ISRAEL ÁLVAREZ RODRÍGUEZ

NOVELA NORTEAMERICANA CONTEMPORÁNEA

COMMENTS
ON
THE
MOVIE “REAL
WOMEN
HAVE
CURVES”

The moving which will be discussed is “Real women have curves”, a movie

directed by Patricia Cardoso in 2002. Throughout this movie it can be noticed the

depiction of women characters in which can be seen a preview on the first scene

where Ana is cleaning the window. Furthermore, it is going to be discussed how Latino

men are represented in the movie, something that is quite different from other

Chicano poems. Subsequently, in the movie can be observed the star topic; women’s

bodies and beauty standards, which may lead to some complexes and insecurities.

Finally, it should be analyzed the women’s role in society, and concretely, in this

community.

As mentioned before, in the first scenes can be observed how the director

wants viewers to realize the way women are treated in this culture. Ana is cleaning the

window and her mom calls her because she wants Ana to prepare the breakfast for

men. Therefore, women are presented as the responsible for taking care of the

household chores and for taking care of men (father, sons, and husband). This is one of

the desires Ana’s mom has, that her daughter works and gets married. She certainly

claims: “I will teach her how to sew and how to take care of her children, she will not

learn it from college”. By this, it can be stated that Carmen, Ana’s mother, prefers Ana

to work rather than going to university. This idea is better explained by Alaniz (2003)

when she says: “Ana’s mama strongly discourages her from applying for college, even

dismissing her teacher when he comes to visit” In addition, women are presented as

gossips. They gossip about things Carmen hears in the market: “I bring some fresh
news from market”. However, they also gossip about themselves, and Ana is

frequently criticized “I doubt if she can do it anything good”. Finally, women are

depicted as the real fighters, the ones who bring money to home.

Moving to the Latino men’s representation in the movie, it should be noticed

that they do not have a huge relevance. They are the responsible for shopping clothes

to her wives. The ones who control the money. Moreover, on some scenes of the

movie can be observed that they are the mediator figure in the family. For instance,

Ana’s father has to intermediate in an impassioned argument between Ana and her

mother. In addition, men are the responsible for maintaining the family joined. For this

reason, Ana’s father is firstly forced to decline his daughter’s scholarship. Finally, an

interesting point on this movie is that it is just the opposite of what happens in The

House on Mango Street, where men are the responsible for working and earning

money and women are supposed to be at home, locked. On this movie, as mentioned

above, is totally different. Women work while men are playing domino’s at home.

Moving to the star topic, and which provides tittle to the movie, it should be

discussed how women’s bodies and beauty are somehow standardized. The principal

responsible is Carmen, who is continuously calling Ana “Gordita” (chubby). She insists

on the idea that Ana is too fat and that she should lose weight if Ana wanted to

“catch” a man. These repeated commentaries might have created on Ana some

complexes: she lies when she writes her weight in the college solicitude and she asks

for approval when gets naked in front of Jimmy. However, Ana somehow awakes and

realizes that nobody will tell her how her body will be. Thus, when her mother asks her

for “walk like a lady”, she ignores her mother, or when she loses her virginity or when
she eats a crème in from of her mom. By this, she is rebelling against these standards.

Finally, at the end of the movie, she achieves that women at the factory-except for her

mom- get naked and feel good with their bodies. Ana, as Launius (2007) claims, learns

from women and women learn from her. She also achieves her freedom and her

escape to New York, far from bad commentaries.

Women’s role has been already analyzed, but it should be noticed that Ana

tries to avoid her mother and other women’s path in this culture: “I’m nothing like

mama”. She follows her teacher’s one. This agrees with Launius’ (2007) thoughts: “her

desire to achieve class mobility via education is inextricably tied to her critiques and

rejection of the traditional gender norms and roles for women”. Women’s role in this

culture is to get married, work and later, take care of children. Ana wants to abandon

this type of life. Furthermore, if a comparison is made between cultures in Beverly

Hills, it should be observed how Jimmy’s mother understands and supports her son

meanwhile Carmen does not do so.

To conclude, it can be stated that on this movie there are representations of

women and men, which remarkably differ. Women are responsible for housework,

children and work, and men are the ones who intermediate and guide the family to be

joined. Along the movie it should be noticed the way Carmen standardizes women’s

bodies and how this may develop some complexes. Finally, it is worth to mention that

Ana decides to choose a different path from her mother and be a free woman.
WORKS CITED

- Alaniz, Yolanda. "The Message Of Real Women Have Curves: Deal With It! - Freedom

Socialist Party". Freedom Socialist Party, 2003, https://socialism.com/fs-article/the-

message-of-real-women-have-curves-deal-with-it/. Accessed 13 June 2020.

-Cisneros, Sandra. The House On Mango Street. New York : Vintage Books, 1991,

c1989.

-Launius, Christie. "Real Women Have Curves: A Feminist Narrative Of Upward

Mobility". Questia.Com, 2007, https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-

165310376/real-women-have-curves-a-feminist-narrative-of-upward Accessed 10

June 2020.