Reading Gender Paper

I think that the scene that screamed gender roles the most to me was the "Annunciation" scene towards the beginning of the play. At first I was confused about what was going on here but when I found out Lupita was pregnant, I reread through the scene and it made more sense. This scene solidified my belief in thinking that Castellanos had correctly and creatively described gender roles to the audience. This scene illustrates (and somewhat exaggerates), what every woman in the world is afraid of (and if they are not, should be afraid of): not being in control over her own life. It is clearly stated here that Lupita is merely an incubator for Juan’s child, his object of lust/prize possession, and personal slave. She is being stripped of everything about her that makes her in any way an individual person. No mention of her intelligence or any goals that she might have. To say that she is disrespected is a gross understatement.

The assumptions displayed here are that women are here in this world to get pregnant and then teach their daughters to grow up and do the same thing. It shows that men desperately need a child to make them feel fulfilled as a man. To impregnate their wife is a wonderful thing, not because that means they will have a beautiful child to cherish and love together forever, but because it means that the man’s sperm successfully swam upstream against all the odds and completed its true mission. Gender relations are strictly laid out: women are the meek followers and men are the leaders and decision makers. Castellanos makes it clear however, that just because the man is the leader, does not mean that he is the one with the brains. Both Lupita and her mother trick Juan in this scene (telling him to go and get truffles to prevent his child from being deformed), all the while trying to making him feel in control and in the loop so he wouldn’t get mad. Here, the author incorporates another stereotypical gender role, the clueless but power-hungry male.

Castellanos wants the reader to think for themselves and lay aside what is typically thought about men and women but at the same time she is reinforcing them to some extent. She uses sarcasm to make them seem ridiculous however, which is what I liked about this play. She makes you read between the lines instead of spelling everything out for the reader. The author clearly gives Lupita personality and at the same time tries to hide it. All of the women are very sneaky about being sneaky and each has their own private agenda. She tries to get you to understand each person’s situation, especially Lupita of course. Lupita is getting pressure from her husband and mother and you can tell that she wants desperately for once to just make her own decision about something, anything. This scene directly correlates with so many things we have discussed in class, including reproductive rights and gender roles being assigned.