Defying the Patriarchy and Gender Roles
In La Reina Del Sur, Teresa Mendoza represents a major defiance of the traditional patriarchal standards of latino culture and society. Most females in telenovelas are portrayed as very naive, dumb, and in need of a smart, handsome, rich man to come in and sweep them off their feet. This follows the quintessential “Cinderella” story that many telenovelas portray. However, in La Reina del Sur, Teresa Mendoza is quite the opposite. She is smart, charming, a fast-thinker, and a hard worker. Initially, Teresa’s intelligence is revealed when she manages to escape the Mexican cartel that chased her after killing her first narco boyfriend, Guero. Afterwards, she also manages to escape to Spain smoothly and not run into the Mexican cartel again. In Spain, she further shows her smarts and charm as she is able to convince Dris, the bar owner/manager, to make her a waitress rather than a prostitute like all the other girls. This was rather unheard of as Teresa became the only female to not work as a prostitute in the bar. In fact, Teresa was able to work her way up from waitress to the accountant/cashier for the bar. She was able to count the money and balance the profits made in the bar easily and much faster than any of the other workers, including the bar owner. Furthermore, Teresa also goes against the traditional standards of Latin American culture and society when she tells Santiago (her new narco boyfriend) that she doesn’t mind being the only one making money in their relationship. After Santiago loses his drug dealing job with the Coronel, Teresa says that he can continue to stay with her and she will buy the food and take care of everything. This infuriates Santiago as he follows the stereotypical patriarchal mindset where he, the male, is meant to be the dominant partner and is supposed to essentially be the breadwinner. After he gets his drug dealing job back, he suggests that Teresa quit her job because he can take care of her. Teresa, being dominant and not needing a man to take care of her, refuses his offer and continues to work at the bar. Later on in the telenovela, Teresa’s street smart is exposed even more as she becomes Santiago’s business partner and enters the drug dealing world with him. Again, a female being in charge of negotiations and dealing drugs in Latin American culture is rare and unheard of. As a result, when Teresa accompanies Santiago to his meeting with his new boss and tries to negotiate terms with him, the boss is taken by great surprise. He reacts badly to a female being involved in the business and feels that she is trying to show she is smarter than him but does not actually know what the business is about. In my opinion, he felt threatened that Teresa was so assertive as he is not used to being treated that way by females. Overall, Teresa Mendoza defies traditional gender roles and the patriarchy in a stereotypical Latin American society. She proves to the audience watching, presumably many females, that women can be strong and independent without a man.
I love that your telenovela is defying traditional gender roles! It makes me almost more disappointed in mine. There was a storyline with one of the couples, Flavio and Irina, and Irina wanted to get a job as a model. She's a very beautiful character and held several modeling jobs within the show, but Flavio had a major issue with it. Firstly, he was upset that she wanted a job at all. He felt that his role was to provide for her, and he would do whatever it took so that she would want for nothing, even though she wasn't focused on the job just for the money. Secondly, he was angry with her choice of job. Since they were married, he didn't want her showing off her body or getting close with other men, even for a commercial. He thought that as her husband, he was entitled to a choice with what she chose to do with her body. It was a little infuriating. The show twisted elements of it to show that he was just being protective of her, but otherwise, they never gave much attention to the fact that she wanted to pursue a career and he wouldn't let her. The storyline sort of died, and I wish it had lived on so I could see how Irina fought for her right to do what she wanted and be who she wanted. Alternatively, there was some example of strong female characters that held positions as the owners of ranches, magazines, and banks, but not as much attention was given to this either. It seems as though more modern television and movies are trying to broaden their coverage of strong female role models, and defiant gender roles. Do you think it's more difficult for Latin American society to portray that than Hollywood? Do other cultures have more opposition to it? Or, by not including defiant gender roles, are they trying to portray a different message with their telenovela?
ReplyDeleteMy telenovela, Sin Senos no hay Paraiso, started off with traditional gender roles, with the main character being naiive and the sweet innocent girl. After being unjustly put in prison she gains perspective, strength, and independance. Her one goal is to get revenge on the powerful drug lord of the neighborhood, that happens to be a woman. So this telenovela does break gender roles by having the most powerful woman in the city being a woman. Everyone does what the woman, they call her "Diabla", says because she is so powerful she can make anything happen to anyone.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like it's more difficult for Latin American series to portray strong female leads, just because of the time period we are in. It's encouraged to have strong female or minority leads and break the norm.
Defying gender roles is such a risk that producers take since the latin culture is so passionate about those gender roles. It is honestly insane how traditional latin cultures are. Since I am Colombian, it has been expected of me to follow the female roles. When my mom came to America and married my step-dad (Mexican), the expectations increased heavily for me. Mexican males have followed "machismo", where they feel superior to females. Anyways, I recall so many times when I would get in trouble for not cooking with my mom, fixing the plates for him and my brothers, or even trying to learn how to cook. It was upsetting because I was only 5-6... I was pretty young; just trying to enjoy my childhood. As the years passed, my dad realized that in the society we live in today, norms have to be broken. Luckily, he realized that I wouldn't be the typical Spanish girl having kids being a stay at home mom. I was able to demonstrate to him that my potential goes so much further than what is expected of females. Likewise, Teresa has broken those norms, and it's amazing the way the producers portrayed the straying away from norms. It's amazing since their audience is heavily hispanic, so it's as if while they're entertaining them, they're also allowing them to learn a thing or two. Women don't have to follow the typical gender roles. Our potential is so great to follow expectations.
ReplyDeleteI wish my telenovela was defiant of gender roles! In my telenovela Rubi, its basically your stereotypical Cinderella story. The main character is a gold digger who only cares about finding a man to "take care of her". She's missing out on opportunities of love and breaks up with her boyfriend (who is a doctor and doing well for himself) when she discovers he doesn't come from money like she thought. She doesn't care that he has worked for everything he has received. This is a negative portrayal of women and I don't like the way they make her seem. Rubi is even in college and getting a degree, yet doesn't want to better her life herself. She needs a man to do it, whenever she is definitely smart and capable enough. The show is good, but it's disappointing the way that the women are portayed in it. Now that Rubi broke up with her boyfriend she is pursuing her best friend's rich fiance, and it just furthers the idea that women need a man to take care of them. Like she's incapable of being on her own, or making her own money.
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