Reading Gender

I am regretfully behind in most of my courses at this point, I'm not sure how I let it happen, but I have, so here is the beginning of my paper so that you know I'm working on it and I will continue to revise.

"The Eternal Feminine" by Rosario Castellanos

The most poignant scene for a modern American/Western woman in this work is that of the Apotheosis, which opens with Lupita being pleased with her choices of getting rid of her husband and children and enjoying her life of solitude. In this scene Lupita, our protagonist and representative of what women should be, dreams that she's won a sweepstakes providing her with all of the appliances a woman should need. The image of a woman's worth being measured, not by her own satisfaction, but by that of the household/personal goods she has accumulated is common and discouraging to women searching for a fulfilled existence. The irony comes when Lupita awakens and says "What a horrible nightmare! I never would have believed it..." because this is to be believed and still happens over thirty years after the publication and in a completely different country ("The Eternal Feminine" 296). While this scene is short and seemingly bizarre it portrays a lot of what women are fed and led to believe by the media and modern society. Castellanos makes a lot of points about how poorly historical images of women are portrayed, which is true, but unless we address how modern women are portrayed we will never be given the credibility to set history straight and will have a further laundry list of images to modify. Lupita in her “disguise as a white-haired old lady” is contented with her life, but is told that because she is a mother and the image of a perfect woman she “deserves” and must have appliances to make her life easier, while she has no desire for such.