In her ethnography account Women without Class, Julie Bettie explores the relationship that class along with race and gender work to shape the experiences of both Mexican American girls and white working class students. In her work, Bettie finds that class cannot only intersect to impact the school experiences of both working class and middle class girls, but also their transition to adulthood and their future outcomes. Thus, Bettie explores how working class girls are able to deal with their class differences by performing symbolic boundaries on their styles, rejecting the school peer hierarchy and by performing whiteness to be upwardly mobile. In women without class, Bettie describes the symbolic boundaries that both las chicas and the preps …show more content…
Betty mentions that more than style preferences, the girl’s behavior represented group membership for them. In other words, each group was aware that their style was in opposition and try to maintain their symbolic boundaries as an important tool for distinction. Most important, Bettie points out that their style preferences became to represent a categorical definition for the school personal. This category being the assumption that the preps were innocent and pure, while las chicas mature and low class. Thus, Betty claims that rather of seeing their style as markers of class distinction, the school personal saw las chicas’s performance as evidence of their heterosexual interest. Although, Betty mentions that both las chicas and the preps were sexually active, only las chicas were seen as too sexually active. In other words, their performances became to be reduced as sexual and racial differences, but not on differences in class. According to Betty, this impacted las Chicas, not only in their educational setting, but also on their class futures. For instance, Betty claims that since the school personal saw las chicas’s performance as oversexualized, they placed them on …show more content…
However, she claims that because class was invisible in the girls ‘social life, the school blame their sexualized style, their rejection of prep’s values and their lack of school success for their class differences. Most important, Bettie claims that the lack of cultural capital also affected the working class girls because it intersected with their race and gender to influence their class futures. For example, Bettie argues how upwardly mobile girls had to performed whiteness and the school sanctioned femininity just to possessed the prep’s dominant cultural capital. At the same time, girls who didn’t possessed cultural capital were victims of generalizations and stereotypes that affected their class outcomes. As a result, many of the working class girls were destined to follow rough paths or the same low paying jobs as their
Alexandra Miles is not you average high school senior at Spencer High School. Alexandra is an expert at manipulating her peers in order to take what she wants, and this year it’s to be crowned Homecoming Queen. Throughout her life she competed in beauty pageants, and has never lost one. Though this year she is struggling to keep her head above water because of her father’s death and her mother’s lack of attention. This doesn’t make Alexandra soft, if anything, it makes her stronger.
Other characters, like Frankie 's roommate, also comment on the inherent sexism within their school, like how Frankie is a sophomore who suddenly became hot over the summer, and all these
Bobrow-Strain deftly highlights the structural inequities that prevent Latinx people from moving ahead in society. The author emphasizes the enormous discrepancies encountered by Latinx communities and provides attention to the structural constraints they meet via Aida's experiences, such as her mother's low-wage employment and her own restricted access to decent education The growth of Aida's character serves as an example of the tenacity and power typical of Latino cultural settings. Aida refuses to let her surroundings alone define who she is despite the difficulties she endures. Her pursuit of education and her participation in activism to bring about change in her community demonstrate her drive to overcome her circumstances.
Within each book, it questions the message of “culture and gender” (Louelí, “An Interpretive Assessment of Chicano Literature and Criticism”). Clearly, positive figures influenced how the Chicano community acted then and now. Rudolfo Anaya and other Chicano writers
Throughout “The Mexican in Fact, Fiction, and Folkore” examines the term “Mexican” as it is applied in Southwest literature and argues the Anglo society has made a conscious effort to misrepresent Mexicans (Rios 60). He states the people of Mexican descent are viewed as un-American because they are perceived as filthy, lazy, and dumb. Ricatelli adds to the conversation of Mexican stereotypes by examining the literary expressions of Chicanas and Mexicanas in the literature of both the United States and Mexico. In “The Sexual Stereotypes of The Chicana in Literature” Ricatelli explains how in Yankee literature, the Chicana is referred to as the “fat breeder, who is a baby factory” meanwhile the Mexican is described as an “amoral, lusty hot tamale” (Ricatelli 51). He makes note of these stereotypes in order to highlight the ethnocentric and nativist points of view that dominated Anglo literature.
She employs many literary devices that support her specific claim in this passage as well as she provides many clear examples of how stereotypes have shaped young girls’ lives throughout the book. Through these examples she succeeds to use them as evidence so the audience does not conform to
For example, “ holding a pencil over a small notepad ready to write down anything I had to say. I don’t know. Things about our basic rights, like we’re free to walk here- we’re US citizens.” This shows that her passion for standing up for herself and all the other Mexican families caused the kids to treat her differently. This conflict helps enhance the theme by showing that some people have to deal with unimaginable
Growing up as a young female teen came be hard due to the stress and peer pressure of appearance. For teenage girls from immigrant families, it came be very challenging to fit in with the “American way”. Esperanza struggles throughout the book with finding her place in society. She looks to other female role models in her community for guidance, where she finds different results. Most of Esperanza’s female role models on Mango Street have unique stories to tell of their experiences with men on Mango Street.
Analyzing Someone Else’s Experience In Brent Staples essay “Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Space” and in Judith Cofer’s essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” both authors build an argument using their own experience with being stereotyped. These two essays are very effective in proving the author’s argument with real life situations as primary evidence. In Staples essay, he uses his experience as a black male being looked at as a “thug”, “mugger”, or “rapist” and his real life problems that he went through while being stereotyped. In Cofer’s essay, she tells her story of being a Latin American girl and her issues she faced being stereotyped while growing up.
In Mexican American society , women are deemed inferior to men, evident in traditional family roles, the male is the head of the family who provides for the family , while the woman stays at home to look after the children she is expected to provide for her husband . In the third vignette of ‘The House on Mango Street’ titled ‘Boys and Girls’ the reader is informed of the division between men and women when Esperanza refers to herself and her sister Nenny , and her brothers, “They’ve got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can’t be seen talking to girls”. The male dominance begins at a very young age.
Selena Quintanilla’s father once said, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.” In today’s society, many have encountered the challenge of not being able to be who they really are because they fear not being accepted by others, more specifically their culture. But, what happens when an individual is part of two worlds that have just as many rules? Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Mexican-American writer and poet who made a major contribution to the fields of cultural, feminist, and queer theory. Anzaldúa identifies as a Chicana and speaks different variations of Spanish, some of which she exhibits in her works.
The American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.
“That this was an evolution or development over time is clear”4. Definitively, the Chicanas rose enough to be considered within the group and played a really crucial role throughout MAYO. In the last part, what is explained is that since people from different barrios joined this Chicano Movement, street violence greatly
Cofer utilizes moral and, enthusiastic interest to communicate as the need should arise to others that the generalizations of Hispanic ladies can have negative impacts. Cofer utilizes moral interest to depict her Hispanic childhood. Growing up as a young lady Cofer was instructed to dress a specific path on account of her Hispanic culture and now and again it was confounded, "... Puerto Rican moms likewise urged their little girls to act and look like woman...". Young ladies were raised to act and look more developed than they really were.
As a child, she recognized that her imitation of ‘White” afforded opportunities of mobility, education, acceptance and privilege. Her mother’s appearance as “Black” afforded opportunities of poverty, inferiority, and inequality. So, she fails to mention her mother’s identity and occupation to classroom peers and teacher. Sarah Jane wants cultural assimilation and white privilege.