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Castro
Amanda Castro
Professor Jonathan Mejia
CAS 115
05 October 2018
Progression 1 La Yuma Essay
In today's society, it’s been standard to believe we should all have a role in which we’re expected to act, speak, dress, and conduct ourselves in certain ways based upon our sex. For example, women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways, be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold. In Florence jaguey film “La Yuma” the main character; Virginia which we know her as “Yuma” is a strong disobedient girl from Nicaragua. Who is trying to make a living as a boxer, but people tend to not support her and are challenging her gender identity. Virginia’s woman qualities are challenged in negative and positive locations throughout the film, including the gym, Scarlet’s boutique, and the circus.
The definition of masculine is having qualities appropriate to or usually associated with a man, Yuma is told quite a lot that the way she is, shows a manlier side. Some people say, well men and women are different, so why is it a problem if we act differently? The problem is not that we act differently, the problem is that society expects us to act according to our gender. This hurts women who may naturally be more assertive and active, it hurts men who may be more in touch
with their emotions, and it hurts people on the LGBT side who may not fit the category they’re assigned at birth, or who don’t identify with either category. Gender roles matter because they hurt everyone. This doesn’t mean that enjoying some of the things that categorize your gender in this society is a bad thing. What it does mean, is that as a society we need to be more understanding of individual differences instead of trying to make every one of each sex be the same.
In an article that I read called “Neglectful Parents and Eldest Siblings,” it talks about When parents pass away or fail on being a parent older siblings may adjust and fill the role of the guardian. This ties to the film we watched during the class called La Yuma. In the film, we see many scenes on where Yuma the older sister takes control of taking care of her younger siblings. One particular scene was when Alfonso sexually abused the younger sister and Yuma took the initiative to take her sister and brother to go live with her. Later in the movie, we see her mother come back for them but then leaves them there again. Parental neglect of children may stem from a number of factors: parental depression, parental alcohol or substance abuse, mothers who had been bullied by demanding and violent husbands, the husband who had made sure that their wives were perpetually pregnant. In this particular movie, we see this happen quite a lot. Alfonso (the stepdad) seems to control his wife making her the housewife providing food every day and also making Yuma’s mom giving him what he wants at all tim...
