The Myth Of The Latin Woman Summary

In several cultures, women are seen as archetypes more than men. The proposition of women are instantly idealized and glorified and instantaneously ignore the true complexity of a woman. Countless of these superficial images can be seen across various cultures where the societies within these cultures define what it means to be a female and what type of behavior is and isn’t acceptable within those parameters. The persistent restatement of these stories throughout these generations reinforces the gender system. Women who step out of the norm in these societies are then held punishable for their actions. Alicia Gaspar de Alba pinpoints the three archetypal roles that are given to the women in the Mexican and Chicana cultures. These are,

In the essay of Judith Ortiz "The Myth of the Latin Women: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" was an essay I believe many students were able to relate, understand, and reflect with the arguments she pointed out. Judith Ortiz seemed passionate in her essay because it was a narrative of a situation she went through. While reading Judith 's essay it was easy to comprehend what she was trying to make her audience understand. Judith 's tone throughout the essay was form, reflective, and informative. The imagery she gives us in her essay when talking to about Latin women made easy for students to image

In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria,” the incidents on the bus, in the hotel, and at the poetry involved prejudice and stereotypical misconceptions of Puerto Rican women. While Cofer was on a bus trip to Oxford University, a man “broke into an Irish tenor’s rendition of “Maria” from West Side Story” (Cofer 103). This implies that Latinas dealt with people who automatically assume that a Latina’s name is “Maria” or “Evita” based on a fictional movie. While at a hotel with a colleague, a middle-aged man called Cofer an “Evita” and he “began shout-sing a ditty to the tune of “La Bamba”---except the lyrics were about a girl named Maria” (Cofer 107). Then Cofer realized that “[she] was just an Evita or a Maria: merely a character in his cartoon-populated universe” (107). The men that sung stereotypical songs viewed Cofer as a sexual object and referred to her as an image displayed by the media.

Common stereotypes about women in the Mexican-American culture include that women are uneducated, good housewives, and very fertile. Many parents still believe it’s the woman’s job to stay home and be the homemaker. The concept of gender, which is socially constructed, is reinforced since birth. (Sociology Lecture 08/24/2015) Ana was caught in the middle of gender politics. Her mother oppressed her daughter so she can become a grandmother. The film “Real Women Have Curves” deals with gender stereotypes and struggles of poor women living in East LA. Carmen was trying to have Ana chained to the notion of women being inferior to men. Carmen believed men to be superior, whereas Ana thought differently. However Ana strived to liberate herself from traditional cultural norms by pursuing her college education. Her mother’s negative influence only caused Ana to rebel.

In a scene from the film, Selena, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, a Mexican-American singer, is ignored by a white sales woman. The sales woman judges Selena on the color of her skin, determining her social status as one unimportant to her business, not realizing that Selena was actually a celebrity. Just as the sales woman predetermined a role for Selena rooted by race and ethnicity, Waretown High maintained class, gender, and race stereotypes in determining girl’s futures and outcomes. Julie Bettie’s Women Without Class discusses these stereotypes through expectations set for las chicas and the preps by the school, families, and themselves, the exclusion of hard-living students, those whose families were low income, and the ability for some girls to become upwardly mobile as an exception to the rules.

Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black

Stereotypes are dangerous weapons in our society. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” is a short essay in which the award winning poet and professor of English, Judith Ortiz Cofer, wishes to inform and persuade the audience that labels and stereotypes can be humiliating and hurtful. The author targets the general public, anyone that doesn’t understand that putting someone in a box because of a stereotype is wrong. Cofer starts out the essay by telling the reader a story with a drunk man who re-enacted “Maria” from the West Side Story, and how angry that made her feel. She continues by explaining how she grew up in the United States being a Puerto Rican girl trying to fit in, but always being labeled as an island girl. Cofer carries on by explaining why Latin people get dressed and act a certain way. Then she recalls some more stereotypical incidents.

This highlights that Chicanas prefer Chicanos more than they prefer each other; they perpetuate gender hierarchy by constantly placing males above females. Chicanas fear the criticism they will endure if they defy gender boundaries. Joan Riviere addresses this phenomenon in her essay “Womanliness as a Masquerade. Her essay explores the discomfort that woman feel when they act outside of the boundaries established by a male dominated society. In one example, she describes a

In this article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman” Cofer has talked about many incidents from her life where she was talked about, from a young girl the adult life. Ortiz Cofer is so ardent about this topic of stereotyping Latin women because she was a native women of the Puerto Rico area who really grew up in the United States. There is how she witnessed firsthand how hurtful stereotyping could be. In “The Myth of the Latin Woman”, She has repeated use of Spanish words in the essay to shows her audience how proud she is of the Latin heritage. she continuously uses other words, such as Puerto Rican, and Latina to stress the names she heard growing up. Because she has been brought up to love her Latin culture, she was often stereotyped here in the United States. As you can see, this is why she became so involved with trying to bring people so much awareness to the

“Mixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain stereotypes…”(Page 372, paragraph 2, line 1). The Myth of the Latian Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, by Judith Ortiz Cofer is about how Judith Ortiz Cofer was discriminated because she is a Latina Woman. She describes about several people treating her differently than others, through song, through looks, and through sexual thoughts and actions towards her. Even after all the discriminating actions persisted upon her, she still pursues on to help others learn that Latinas are not always like the movies say they are or should be like. Judith Ortiz Cofer does this by writing poetry and novels. “My personal goal in my public life is try to replace the old pervasive stereotypes and myths about

“To believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same” is one of many definitions for a stereotype. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary makes it seem like it’s nothing at a;l and something small and innocent when, in all honestly stereotypes are cruel and wrong. Using stereotypes in our daily lives should not be allowed because it causes people to think less of themselves and limit themselves from one 's full potential. Having these stereotypes in our minds really limits our thoughts and opinions about certain things or people. Both essayist Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Brent Staples have personally experienced stereotyping and people thinking wrongly of them. In Cofer’s essay “ The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” and Staples “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Spaces”, they talk about what they have been through with racial stereotyping and what affects it has them, personally. But even with those stereotypes in play they both prove that stereotypes do not determines someone 's future and people are able to prove stereotypes wrong.

In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” the main argument made is that Hispanic women often struggle being identified. Judith goes on talking about her experiences with men and how they identify her as “Maria” because of her Hispanic heritage. They also identified her as a person she really wasn’t because if the way she dressed up. She talks about her Puerto Rican culture and how her mother made her dress and act like a woman at a young age. Later on in the reading passage she says a story about a job interview in high school and how they had to dress up. For her, dressing up was different from the other girls because of her heritage. The day of the interview they were identified as negative models and the whole day they were steered at. They also called her a “Hot Tamale” which is a stereotype for Hispanic women and a couple of other stereotypes were said to her. One of her most memorable incident was when she was at an event in a boat in Miami and a women called her over because she thought she was waitress. Those rough times didn’t stop Judith from wanting what she wanted to do which was to fit in the American culture. She accomplished to get an education and to set the reality of who Latina women are despite the stereotypes and myths.

From my own personal standpoint, I am on the fence whether I agree or not with the author’s viewpoint.

Kang, Miliann. 2010. The Managed Hand Race, Gender, and the body in beauty service work. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press

Black women in America today are embracing their natural hair like no other time. The term “natural” is often defined differently to the natural hair community than other races. We as black women are making it a point that our hair is beautiful in the way that each hair follicle grows into the various hair textures among us. For many African American women, natural hair is a way to protest society’s expectations of beauty and create a new standard of what it means. This includes the right to wear one’s natural hair as it grows without chemicals to process it and conform to society’s expectations. Consequently, the idea that “natural hair” is “unprofessional” in any setting is baffling. The ultimate goal intended here is to further analyze the idea of natural hair as a part of culture and thus a big part of the identity of the black woman. I will first turn to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex to which she argues that every force in society conspires to deprive women of their own individuality and compress the female gender into a category only capable of mere housework, bearing children, and being sexually submissive to their partners. Then I will focus on W. E. B DuBois’ text The Souls of Black Folks and discuss his idea of double consciousness to further the complexity of the identity of the black woman. These two ideas will allow me to demonstrate that working African American women are a product of subjectivity in corporate America because it is a world dictated by