Rosario Castellanos cooking lessons piece is written and reads like a poem that many women live through.
This piece mirrors many subtle metaphors in relation to the greater theme of gendered expectations, specifically expectations of women. There is also an intersection of fear. Fear of the lack of ability to adapt to traditional gender and as a result her husband leaves her. Along with fear of losing who she is as a woman by submitting to these traditional gender roles.
“Thanks for letting me out of the cage of one sterile routine only to lock me into the cage of another” (348)- This line in the reading really stood out to me. It really tied the entire piece together. She starts of talking about meat which mirrors the transformations of roles that women must take on. But it also reminded me of the ways in which women used to be referred to as chattel, property such as livestock. The concept of women’s still being treated as chattel is very evident with her use of words in this quotation, “letting me out of the cage”, her fears are also tied into this line as she is moved from one cage to the next in her husband’s eyes.
Gender roles have been in constant in many cultures and it was still very apparent when Castellanos wrote this piece and it is still very apparent now. In some cultures, such as the Latin American culture women can be stereotyped as adhering to these traditional gendered roles of oppression which force them to conceal their true identities. It is very prominent in tv shows, books and movies and it was very real while happening to Castellanos, as women are to be the wones who cook, clean and produce children. This type of oppression can create these fears which inevitably leads to loosing something, either a part of themselves or in castellanos case a fear of losing her husband. The need to constantly perform these roles can become exhausting but also self-deprecating.
My question would be, how do specific cultures press these oppressive gendered roles onto women? Are these metaphorical cages, just the modern-day way to dress up the word chattel to still be able to control women?
Yes, the prominence of flesh (women as flesh; animal meat as flesh) is quite striking here. And yet the story, of course, is to show that women (wives) have their own thoughts and perspectives on their lives, even as these, too, tend to be kept within a cage and seldom admitted or expressed in public. And yes, I like your point that (the story suggests) this is in part because they have internalized the fear of losing what status they have if they were to speak out.