Date: Mon, 10 Jul 95 16:07:38 est
Subject: Re[4]: Like water for Chocolate ...


     I wasn't suggesting that the red-haired sister was oppressed, but 
     rather that her characterization is thoughtlessly essentialist and 
     borderline racist. People of African descent are presumed to be ruled 
     by their sexual appetites and naturally good dancers, among other 
     things. These attributes link them to a lower, more primitive, level 
     of the great chain of being than their more cerebral, temperate, and 
     civilized European counterparts. Within the narrative the only 
     evidence the viewer has as to why the red-haired sister has these 
     qualities more so than her sisters is that she is born of a mulatto 
     father: Implicitly, "It's in her blood." These sorts of racist 
     narratives do contribute to oppression beyond the text, however, since 
     people of African descent self-evidently need the tight rule of 
     so-called superior Westeners.
     
     jc

        I took the daughters to be confined by type, but in another way--a
la Dostoyevsky's _Bros K_.  One was physical (the red-haired sister), mental 
(the oldest, mental manipulator), and the spiritual (the cook).  If I were 
to be critical (I enjoyed the movie), I'd have to say they were oppressed by 
these categories rather than political oppression.
     
     
     
                                            * 
Mark Heydon is not "in."                    *     "Mei You!"  
Try: mheydon-AT-sonic.net                      *        -Old, obnoxious Chinese 
saying.
or: mheydon-AT-nermal.santarosa.edu            *
                                            *
     
     
     
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