Seeing Gender

From Castellanos' play, I decided to look into the scene where Lupita receive a gift supposedly from her husband. The gift, a bikini, came with a note that called her "little kitten," something she had never been called before. At this point in the story, Juan is a successful businessman and Lupita is the stay-at-home wife with the two children who are at each others' throats. The scene climaxes to Lupita knowing Juan's secretary sent the bikini because it is way too big to fit her and the "little kitten" remark in the note. Gender in the scene was way more than typical. The wife is a homemaker that has nothing better to do than fuel her children's arguments for fun and watch the television. This is a very typical assumption that the man is the bread winner and the wife really does nothing with her days. Of course, Juan is a very successful man. He is so successful in fact that he apparently doesn't have time to buy his own wife a gift, so his secretary does it for him. Gender relations in this part of play is somewhat typical to what society expects from a marriage. The man is such a super power and is clearly not giving his wife real love and attention. It wouldn't surprise me if Juan was having an affair with his secretary from the lack of respect she showed Lupita on the phone. Not only did he not pick the gift out, he didn't even bother to check what his secretary had gotten or written in the note. Lupita is supposedly the helpless wife that does nothing because she has to stay with her beloved husband. She defies the helpless house wife by taking action. The gender issues that were highlighted showed the imbalance of power and money in relationships. Also, Castellanos touches upon the respected duties that are often designated to be the woman's or man's job. Lupita is the homemaker while Juan seems to be the free spirited workaholic that supports his wonderful family. I think Castellanos wants the reader to see the typical beliefs and often misconceptions of gender roles. Castellanos is subtle in parts, but screams from a mountain top in other parts. I think the point of the scene that I chose to dissect is to show that the "typical" roles and beliefs can be broken or changed at any time.