Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives - Sandra Cisneros & Julia Serano
Sandra Cisneros - Guadalupe the Sex Goddess (1996)
Sandra Cisneros is an award-winning fiction and poetry writer, known for "House on Mango Street," which sold over 2 million copies.
She has received numerous honors, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
Cisneros is the president and founder of the Macondo Foundation, supporting socially engaged writers, and Writer-in-Residence at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.
Cisneros reflects on the differing attitudes towards bodies between white women and Latinas in her high school locker room.
White women appeared comfortable and unashamed, while Latinas were more modest and hid themselves.
Latinas often used sanitary pads instead of tampons due to cultural and religious beliefs, with mothers advising against tampons until marriage.
The author notes a lack of knowledge and openness about female anatomy and sexuality within her culture.
She was so ashamed of her own body that as an adult, she didn't know she had a vagina, assuming her period arrived through the urethra or skin.
The author attributes this ignorance to the influence of religion and culture, creating a vagueness around female anatomy.
She felt unable to acknowledge or enjoy her sexuality due to guilt, and ashamed for a doctor to examine her intimately.
Her culture locked her in a "double chastity belt of ignorance and vergüenza (shame)".
Privacy for self-exploration was a luxury her family couldn't afford, with limited private space in their crowded home.
She saw her own sex for the first time at the Emma Goldman Clinic, where a nurse showed her cervix using a mirror and speculum.
Prior to that, she'd only been to the university medical center in grad school at 21 and was ashamed and afraid to seek out a gynecologist, but even more afraid of getting pregnant.
The anonymity of being away from family allowed her to take control of her life.
She wanted to be fearless like white women and have sex when she wanted, but she was afraid to explain to a potential lover that she only had one other man and they practiced withdrawal and was worried he will laugh at her.
She couldn't explain why she couldn't see a gynecologist and worried that someone will laugh at her.
One night, she had unprotected sex because she was too afraid to speak up about not being on birth control and the days following were torture.
Fortunately, her period arrived on Mother's Day, leading her to make an appointment at a family planning center.
She reflects on how she might have become a pregnant teen if she had met a boy who showed interest, given her readiness to sacrifice everything for love.
She emphasizes the silence and misinformation surrounding Latinas and their bodies, making it difficult for young girls to access accurate information and support.
She criticizes the culture of denial around sex education, where girls are told not to get pregnant but not taught how to prevent it.
The Virgin de Guadalupe was a dangerous role model because her ideals were lofty and unrealistic.
Boys were fornicating and not held to the same standards, while women were pointed toward marriage and motherhood, while the other alternative was "putahood."
She wanted to be a real woman with a heart and soul and the ability to love.
She rejected the idea of Guadalupe as a Goody Two-Shoes dooming her to unhappiness.
Discovering sex was like discovering writing, and was a powerful experience and took her beyond guilt and shame.
Through sex, Cisneros discovered deeper parts of herself and felt a sense of spiritual connection and being one with the universe.
Her view of the Virgen de Guadalupe has changed over time.
She sees Guadalupe as "Guadalupe the sex goddess", a goddess who makes her feel good about her sexual power and energy.
She encourages women to "speak from the vulva" and write from their "panocha" (vagina).
Cisneros researched Guadalupe's pre-Columbian antecedents and found Tonantzin and other mother goddesses.
She discovered Tlazolteotl, the goddess of fertility and sex, also called Totzin.
Tlazolteotl was the patron of sexual passion who could forgive sexual transgressions through her priests.
Tlazolteotl is represented as a woman squatting in childbirth, grimacing in pain, and is a duality of maternity and sexuality, being a "sexy mama".
La Virgen de Guadalupe is also Coatlicue, the creative/destructive goddess.
The Coatlicue statue in Mexico City was so terrifying it was reburied.
Cisneros sees Coatlicue as a woman enraged and silently gathering force.
She identifies with Coatlicue, especially when writing, feeling capable of creation and destruction through words.
Cisneros sees Coatlicue, Tlazolteotl, Tonantzin, and la Virgen de Guadalupe as interconnected and part of her identity.
The Lupe that intrigues her is the one of the 1990s who has shaped Chicanas/mexicanas, not the one of 1531.
She attributes her malcriada spirit to the Tlazolteotl-Lupe in her.
Her Coatlicue-Lupe attitude makes it possible for her mother to tell her, "No wonder men can't stand you."
Cisneros is obsessed with becoming a woman comfortable in her skin.
Her religious conversion was gradual and involved several influences.
These included a grave depression and near suicide, the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, her peace vigil for Jasna in Sarajevo, the writings of Gloria Anzaldúa, a trip back to Tepeyac with Cherríe Moraga and Norma Alarcón, drives across Texas, and research for stories.
Her Virgin de Guadalupe is not the mother of God but God: a face for a god without a face, an indigena for a god without ethnicity, and a female deity for a god who is genderless.
She needed her Virgin to be a woman like her to accept her.
Once, she was terrified by the sight of a porn star's "panocha" in a film: a tidy, pink, and shiny opening that looked childlike and unsexual.
Her own sex is dark, rubbery, and blue-purple, like an octopus, and her nipples are big and brown, like Mexican coins.
When she sees la Virgen de Guadalupe, she wants to lift her dress to see if she wears chones and has a "panocha" like hers and dark nipples.
She believes that the Virgen de Guadalupe does have these characteristics because she gave birth and has a womb.
Julia Serano - Why Nice Guys Finish Last (2008)
Julia Serano is a writer, spoken-word artist, trans activist, and author of "Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity."
Her writings have appeared in various books and magazines, focusing on cultural criticism, female desire, spoken word, female sexual power, and transgender issues.