La Quinceanera Essay

Before examining how rituals have an important role in establishing gender in many world cultures, one must understand how gender is being define. Many believed gender could be biologically determined by their sex, such as their chromosomes but what they failed to view is how other factors define their gender. While the biology of sex is helpful in determining one’s gender, gender is the interrelationship between an individual’s sex, how one identifies their internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither, as well as one’s outward expressions, how one presents and behaves related to that identification. After defining gender, one can say that gender is the result of culture, culture constructs the appropriate expressions that further

enhances how one identifies as male or female or either. Studying rituals is a fascinating way to understand how gender is the result of culture furthermore, how the rituals that exist in a culture play a pivotal role in how people construct and establish their gender.
The rituals I have chosen to examine in regards to gender are mostly rites of passage. As Markstrom and Iborra cited that the model of rites as passage were ‘‘formalized social interactions with a phasing which separates individuals from their previous identities, carries them through a period of transition to a new identity, and incorporates them into a new role or social status’’ (Dunham, Kidwell and Wilson, 140). The rituals that are being exercised in many cultures can be seen as gender socialization, they teach the member of that culture about the expectations associated with their sex. I remained unaware of the fact that these rituals occurred in many culture at such an early stage in life, until one day my elder Jewish co-worker requested a day off for the ceremony of her grandson’s bris. I was intrigued in finding out more information about this ceremony that occurs in the religion of Judaism. The ceremony of a bris is the ritual circumcision of a baby boy, usually occurs eight days after the baby was born. In addition to the circumcision, the baby boy is also given a name and the parents give an explanation of the name. The purpose of the Bris ceremony is to connect the baby boy to the encounter of God and Abraham where God told Abraham that it is only through circumcision that boys are welcomed into the covenant and inherit the promises of wealth and land, this ceremony also establishes the baby boys’ Jewish identity.
The bris can be viewed by many as a gender ritual by many people because in a way it constructs what it means to be a male in the Jewish culture. In an article titled A Woman’s View of Circumcision by Elana Maryles Sztokman, they express their views on the bris ceremony and believe the ceremony indicates that being male is a requirement for full participation in Jewish rituals. In addition to that they believe that “the Bris has a way of erasing the lives of women from the moment we are born. The bris ceremony becomes a major celebration of a boy's birth, leaving the arrival of a girl ritualistically unnoticed” (Sztokman, 2). The ceremony of a bris segregates the experiences of a boy and a girl since the day they were born. The male as in many other cultures will always be depicted as superior in comparison to females and the bris ceremony is a ritual that supports this idea. The authors of the article used grandparents to validate how male are viewed as more important in the culture. Sztokman stated that the grandparents will always attend the bris even if they are miles away but if the baby were to be a female they won’t travel as much and they won’t view it as urgent as they do if it was a male baby. The bris ceremony is a ritual that reinforces the notions of male/masculinity in the Jewish culture. The rituals celebrate the difference that’s exist between being a male with a penis and being a female with a vagina. I am not encouraging that this culture should have a ceremony for female circumcision/female genital mutilation but they should have a celebration for welcoming female babies as well.
A second ritual or tradition that I examined and its relation to gender socialization is the celebration of the Quinceanera in Mexican-American cultures.

This celebration is usually notable for Catholic girls who have turned 15 years’ old and symbolizes when a girl becomes a woman. This celebration sort of resembles a wedding especially in the amount of time planning it and the expenses that go in to make the celebration possible. I’m very familiar with this celebration and attended a couple of them myself. This celebration definitely establishes the idea of being feminine and being a female in this culture. In the article La Quinceanera: Making Gender and Ethnic Identities by Karen Mary Davalos, she describes the events that occur in this celebration and relates them back to how these events construct a female gender identity. Its start with the quinceanera and her family attending church to receive the priest blessing in the girls’ coming of age. Davalos describes the interaction that occurs between the priest and the family “Church officials emphasize the role the quinceanera plays in bringing people to the church and in teaching gender roles and cultural traditions. Through the quinceanera, Catholic priests provide instruction to parents on how to educate their daughters about gender roles, "female" behavior, and sexuality.” (Davalos, 8). In the church, priest encourages the women to be submissive as well as remain pure until

marriage.
Afterwards in the party celebration, many features of the celebration reinforce gender roles. The quinceanera has traditionally always worn a pink dress to symbolize her youth and if it’s not a pink dress, it should be another vibrant “girl” color. It’s very rare for a quinceanera to wear a dark blue or black dress. An important feature is also the changing of the girls’ flat shoes to heels, this symbolizes the transition to a woman. In this culture, this can be a stereotype that girls have to wear heels when they grow up instead of sneakers for example. The quinceanera celebration it’s an event that many Latina girls in particular Mexican girls dream of and this is mostly because their parents have made it a very big deal since the day they were born. The parent and other family members save up money to use on this special day. This ritual that is being exercised in Mexican-American cultures reinforces the gender role of female and how female should express themselves as they get older. This ritual has put a lot of emphasis on the ideas of purity and submissiveness in relation to being feminine.
In the lives of Indian American female adolescents from the Navajo tribe exists a pubertal coming of age ceremony called the Kinaaldà.

In this coming of age ceremony people from the Navajo tribe would celebrate a girls’ first period. Usually when a girl gets her period for the first time she is embarrassed and feels anxiety but in this tribe, this event is one to celebrate and rejoice. As Markstorm and Iborra stated in Adolescent Identity Formation and Rites of Passage: The Navajo Kinaalda ´ Ceremony for Girls “The purposes of Kinaalda ´ go far beyond the obvious sexual maturational and reproductive linkages. This ceremony is regarded as the most important personality-shaping event in a woman’s life, and it is believed to set her life course” (Markstorm and Iborra, 408). This ceremony sets the female identity and it also socializes the female into her adult roles. Some of the purposes for this Kinaalda are to celebrate her change in status from child to adult, to instruct her on the proper roles of Navajo women in the established social order, to give her good posture and physical beauty and to ensure her reproductive capability. The ceremony also has changes for the female identity such as becoming the ultimate mother, associated with the Earth and becoming good and giving. As you can see most of the purposes for this coming of age ceremony constructs and reinforces what it means to be female by following the female gender stereotypes. The Kinaalda reinforces the stereotype

that to become a woman you must have beautiful looks. The article further explains the purposes of pubertal coming of age ceremonies “It has been stated that pubertal rites of passage aim to connect physical change to expected changes in social roles” (Markstorm and Iborra, 412). The social roles are also important in the Kinaalda ceremony, the emphasis on being a mother and the caregiver strengthens the female identity.
These rites of passages reaffirm gendered existence, the rituals and traditions I researched affirm the difference between men and women. The Quinceanera celebration and the Kinaalda ceremony shows the women of those cultures the acceptable characteristics of the feminine behaviors. These rituals can cause problems for gender and the relationship of sex and gender. How would these cultures react to a man exercising feminine characteristics or a female exhibiting men masculine traits? Would the coming-of-age ceremony still take place? On the other hand, the Bris celebration reinforces the gender hierarchy, the idea of male above female, men above women and boy above girl. The bris indicates that to have full involvement in the Jewish society, being a male is a requisite. In my culture I’ve never viewed rituals as being gendered enforced, after researching different culture rituals I learned many gendered rituals.