The Role Of Women In Josefina Lopez's 'Real Women Have Curves'

Barbie herself is the quintessential model of female beauty; however, she represents both the oppression and liberation of women. She is a “jack of all trades” encouraging children, especially females, to pursue whatever profession they wish. Romo states that what comes to mind when we think of Barbie “is white, physically appealing, not poor, heterosexual, popular, fashionable, and forever young. In sum. Barbie has come to represent the ideals and values of the social class that dominates our society.” (Romo 127). Barbie portrays women as objects of beauty, not of power. Cisneros piece is unique because she counters the idea that women must be perfect. In fact, she raises the idea that they are quite the opposite, the idea that everyone has hidden imperfections.

The book’s main appeal and power is the author's use of Estrella, who serves as the focal point of all the large issues. In one particular scene, we see Estrella playing with one a naked doll. Estrella asks the naked doll if she was okay and then shook the doll's head “No”. This conversation with the doll can be seen as the sense of denial that takes place in a child’s mind that is not allowed to openly express herself, her fears, her anxieties, and her hopes. She allows the doll to represent her honest feelings about the lifestyle of living she is placed in. She is a unique and interesting individual, who will not grow up to be knocked down by economic issues, difficult labor, and especially men.

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.

The play Real Women Have Curves was written by Josefina Lopez, it depicted the hard ships of immigrant female workers and the power and strength of women working together as one. About a decade later a movie was made. However the movie Real Women Have Curves still shows the same struggles these women in the play face and also shows how strong women working together can be. The key differences from the movie and the play are that they depict two different stories and almost give off completely different messages, especially when the movie has

The film, “Real Women Have Curves” is about a young Hispanic girl named Ana Garcia who is finding her voice as she is leaving her adolescence and entering the adult world. The film takes place in Los Angeles, California, during a time where Ana, is graduating high school and must figure out what her next step will be. Ana has the capabilities to further her education but unfortunately, her family does not have the financial capabilities to allow Ana to take that step. Ana is immensely woeful and is left working for the family business at a dress factory. As the film progresses, Ana is informed by one of her professors that she is accepted to Columbia University and makes the executive decision to go even though her mother disagrees with this, Ana becomes her own woman and does what is best for her. This film’s most prominent themes is definitely coming of age but it also deals with class and gender. Class is shown through family’s lower financial status and how Ana’s family does not have the financial ability to allow her to attend college. Gender is shown by the way Ana’s mother constantly nags her for her weight and persistently tells her that she will not find a husband due to her weight.

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

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.

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

In the beginning, there were mothers. Like goddesses they create life, nurturing their offspring into adulthood and beyond. Through wisdom, culture, and tradition they educate their young on the wonders of life, gracing us with the opportunity to follow in their footsteps to become mothers ourselves. Through the study of Chicana feminism, it becomes apparent how motherhood is a recurring theme throughout much Chicana feminist art and literature, often discussing how these women fostered growth in multiple facets of their being through their general life experience. Perhaps, this is due to the role of a mother weaving the lives of their children, nursing them, guiding them, and creating a life that implements their own values and beliefs. They have the opportunity to create a mirror image or even an entirely new and improved version of themselves. Whether the maternal figure is a hero or villain, traditional or nontraditional, tangible or fictitious, these characters play a vital role in shaping the Chicana feminism we see today.

Just as in Betty Parker’s story in Pleasantville, about how she overcomes gender role, social identity, non conformity issues, author, Judith Ortiz Cofer relates her own social conflict in her story “The Story Of My Body.” Mrs. Ortiz Cofer’s adaptation begins as a little girl who moves from a happy life in Puerto Rico to the United States. While in Patterson, New Jersey, full of joy and wonder, she has a bad encounter and her first experience with prejudice. Mrs. Ortiz Cofer is called “dirty” and “dirty brown Puerto Rican,” which alters her pretty image of herself. Thus begins her struggle with her bi-cultural bind. (Gunn Allen) She has only

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, as portrayed in Trambley’s play is only concerned with her own desires. She never shows interest in other women’s rights and she never speaks to other

He continues to provide examples of this throughout Junot Diaz’s books. Fassler believes that sexist topics are necessary in the story “for his work to read like art”. He believes the character speaks terribly about woman, but it made for a great and real

Micro: Gender Roles in This is How you Lose Her Junot Diaz Throughout Junot Diaz’s novel, This is How you Lose Her, we get a perspective of how gender roles and masculinity play a significant role in Yunior’s life and the people around him. The novel centers on the idea of sex and relationships which gives us insight how Yunior feels about gendered roles and how he expresses his masculinity. There is a lot of abuse of the women in the novel that is justified by the men who are constantly trying to prove their masculinity. The women are forced to deal with the abuse and take on the roles assigned to them: whether being the housewife, being submissive, or being “trashy.” One of the earliest examples is that of Nilda from the second chapter.

Carmen is a depictive work that represents the social and gender issues that were present in nineteenth century France and Spain. It introduces readers to numerous aspects of life including treatment of women, prejudices towards individuals and groups, social structures, and accepted social behavior. Carmen, as both a novel and opera, is a literary work that was written not only to entertain but also to reflect nineteenth century society.

These workers are reduced to robots and became slaves to both the machines and the upper class. The movie focuses on the character Maria, who first appears as a peaceful and loving female and quickly transforms into a revolutionary leader. The movie also brings out a mixture of social and gender roles which can be analyzed with the depictions of the body image. In my opinion, the images of the body brought by the sources are a dynamical one where initially the gender roles define a character on the story line and later evolve with the character to flip the associated role and to surprise the reader. This idea will be analyzed with the help of the examples obtained from the