Reading Gender

The Eternal Feminine is probably one of the most interesting plays I've ever read. One of the scenes that struck me the most was The Life of a Single Woman section. The opening of the scene starts with Lupita trying on a wig, which gives a vision of a poem about the life of a single woman and how she is ashamed for not having a man in her life. It one part of the poem it says, "Facing an opaque crystal, the single woman--extinguished star--paints onto her lips the blood she does not have." Not only is she ashamed of who she is, she is not even a human being if she does not have a man by her side.
After the poem, images are flashed across the screen at the hair salon of Lupita at several different occupations as a single woman. The occupations are shown are a teacher in an empty classroom, a secretary typing a blank note and a surgical assistant with no patient to treat. The last thing Lupita seems is a view of the empty street with no children and nothing but a pregnant woman with a shopping bag on her arm. I assumed this to mean that without men, the world would be empty; all men are the ones who go to school, have secretaries work for them and are the doctors of the world. Without men, women would have no jobs because women only work for men. Once again, the play is showing that women are nothing, and can not be anything, without men in their lives and in this world.
Lupita is horrified by the scene she had seen and wanted immediately to take of the wig that made this image. She tries on another wig called "The Soiled Flower." The next vision is of Lupita dressed as a prostitute stumbling upon a lamppost at a street corner. A man approaches her first and starts to inform her on the rules of being a prostitute. Shorty after, a second prostitute confronts Lupita and after a small confrontation, befriends her. The experienced prostitute starts giving her some advice about working and how to please the men. One of the things that stuck out the most to me was when the prostitute told Lupita that even if you are in this job by your own free will, you have to act miserable, weak and vulnerable to your customers. Men are especially pleased when they can control you, and maybe even physically harm you. After reading this scene, it made me think of the book He's a Stud, She's a Slut by Jessica Valenti. This book talks about all of the double standards women face in the world today, and especially what the term slut means. I think this fit in perfectly with the play because when Lupita was seen as a prostitute, guess who the boss was?..a male. He was the "pimp" but was looked at as powerful and the controller of his women. However, only the girls were looked at as whores, while the male pimp is respected. This play was sarcastic and humorous, but it starts to become not funny when you know this is how the real world is. I think this scene of the play portrayed that without a man, a woman's only option was to be a prostitute, where ironically all she was doing was trying to please men. Women are judged so harshly in the world today no matter what you choose to do. The woman is a whore while the man is a pimp.
This play highlights all sorts of gender issues, but in this scene it is the stereotypes a single woman faces in the world today. Without a man in front of them, women are not taken seriously or respected. I think Castellanos wanted to make it clear how outrageous the life of a single woman is portrayed in the world today. People assume if a woman is 40 and single, she must be miserable; instead of thinking she's perfectly happy without a man. I really enjoyed reading this play and how sarcastic and extreme Castellanos made gender issues.