 12 of Hunter College Women’s and Gender Studies Collective fourth edition depicts the truth about inequality, discrimination in the workforce against women and how globalization overall effects women. As the Hunter College Women and Gender Studies Collective (HCWGSC, 2015) states, “…women complete more than two thirds of the world’s unpaid work.” (p. 350), this is an issue for women world-wide. Each culture has different values, roles, and social norms they follow, and this includes gender specific roles and jobs. There is more to work equality than feminism; status, race and value play a major role on equality

Women are abused under management's authority. According to Jason Motlagh, because of the immense pressure of finishing orders for larger companies, bosses are free to abuse workers and cut corners on safety.The female workers live in fear over their authorities and their accusations go unheard. As reported by "Life on the Global Assembly Line," in Guatemala, women workers wrote a list of complaints that included insults by management, wages that were less than minimum as well as no overtime pay and "threats of death" from management(Ehrenreich and Fuentes). Only a few employees are brave enough to form unions; however, " Life on the Global Assembly Line" article concluded that, in the Dominican Republic, those who attempted to create La Romana Industrial Zone were fired, then arrested. In South Korea special "action squads" were sent to destroy the women’s union, and again in South Korea a peaceful protest was in progress then on the fifth day 100 riot police forcefully dragged the women out of the building(Ehrenreich and Fuentes). Furthermore,within these oppressive societies, the cycle of poverty continues to form since it is cheaper to hire women other than raise the wages for

In this essay the main character of the Occupation Conductorrette will be put through attitude examination. Maya Angelou's character is projected as a woman with the strength and attitude to start a new phase for her race and to proclaim that not only can she do the job of the usual white woman but that she can do so with the oppression of her superior. The essay focuses on how the character is created to portray someone who sees past only school and works to start a job at a younger age, clearly trying to avoid the restrictions. She begins by finding what positions won't suit her, then marks off the ones she cannot attend because of her birth certificate until she finally finds the one she likes the most: a conductorrette. The following statements below are meant to help the reader understand how this woman adapts, both her attitude and her abilities, to be able to work in a place where she would normally not be allowed.

In many developing nations across the world, women work in areas known as export processing zones, also known as EPZs. Some of these zones are located in parts of Central America, where women work in factories known as maquiladoras. In Naomi Klein’s book No Logo, she discusses the inhumane issues and mistreatment that goes on in such zones: . . . Employees are kept on twenty-eight-day contracts - the length of the average menstrual cycle - making it easy, as soon as a pregnancy comes to light, for the worker to be dismissed” (Klein 222-223). These zones attract companies like Nike, General Electric, and General Motors mainly because of their cheap skilled labor, minimum regulations and tax free incentives. EPZs usually are restricted areas that provide companies with their manufacturing needs for export. This is only one example that leads to our problem with consumerism. In The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard, she sheds light on the exploitation and mistreatment of our natural resources, like the deforestation of the rainforests due to the demand for lumber. Many Americans today have not come to realize the hidden costs such as: unseen problems like cheap labor that exploits poor individuals, and the harm it causes to third world societies by creating health hazards and violations of human rights as a result with our consumption. Benjamin Barber, from his book Consumed, as well as Liz Stinson, from her web article 12 Hidden Tricks Advertisers Use to Sell You Stuff, both

Sexual harassment was a major problem for the women working in the mine. The men would write horrible slurs about the women in their locker room. Josey would always turn to her boss about the constant sexual aggression towards her. But her boss did not

By looking at both short films and film depictions, I want to show the journey of how the Labour industry has changed from being a majority lead male dominated working environment with the social status for woman changing from those who are either unmarried or in poor lower-class families in domestic feminine held jobs, to those of married woman, in a well-to-do family made to give up chances of education and carer for themselves, married off to become leisurely ladies of the house and made to stay home with the children while there husband became the sole earner.

Gender inequality is present in garment factories which negatively impacts women on a daily basis. Women in the garment factories work under male managers and are told to follow the laws of a man’s patriarchal view. (Anwary, 2017, p.178) In Anwary’s article, she explains in an interview with a manager in

Work can cause many issues with oneself and society. There can be a inner struggle in someone if they don’t like their job. Society can cause the discussion of jobs to become a controversial topic. In the poems “Lady In The Pink Mustang” by Louise Erdrich, “The Restaurant Business” by James Tate, and “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs From Americans” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, the authors use divisions and conflicts to make readers see a bigger picture.