In class, we’ve discussed the allure of Cinderella. The audience wants to see the underdog win and undergo a total transformation to a new a life that even we would have thought to be unattainable. However, is it always wrong to go against the grain? Does not having innocence, naivety and pureness really make a person ‘bad’? All drama aside, often times the “ugly stepsisters” or antagonist portray traits that Cinderella needs, and that we might even need in real life. Noris, one of the antagonist in my telenovela, Celia, shows a heightened confidence, comfort in her sexuality and ambition to go after what she wants no matter what. Although she heavily abuses these traits, there are a few things we can learn from Noris and other antagonist.
Noris, like her sister, aims to be a singer. The beginning episodes feature her easily walking up to orchestra members, radio producers, and maestros. She goes for what she wants – although it is often at the cost of hurting her sister. However, when we compare Celia’s innocence and shyness compared to Noris’ go-getter attitude, Noris would come out on top in the real world. Naivety would typically harm a real-world girl and a lack of confidence would prevent a multitude of opportunities. Although Noris cannot sing well, she still found herself in at least two opportunities to sing in front of a crowd.
Lastly, many of the female antagonist are very sexualized and use it to get further ahead or hurt the protagonist. However, to even go as far to use their sexuality, they must have had comfort in it at the minimum. Many Cinderellas are extremely pure and timid around males. The ‘ugly stepsister’ takes her sexuality and uses it to her advantage and acts almost fearless in regards to what society will think of her for doing so. Often times, if a woman is not seen as pure, she’s not lady like, but Noris seems comfortable as she moves from various men, some that are even married.
When examining the traits of antagonist there are characteristics of confidence and ambition that the Cinderella and audience members could actually use in their lives. The only true reoccurring issue is that antagonist tend to take their traits too far and use them to hurt others. So what can we learn from an antagonist, and even the Cinderellas? Moderation and balance. We need the confidence and ambition, the go get 'em attitudes antagonist typically have, but we must know how and when to use these powerful traits.
He visto el mismo fenómeno en mi telenovela, "La Piloto." Una de los antagonistas, Zulima, representa la confidencia y ambición que ha mencionado en su publicación. Zulima quiere ser un socio de los Lucios, los jefes del cartel y no permite que ninguna cosa funciona como un obstáculo. Por causa de su ambición, ella es bastante cruel e inteligente para aprovecharse de la inocencia de Yolanda.
ReplyDeleteYolanda, la protagonista, falta la cantidad de ambición que Zulima tiene. Este hecho causa problemas en su vida porque hay muchas situaciones que ella puede evadir si estuviera más perspicaz.
No estoy segura pero pienso que la codicia de Zulima causa su muerte en el final.
Lyndsey
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with your analysis of the antagonists. I talked about this in an earlier blog post about the different aspects of Cinderella characters we find in telenovelas. In my telenovela, we have the antagonist, Jennifer, Max's wife from L.A. She is a stubborn and bitter woman who hates Eliza and is ruthless in trying to "save her son" while keeping Max married to her. She is extremely devious when it comes to trying to save her son and it is one of the only qualities that I admire about her in the series. I think Eliza definitely needed some of that when she had recently arrived to the United States and found out that Max had abandoned them. I think the most important thing for women to remember about telenovelas is that these Cinderella-esque characters are overly-simplified and do not capture how women are or should try to be. Women should be allowed to be strong and cunning and go after what they want without necessarily being considered "evil" or "wrong". Jennifer had many flaws but at the end of the day, being a mother was one aspect of her life where she shined.
Lyndsey,
ReplyDeleteEste es un concepto muy interesante que exploraste, y en estoy completamente de acuerdo. También creo que esta idea puede traducirse también a cualquier telenovela.Como aprendimos en clase, telenovelas son una representación de nuestra cultura y sociedad, y a menudo pensamos que los antagonistas representan las partes de nuestra sociedad que son negativas y necesitan un cambio, esto no es necesariamente cierto. El antagonista en mi telenovela, Sin Senos Sí Hay Paraíso, se llama La Diabla y es obviamente mala; sin embargo, ella también retrata rasgos que más personas deberían aprender a exudar en la vida real (estos son los mismos rasgos que mencionaste: confianza, comodidad en la sexualidad y ambición). Mi única preocupación es que si una telenovela glorifica al antagonista y sus rasgos, también podría incidentalmente glorificar los rasgos negativos del antagonista e influir en la sociedad a actuar de mala manera. También me parece interesante que, debido a las acciones que realiza el antagonista en mi telenovela, ella indirectamente obliga al protagonista a actuar de manera similar. Por ejemplo, La Diabla arruina la vida del protagonista, influyendo en consequencia al protagonista para ganar la confianza para buscar venganza.