Cinderella: Gender representation in telenovelas

This past week in class, Dr. A lectured about representation and identity in telenovelas. One subtopic within the lecture that intrigued me the most was gender roles in telenovelas. 

Dr A. talked about the Cinderella theme that most of the time mirrors the overarching patriarchy in Latin-American society. Within this patriarchy, machismo/marianismo is a pillar within the patriarchy that I viewed as the most despicable within representation of men and women in telenovelas. However, the ideas that men are superior to women and women should be like pure like Mary are not unpopular opinions in Latin America.

In her book, Telenovelas in Pan-Latino Context, June Carolyn Erlick wrote, “In traditional Latin American cultural terms, the role of a woman is often separated in those of “Mary-figure” and “whore,” a dichotomy that is threatened by the new roles of women in contemporary society (59).” In other words, women are either pure physically or emotionally or they use their bodies to get ahead. Despite these terrible ideas of women, I was intrigued by the class examples of telenovelas that both reflected the Cinderella theme, but also moved past it to reflected realities in today’s society. 

The telenovela that is most widely known for having the ugly duckling cinderella transformation theme is, Yo soy Betty, la fea. Although Betty is extremely smart, kind, and a completely equipped woman to run the company for which she works, she still transformed her image in order to completely get ahead and marry the man of her dreams. Erlick wrote, “Telenovelas tap into the Cinderella archetype, but—consciously or unconsciously— also reflect the tensions of the original tales. What Betty does is to underline those tensions; her figure is clearly an alternative one, and the ending seems to under mine that status in a more obvious way than in more traditional telenovelas. (59)” Yes, Betty married the man of her dreams in order to completely be happy, however, she also became the head of a company in which she worked hard to accomplish. “Telenovelas help women- an all viewers- understand and identify with a multiplicity of roles. The duality doesn’t disappear, it just gets mitigated, as it did in Betty la fea (Erlick 59).”