Eternal Feminine

The Eternal Feminine is a play written by Rosario Castellanos (originally written in Spanish) addresses some of the many issues women in Mexico encounter daily. Feminism is a trend expanding globally, and one must also be mindful about how women’s liberation affects a culture rich in gender tradition. The exploration into women’s issues centered around the dreams of a young woman named Lupita. But how the device that promoted her dreams came into play demonstrated that men feared women’s minds and women were not yet ready to challenge the obscured fears. Castallanos also tries to teach the viewer/readers about the many social obligations and challenges in a Mexican woman’s life that often lead to strong feelings of anxiety. I found the first scene in the beauty boutique analogues to Bells Hooks chapter six in Feminism is for Everybody: Beauty Within and Without, concern with women’s obsession with beauty. This scene also demonstrated how men in this culture feared women on an intellectual level by attempting to relive women of the thought process.
The first scene focuses on three individuals who are not exactly strangers, and are not exactly friends. A salesman is introducing a new product to the boutique’s owner, and the hairdresser has positioned herself in the middle of the transaction. The salesman indicates that an hour under a hair dryer is “monstrous” and ask how frequently within a week women have their hair done. The own reply’s “the sloppy ones, once; the run of the mill, twice; the pampered ones, daily”. This sets an image of how frequently women should have their hair done before they are labeled “sloppy” or “pampered”. Hooks begins her chapter describing how women’s value “rest solely on appearance” (p. 31). The sales pitch indicates that these women are torturing themselves for beauty and his product will ease the pain. The company the salesperson is working for has figured out a way to cash in on the one to seven hours a week women are spending under the hair dryer. As Hooks explains that as long as women remain a slave to their beauty ritual the beauty industry is going to find a way to capitalize on them. The concern was not for the women’s well being or even for the condition of their hair. The salesman said that women’s minds needed to be preoccupied for the hour they sit under the dryer so they don’t begin to think. The owner and the hairdresser never indicated that this distraction from thinking was insulting. The owner and the hairdresser, who appeared to be the most skeptical in the beginning, allowed the salesman to continue with his sales pitch.
Bell Hooks may have believed that feminism was for everyone, it obviously had not yet reached this suburban Mexican town. The women were buying into products that prevented them from thinking while they were trying to reach their full beauty potential. It is a relief to me that this dream maker device is imaginary because many women throughout the world would easily subject themselves to an opportunity to stop thinking.