Week 8: Mujeres Divinas

Men, it seems, have masked their objectification of women under the guise of adoration. This became apparent to me while reading Octavio Paz's "El laberinto de la soledad" and the letra to Vicente Fernandez's "Mujeres Divinas." For the sake of time, I will focus on the song.

Fernandez, at his song's start, categorized women in the same category as betrayals. They belong in the same conversation,  "Hablando de mujeres y traiciones." And after lamenting the wounds they have inflicted upon him, he ends with "no queda otro camino que adorarlas." Not once does he acknowledge his role in provoking these wounds. Fernandez effectively denies women the agency to react to circumstances. He paints women as objects whose assigned role is to be a man's loyal companion. And when they deviate from this assigned role, it occurs at the expense of men, their creators.

In the Mexican culture, Paz explains, men hold women in high regard. Religious piety toward the Virgin de Guadalupe shines light on this sentiment. Fernandez affirms the idolatry of women, saying "mujeres o mujeres tan divinas." By denying women agency and assigning them a divine role, men soil their inherent capacity to grow and nourish. They do not let women bear their own fruit.

This week's piece depicts the tragedy of holding women as idols. I opened up two fresh pomegranates and tore them into pieces. Some pieces had their skins painted gold. Others had their seeds removed, painted gold, and reinserted using super glue. The gold paint symbolizes the gratuitous adoration that men bestow upon women. Although the paint makes the fruit more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, it renders the fruit inedible. Likewise, by objectifying women as idols to be adored, men cannot enjoy the true potential of a women who is allowed to fully ripen.