Women and the Patriarchy: An Analysis of Mexican Telenovelas

The term Telenovela has traditionally been associated with the stigma that identifies it with the minor genre of television melodrama, romance and a small story, subject to the logic of the market, the interests of cultural industries and the gender guidelines in Latin America. “The Telenovela genre perpetuates as a set of moral virtues despite changes in gender roles throughout Mexican society”. (Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) Furthermore, telenovelas are devoid of any intellectual claim, of absent artistic merit and without any historical value. They are fundamentally composed of love stories and intimate intrigues in a frivolous version of real themes. (María de Los Ángeles Rodríguez Cadena, 2014, pp. 180–211).

“Mexicans are very annoyed with our Telenovelas because each time there are fewer points of connection with us and our reality”. (Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) Throughout the years' Telenovelas have evolved recreating the same patriarchal concept, were women are portrayed as submissive creatures and the only way for them to be ‘happy’ and successful in life is to be virginal pure and create a family and leaving their dreams for independence in order to create a home and be a good wife, following the steps of Marianist. Meanwhile, men are characterized to be this macho stereotype which forces them to be dominant, aggressive and the necessity to be valued as a hero, without showing any emotions and being sexually more liberal than women in the Mexican contemporary society.

In other words, Telenovelas illustrate just what Mexican patriarchal culture is all about; control over women. Which are the daily interactions between stereotypically sexist men and women, the unlimited power of machos over their immediate world, and thus, over women, is a key aspect of the sexist behavior of machismo which is typically tolerated and even encouraged in males from Mexico. In fact, women are expected to adhere to a very difficult code of both behavior and dress (Tate, J., 2018.) due to this they are considered to “lack in any intellectual claim, of absence in any artistic feature and without any historic value”. (Alessandro Jedlowski & Cacilda Rêgo 2019) and as stated before they “have commonly been portrayed as a conservative genre in which the patriarchal order is generally left unchallenged” (Alessandro Jedlowski & Cacilda Rêgo 2019)

However, as telenovelas have evolved there has been a change in the Marianist Women. Some women have been represented with more feminist roles and have independent female lead parts like Teresa 2010 that narrates the story of a brilliant independent, a woman that is centered in her career and personal growth, but this is just a genre within the genre of Mexican Telenovelas which consist of a set production that establishes a feudal like context for characters whose attitudes and behaviors are anachronistic and might best be described as a rejection of modernity […] women who do not conform to traditional, that is, Marianist, standards of womanhood. The ‘wild woman’ of these telenovelas initially push the boundaries of gender roles but before the final chapter, romantic love and motherhood tame her (Tate, J., 2018.) and as happens in Teresa 2010, La Gata 2014 or Pasion de Gavilanes 2004, all this protagonist women end up falling in love leaving their mala side and ending up in the culture of Marianist forming a family.

Women are representing the weaker sex and the value of Marianist in many forms in the Genre of Telenovelas. The first one being the “prince charming syndrome” which involves “young women to wish for the sudden appearance of a prince charming, if not in the conventional sense, at least as an expectation. An unconscious transfer of deed and situations of the audiovisual text to their daily lives; this becomes a type of appropriation within the framework of domestication, from the public to the private, of the audio-visual message” (Miranda,2014,2016; Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley, 1992) and as “Most of the women seem to consume telenovelas with regularity” (Doncel, J. & Miranda, O. 2017) and “gender identification with female characters do not seem important to immigrant audience as they appear to be for native audiences”(Morales, F. and Simelio, N., 2016).

So, as telenovelas are regularly watched by the native female gender and the message of this genre is to wait for the man of your dreams to save you such as in Disney fairytales, this represses the modern feminist ideas in young women in order to develop as an independent individual.

Also, even though in modern telenovelas women have more liberty they teach women that “they can maintain their independence and forthrightness despite not being single and even more so despite dating a man” (Rios, S., 2017.) Not only that but it also creates the women to feel ashamed with their body as “It becomes clear that the character representing an indigenous woman is obviously beautiful, even though she has clearly European traits” (Doncel, J. & Miranda, O. 2017) and therefore, making the Latin American women feel they are not pretty enough due to their ethnicity.

By way of explanation, Telenovelas make women weak and unavailable to shift for oneself without a man by their side and the as we can see also in Rebelde 2006 were both young protagonists end up in a relationship and combining their dreams of forming a musical band with being in love and dating the masculine sex. Using the Rebelde 2006 a series based in teenage love, rebellion and in self-growth through maturity, as a case study, we can see the different variations of sexuality in women and how each one of them represents the Holy Virgin stereotype and the mala stereotype which would be the contrary to Marianism culture.

Moreover “lovers in these serialized prime time love stories batted over an average 120 episodes towards their happy ending” (Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) they mimic the traditional telenovela love story which consist of “boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love; boy and girl battle all manner seemingly insurmountable obstacles to their love; boy and girl get married with God´s blessing; boy and girl have children...and so the story continues” (Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) “making the woman be represented through the same tropes and stereotypes” (Galán Fajardo, E.2007.)

This Telenovela narrates the story of 4 different women; Vico (Victoria), Lupita (Guadalupe), Mia and Roberta. This Characters “are either rewarded or punished, depending on their ability to negotiate with sexuality and kinship”. (Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) Starting with Vico “ is the character in Rebelde 2006 who most often breaks the norms about how to be a decent teenage girl in Mexican Society “(Kjeldgaard, D. and Nielsen, K.S., 2010), she plays the role of the more liberal women with her sexuality she has sex and goes out with nearly all the boys in school. She is shown as “too easy-going with the opposite sex, especially when it comes to the boys from a higher social class. Vico is portrayed as stigmatized by being labeled a whore by her peers and faces social exclusion because of her reputation”. (Kjeldgaard, D. and Nielsen, K.S., 2010) she is judged by society by expressing her sexuality and discovering the meaning of sex.

Even though her masculine classmates do the same as her she is a critic by the fact, she is a woman and therefore a gold digger for having sexual intercourse with the higher social class. On the other hand, Lupita “represents the classical Marianismo […] what a decent girl or woman is supposed to be. She is naïve, decent, innocent, and never provocative. She often makes references to the Virgin Mary, gets red and nervous when other classmates talk about sexual matters” (Kjeldgaard, D. and Nielsen, K.S., 2010) During the whole series she takes care of her boyfriend and of her family as a good woman.

She also remains a virgin throughout the whole series and the most sexual act she does is to kiss her boyfriend and yet feel embarrassed about it. Lupita is the definition of how a good traditional Mexican woman should behave and how should she feel towards sex, she should maintain pure till marriage and wait for the man of her dreams in order to give her virginity to him except of teaching young women that “losing their virginity” is just a social construct in this patriarchal society.

Mia on contrary “is a typical example of a girl who, in some contexts, acts according to traditional values, while in other contexts, behaves like a modern girl. [...] in both romantic relations and in relation to her parents.” (Kjeldgaard, D. and Nielsen, K.S., 2010). Nonetheless, “a traditional reading would place Mia as the virginal protagonist. She is a pretty blonde who wears natural makeup and cute clothes and whose sweet bubbly demeanor endears her to her teachers, family, and friends. “(Lewkowicz, E. 2014.)

Throughout the whole Telenovela, she is portrayed as a strong character with her own bold personality, she is the one that makes her decisions in life but always consulting them with her dad, in this case, the masculine alfa as she is not free to follow her heart unless her father gives her consent in doing what she desires. It is true that she has sexual intercourse with her boyfriend during the third season, however, this is okay as they promised each other with rings that they will get married in the future and that their love would never die. Finally, Roberta which “can be said to be somewhat controversial and norm-breaking […] she reframes from too promiscuous behavior” (Kjeldgaard, D. and Nielsen, K.S., 2010).

In fact, “her punk style, demanding personality and daring personal agency align her with the figure of the aggressive antagonist” (Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) it could be stated that “Roberta is considered norm-breaking by the standards of Marianismo principles, she is, for the same reason, the favorite character of most of the informants, as she personifies what teenage girls regard as an ideal female teenager in contemporary Mexico, incorporating traditional values as well as modern gender ideals.

Roberta appears to be funny and cool” (Kjeldgaard, D. and Nielsen, K.S., 2010) She has her liberated female side as she does not follow orders and acts with her heart. Per contra she maintains the typical Virginal teen girl as in the last episode she confesses to her high school sweetheart that she has not been with any man, reserving herself for true love and therefore being the favorite of teenagers as she is are rebel in the sense of expressing herself in a non-lady way but still following the laws of Marianist and reserving herself.

Compared with men these rules of Marianist do not apply to this genre, in this case, “masculinity prevents health care seeking” (Springer, K.W. and Mouzon, D.M., 2011) which forces males to become what a patriarchal society wants, which is; men to be portrayed as Machos and to behave in a toxic traditional masculinity way which in this case “masculinity prevents health care seeking”. “Traditional men are more likely to regard rape as justifiable than non-traditional men” (Maybach, K.L. and Gold, S.R., 1994) one could say that “through gender-role training, men are taught to be powerful, aggressive, and forceful initiators of sexual activity” (Russell, D. E. H. 1975.) and (Check, J. and Malamuth, N. 1983). The macho man is to be “described with such terms action-oriented, willing to take risks, having a quick temper, and slow to express his feelings” (Maybach, K.L. and Gold, S.R., 1994). Mexican Macho “supposedly symbolizing all that is good about Mexican men” (Willis, K. 1998).

Therefore, being masculine is linked to being confident, powerful, have self-reliance as financial success, being heterosexual and being physically strong. (Brannon 1976; Connell 1987; Conell and Messerschmidt 2005) In telenovelas, mental illness is a melodramatic motive recurrent of classic soap operas. Almost always evil can only be justified from imbalance and psychopathy, a progressive madness that drives events and provides macabre actions that harm the male protagonists and justifies why he behaves like a Macho.

His hatred for the female gender, his murderous behavior could be explained only as a result of his childhood traumas, detaching him from the social factors of a preponderant machismo and which is also expressed in the attitudes of the other male characters, nevertheless, this is always justified as a performance of true love making the male figure as a protector rather than a controlling dominant character. (Bejarano Celaya, Margarita. 2014) Men, a part of being this dominant figure they also have some sort of hero aesthetic in telenovelas were they are responsible for the security of their lovers and are able to maintain sexual relationships “men are allowed have various relations; women are not.”( Lewkowicz, E. 2014.) We can see this in the male roles of Rebelde 2006.

Analyzing both genres in Rebelde 2006 the male characters are; Giovanni, Nico, Diego, and Miguel. Starting with Giovanni he is a typical teenage boy were his only goal in life is getting on with las Pollitas (slang Mexican word for girls) and gaining respect from the popular guys in school. He never appears to have a stable relationship throughout all the seasons and he even joins a mafia community inside the school to gain more power and therefore gain the respect of his classmates, however, audience justify his behavior as coming from a poor environment and wanted to fit in this new surrounding full of the most elite teens of Mexico.

In other words, he does exactly the same that Vico does but his actions are condoned due to his masculine genre. Nico, on the other hand, would be our Lupita in the male version. He is this good Jewish boy that obeys to his dad commands and follows all his demands without questioning in order to be the next head male of the house, the alpha. He runs the family business with his dad and gets the best qualifications in class.

Despite him trying to be an honor to his family as Lupita he is able to get away cheating to his girlfriend as “he was not really in love with her and could not control his passionate emotions anymore.” Another case of the man having his unfaithful behavior justified as he did it for love and was not able to control himself and be a good person. Miguel would be the perfect example of the Hero complex as he is always saving and protecting his girlfriend Mia. Miguel´s character is a man looking to avenge his father's death.

Therefore, all these aggressive actions are rationalized due to the trauma he faced when he was little. Throughout the whole series this specific character's attitude is what a basic Macho would be, he not only treats his girlfriend like a toy and uses her as he wants but also he forces kisses with her and makes her be in extreme sexualized situations which teaches the audience, specifically the men that it is okay to do what you want with women without their consent and that when females say no what they mean is that they want you to try harder and they are playing hard to get. Finally, Diego, Roberta´s boyfriend is the only one that tries to fight this Macho stereotype.

At the begging of the Telenovela Diego is a wealthy spoiled brat with the only intention of having intercourse with all his female classmates, he appears to be a Galan and a Don Juan breaking hearts as he walks through the hallways of the elite school. When he first meets Roberta he decided to conquer her as she is a rebellious woman who cannot be tame and as the Casanova conqueror he is he decided to bet with his friends that Roberta will be his. As the story develops Diego starts to fall for Roberta and realizes that he is madly in love with her and even though she has this fearless soul and is the one that controls their relationship he writes her love songs and expresses his love for her, challenging all the male stereotypes in telenovelas. Nevertheless, this comes to an end as he manages to control Roberta into having a life together forming a family but without leaving their dreams of becoming pop singers. In conclusion, Telenovelas show us the Patriarchal society of Latin America, specifically in Mexico. Telenovelas have demonstrated to be full of micro sexism and to denigrate women for not following the laws of Marianist and not being the angelic figure of the Holy Mary in the interest of being a good, respectful woman.

Men are able to have more sexual liberty, meanwhile, contemporary women can have liberty in their ideas and opinions, but, at the end of the tame this rebellious face disappears and they go back to the Marianist culture of forming a family and staying with their husbands or combine their job with creating a family. Women cannot escape the idea of them being more vulnerable and making them follow the patriarchal society to not be judge and bring honor to their families. Men are perfectly able and capable of doing what they are pleased as their actions do not have repercussions in society, they can be as evil as they want as the patriarchal will defend them and justify their actions with traumas they had in their childhood.

However, it is true that this society does not let them express their emotions or show vulnerability as they will be judged as the weaker sex and not be considered manly enough to be valued in the world.

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Filmography

 Teresa 2010

 La Gata 2014

 Pasion de Gavilanes 2004

 Rebelde 2006