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Sandra Cisneros Loose Woman

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Despite the claim that the world has made progress towards gender equality, women are expected to depict feminine characteristics and mannerisms deemed suitable by society. Sandra Cisneros challenges these societal expectations in her poem “Loose Woman” by embracing the negative connotations of a masculine woman. Cisneros faces the pressures of conforming to the American and Latin American status quo of being a woman. Because Cisneros chooses to defy many womanly ideals, she is labeled with “undesirable” identities heavily influenced by religious beliefs. These religious views impact the social expectations of a woman’s sexual orientation as well as her social behavior. Cisneros is labeled with these “undesirable” traits in attempt to be belittled …show more content…

Within the first stanza of the poem, Cisneros discusses her actions towards embracing her sexuality by “[feasting] on it.” Through a culture’s double standards, it is more acceptable for men to be sexually active as women are expected to abstain from any sexual activity. By attempting to empower women, she defies this double standard. The third stanza reveals that women who identify as feminists are extremely labeled as “man-hating, devastating,/ boogey-woman, [lesbians].” It is significant to note this label because of the present heterosexism. Feminism is commonly mistaken for this idea that women are “man-hating” and believe they are superior to men when in reality, it is a battle to gain equity for both sexes. Empowerment through sexuality is often associated with sexual orientation. Since the empowerment through sexuality appears as if it were a masculine quality, society expects these women to be interested in women. Although there has been more acceptance and tolerance in regards to people’s sexual orientation, there is still a number of people who refuse to accept it. Cisneros responds to the name-calling with “Not necessarily,/ but I like the complement.” This is Cisneros’ way of saying that she does not exactly identify as to what she is being called but takes it as a complement because no one’s sexual orientation should

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Written works about American Identity are a very common theme amongst writers, including poet Dwight Okita and short-story writer Sandra Cisneros. Dwight Okita is famous for her poem “In Response to Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers,” in which the theme of American identity is portrayed through a 14-year-old girl. In a similar way, Sandra Cisneros’s short story is told by a young girl of Mexican heritage who prefers American culture—in sharp contrast to her deep-rooted Mexican grandmother. Although the overall theme of the two texts is “American Identity,” both Okita's poem and Cisneros's short story delve deeper and portray that cultural heritage and physical appearances do not determine what it

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It also has different ideas how machismo impacts gay Latinos in the U.S. According to Albert Serna,” Being a queer man, it was a very big struggle to balance my queer identity with this standard of masculinity that was placed on me since birth,” and he believes that a lot of other queer Latino men experience it as well. So he believes it is difficult to come out as gay when people think you are machismo. In the short story, “Only Daughter,” Cisneros is suppressing any signs of femininity when coming to finding a husband. He wanted her to be looked as a possession.

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Also, in the text it says, “I want today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon,” This shows that she wishes she can run away from the realities of life that she is afraid to face. She knows one day she will have to face them, but she is not ready yet. All in all, Cisneros

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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a self-taught philosopher, poet and forward thinker, wrote many empowering poems that captured how she felt during the time she was living in. Two of which “Foolish Men” and “On her Portrait” express how she didn’t like the stereotypical roles women were put in during her life. These poems show true anguish and express a slight distain for men. In the poem “Foolish Men” Cruz starts off by explaining how men are so quick to blame women for their ailments but in actuality it is themselves causing them.

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In One Holy Night, the author Sandra Cisneros suggests a difference in standards between men and women in the Latino community binds the female characters to stereotypes that are difficult to undo. Cisneros writes about a young girl who falls in love with a guy while she works at her family's pushcart. Eventually, they fall in love, and the young girl finds out she is pregnant. The young girl’s grandmother finds out she is pregnant and condemns her for it. Ultimately, she doesn’t blame her because “it’s Uncle Lalo’s fault because he’s the man of the family, and if he had come home on time like he was supposed to and worked the pushcart on the days he was told to and watched over his goddaughter, who is too foolish to look after herself” (Cisneros

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There she is trying to get her fathers' acceptance. She was raised to follow this pattern: go to college, get a husband, get out of college, marry, and have kids. However, Mrs. Cisneros wanted more; She wanted to become a writer. The moment her father realized that she was not in college for the purpose of getting married, he said, "What a waste of

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Cisneros also goes into detail about how her father viewed her when she says,” Being a only daughter for my father meant my destiny would lead me to become someone’s wife.” Cisneros highlights how her father felt about her as a

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the indictment of those ideologies that propound the image of the woman as docile, quiet and asexual by making it responsible for violence against women” (González, “Contemporary Women’s Poetry in Galicia and in Ireland: An Introduction”

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Who are you? Do you define yourself as man or woman? How do you know? Born biologically male/female, do you know how to behave in a masculine/feminine way? Of course you do!

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She calls her daughter a “slut” and wants her to see she is not a boy. She tells her, “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys...” (180). She must keep her reputation up. She thinks her daughter already knows too much about sexuality and that she is being disobedient by singing the benna in Sunday school.

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This novel is also autobiographical. Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a

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