Las Aparicios and Gender

Being a Mass Media Arts major I am very interested in working in the television industry. Mainly because I feel that no matter what people are always looking for entertainment and television provides that for them. Temporary escape from the mundane or awareness of how we as people work in society. Most of my classes have been centered in the analysis of the American television and film industry. When I saw this class was on Telenovelas and society I knew I had to take it,
Being a first generation Salvadorean-American I grew up watching telenovelas all throughout my life. I stopped watching them as I got older, but always when I walked out of my room into the living on a weekday my mom or dad would be watching a novela. I fill that telenovelas have garnered a negative conatation. Too overly dramatic, too crazy to ever possibly be true, too predictable,

When doing some reaserch into what telenovela I asked my mom (telenovela expert of my house) for some of her favorites and she said typical telenovelas rosas (Maria La Del  Barrio, Rubi, etc).  I knew that I didn't want a telenovela rosa. I didn't want a helpless maid that fell in love with the bosses son and then overcame the obstacles to in the end live happy ever after with her prince. So for my telenovela of the semester I decided to watch Las Aparicios. The telenovela is about a family of women, who all become widows and only give birth to women,


The main reason I chose this was because I thought it wouldn't follow a telenovela rosas format because of the description

 "Las Aparicio no vinieron a este mundo a sufrir: son mujeres contemporáneas, urbanas, decididas a tomar las riendas de su vida; la viudez les ha enseñado a no necesitar a los hombres para sobrevivir: ahora los tienen porque quieren y porque pueden."

As I started watching this telenovela, it became apparent that this is a telenovela rosa, But there are variations among the different kinds of Cinderellas that the tv show portrays. The main character Alma Aparicio is the prostitute. She doesn't need men but rather has them because she can.

Her sister Mercedes has just recently lost her husband and is struggling to take over his clients in a law form. Julia the youngest daughter, doesn't believe in the traditional marriage and is trying to come to terms with it.

The telenovela shows a different type of gender representation. The women are viewed as the ones in power in the case of Alma. She teaches a women sexuality class and runs a male escort service. This puts the women in a hierarchy over the men. The male role is one of a supporting, Alma uses them and she knows she doesn't need them to be happy, until she meets Alejandro one night, who reminds her so much of her deceased husband. The story line between these two is setting Alma up for a transformation, from the "prostitute" into a women that is able to fall for a man.

Males are shown as supporting roles as in the case of Julia, who's soccer star boyfriend shows her everything she doesn't want in a man, and maybe it's because there is another woman in the picture (love triangle). In the case of Mercedes the male in her life is Claudio, her dead husband business partner that is conspiring against her and her fortune.

From the first couple of episodes I have seen I think that this telenovela rosa is a different one even if the girl ends up falling in love with the boy. The reason for that begin is because the boy proves his worthiness and that women shouldn't settle for less. As well as this show demonstrates how financially and socially powerful these women can be, all without the help of a man.