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Communication Analysis
Ana Garcia is a Mexican American girl that has the desire to higher her level of education, but is brought to a halt by the very women that gave her life. This essay is an analysis of the communication behaviors depicted in the movie Real Women Have Curves. The movie illustrates various concepts of interpersonal communication. Some of these concepts harm and some help relationships improve. I will be analyzing two scenes from the movie, Real Women Have Curves, where Ana demonstrates her self-esteem and when she shows that she is trying to manage her identity.
The first concept I will analyze from the movie will be self-esteem. Our textbook defines self-esteem as an evaluation of ones self-worth (p. 39). This concept is shown in the scene where Ana and her boyfriend, Jimmy, finish having a sexual encounter. As they begin to get dressed Jimmy tells Ana that he will write to her while he is in college. Ana rejects his offer by claiming that she and Jimmy will not have anything to talk about and that he will end up meeting a skinny girl. Her low self-esteem affects her confidence,
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causing her to push Jimmy away. Ana’s response indicates that she thinks that Jimmy will most likely find a girl who is prettier and skinnier. Her low self-esteem makes her believe that she is not good enough for him. If her low self-esteem continues, her life will ultimately be affected by it in a negative way. Therefore it produces harmful communication within relationships. Another concept I am going to analyze from a scene in the movie Real Women Have Curves is identity management.
In regard to the textbook, identity management is the communication strategy that a person uses to influence how others view them (p. 51). This behavior is seen during the scene where Ana is looking at herself in the mirror and her mother, Carmen, approaches her to question her virginity. Ana denies the accusation her mother made and they argue for a period of time. Towards the end of the argument Carmen tells Ana she better not embarrass her by getting pregnant. As a result Ana responds by bringing up her mother’s claim of being pregnant and that the only reason she believes she is with child, is so that she can feel like there will continue to be a ‘baby’ in the house. Ana has conveyed the idea that she is a woman now and no longer the baby of the
household. This scene is a good depiction of identity management. She clearly states that she is no longer a baby and no longer wants to be treated as one. This example may not seem as significant to others but to Ana it was a giant leap toward the person she wants to be perceived as. Identity management is a positive behavior; it allows a person to determine how they want to be portrayed to the world. Given these points, Ana’s self-esteem will continue to hold her back and her identity management will display the woman she wants to be. The movie, Real Women Have Curves, demonstrates how a person can be affected by their low self –esteem where they live a loveless life. In addition the movie demonstrations how a girl can blossom into a resilient woman that stands up for her beliefs. I found it amusing that Ana’s relationship with her mother seemed to have incessant bickering and at the end Ana left exchanging little to no words with her.
Amy Cunningham, an editor and author from New York, wrote an article “Why Women Smile” to emphasize on how women are no longer smiling because it is a natural thing, but rather an everyday habit. Coupled with Cunningham’s supported reasons by using logos and ethos, she also uniquely brings in her personal experience by having ethos, making her argument more relatable. A long side with that, societies’ past and present impact on today’s world about women was also included as Cunningham put her own take into proving her point. Although this may be true, there were some fallacies found in her argument leading it to lack of fully portraying the audience.
The Notebook (Cassavetes, 2004) is a love story about a young couple named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who fall deeply in love with each other. The Hamilton’s are financially stable, and expect for their daughter Allie to marry someone with the same wealth. Noah on the other hand works as a laborer, and comes from an underprivileged family. Throughout the film there were several negative behaviors, and interpersonal communications within the context of their relationship, which relates to chapter nine. This chapter explores relationships, emphasizing on affection and understanding, attraction, and the power of a relationship. The focus of this paper is the interpersonal conflict with Noah, Allie and her mother, Anne Hamilton.
The play “Real Women Have Curves” is written by Josefina Lopez, and the story is based on her own experiences when working in her sister’s sewing factory without legal documentation. The main plot in “Real Women Have Curves” is the daily life of works revolve around the production deadlines. The play is also adapted into a film in 2002. In the play there are only five female characters dominate the whole story while the movie give a more complete view of protagonist’s life outside of factory rather than just telling the story within the sewing factory, such as including the father and grandpa’s reactions and actions. Both the play and movie are set in a sewing factory in Easy Los Angeles. In the play, the story is focusing on the sewing factory’s owner, Estela, and she is an undocumented worker and afraid of being catch by the INS. However, in the movie, the story is told from the point of view of Ana, Estela’s sister, who just graduated from high school.
For this assessment, I have chosen the movie Real Women Have Curves. The movie follows a traditional Mexican family and their struggle to survive in America. The film focuses, on the youngest American-born daughter Ana. Ana lives in a Hispanic community in East Los Angeles the daughter of Latino working immigrants from Mexico. Her family unit consists of her parents, two brothers, older sister and her grandfather. The movie shows the conflict Ana faces between the clashes of the two cultures. The film shows that Ana goes to great lengths to attend school every day. Ana has had a successful school career, as her peers are getting ready to attend college. She’s expected to get a job to financially help her struggling family. She
There is an abundant amount of movies that are inspiring to people, and throughout the years there have been empowering messages for some women. In Real Women Have Curves produced by Effie Lavoo and George brown, there is an empowering message for women of all types. The film is about a Spanish 18-year-old girl who struggles with a life of a regular Spanish woman. While this movie applies more towards Spanish woman it can also empower women of all types. Ana the main character wants to attend college, and she is a bright girl. The problem is she cannot attend college ,because, of the nature of the Spanish community she comes from. The mother constantly puts her down for her weight and not being marriage material. Ana is also expected to help the family with earning money, which is one of the reasons she is not being allowed to go to college. As the mother says, “I have worked since I was 13 years old now it is her turn” (). Ana’s mother believes Ana need to work for the family since she has become of age, and that she needs to get married because that is what women are supposed to do.
The author also notes how she identifies herself. “She is, in her terms, ''an ana''” ( Udovitch 19). She labels herself much like how the US labeled immigrants and freed slaves in the past using Jim Crow laws. They, slaves and immigrants, were equal but, separate.
Being a curvaceous young woman is hard enough. Especially when you’re trying to find love, you’re seeking approval and anticipating a better future for yourself. The film Real Women Have Curves stresses how important higher education is to a Mexican-American teenager and the wrath she endures from her mother because of her weight and aspiration. Mark Twain stated that, “Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great” (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/keepaway_from_those_who_try_to_belittleyour/215215.html). I believe I can personally relate to Real Women Have Curves, the reason being is because I’m a daughter, I’m overweight, and I’m seeking a post-secondary education. This is a synopsis of Real Women Have Curves; I’ll reveal why the film is so inspiring to me, I’ll give feedback from movie reviews, and I’ll use documents from my course’s textbook, to fully develop my ideas.
... middle of paper ... ... Sandra Cisneros took a risk and got remarkably far with her passion for mixing the cultures and the identities of women. Her voice is what emphasizes the article to show how the goal is to redistribute the language and culture, not criticizing the “New World”.
One of the issues that was raised is the idea of the relationship between femininty, technology and sexuality. The relationship between all of these qualities converse in one character, Maria. The real Maria has many roles thoughout the movie, including one who cares for the workers children, a preacher of peace for the workers, and one who loves Freder. The machi...
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
The Hollywood movie Pretty Woman (1990) is about a prostitute in Hollywood, marrying an extremely rich businessman, in spite of her mutual distrust and prejudice. The movie contains the basic narrative of the Cinderella tale: through the love and help of a man of a higher social position, a girl of a lower social status moves up to join the man at his level.
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
The movie Babel (2006), directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, is an interesting and impressive film. This movie shows four different episodes, which are all related to each other. This movie is about the relationship between stereotypes and communications of people, and the way the film discusses the topic to the audience is very interesting, because there are many episodes. There are four episodes in this film; first is Susan and Richard’s story, second is Yusef’s episode, third one is Amelia’s episode, and the last one is Chieko’s story.
Narratives in the film are about unrequited love, sexuality and gender, relationships, excitement, and loss. Refreshingly, the female characters’ stories are not exoticized, reduced, or manipulated to fit many of the tropes of male-dominant film culture.
In the movie, Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl, a young girl named Racquel struggles to be accepted among her family and peers. It is distinctive that there is a rivalry between herself and her older brother, who happens to have a successful career, whereas Racquel is still in high school. At school, Racquel seems to be naïve, which leads to a classmate forcing himself on her. As a result, she fights back; but only to go back to her parents’ home, in which she discovers a provocative picture of herself on the internet her classmate managed to put online. Furthermore, this incident reinforced her insecurities; and lead her to seek something her parents could not give her: love and attention.