Social Exploration

Social Exploration: Ixcanul

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Social Exploration: Ixcanul

Around the globe, there are millions of cultures, which people follow and have associations with because it is their identity. For this paper, ‘Ixcanul’, movie is selected because of the reason that this depicts the Mayan culture and reflects a life of women bounded in ancestral beliefs and traditions. Women have to follow cultural patterns and they cannot challenge them because of their gender divisions and patriarchal societies, for whom honor is everything.

Ixcanul

Societies that follow a particular traditional-cultural pattern are most likely to be patriarchal societies show dominancy over the opposite gender ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"Lie9rwWB","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Alam, 2010)","plainCitation":"(Alam, 2010)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":457,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/BHWQ7KBT"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/BHWQ7KBT"],"itemData":{"id":457,"type":"article-journal","title":"Patriarchy and Women’s Gender Ideology: A Socio-Cultural Perspective","container-title":"Journal of Social Sciences","source":"ResearchGate","abstract":"Problem statement: This research was designed to examine women’s gender ideology in educating their children. It attempts to understand women’s gender ideology as articulated by the women themselves based upon their own point of view. The study highlights that patriarchal norms has an influence on women’s attitudes regarding their privilege rights and responsibilities towards educating children. women’s gender ideology appears to be constrained by patriarchal ideology that give priority to the masculine over the feminine in almost all environments, that is to say school, household, labor market and community. Due to patriarchal belief, parents give less priority on daughter’s education. Approach: The objectives of this research are (a) to determine women’s gender ideology concerning children’s education; (b) to examine the influence of patriarchal norms on women’s gender ideology. Results: Employing detailed descriptive quantitative results, the work suggests that in Bangladesh most of rural women tended to follow traditional ideology regarding daughter’s education. Conclusion: The study was conducted in one of the districts of Dinajpur in Bangladesh. Three villages namely Mashimpur, Mohiskotha and Jugibari which are situated under the Union of Auliapur at Sadar thana (sub-district) were chosen as study areas. The respondents of the study consisted of 340 women from the selected areas.","title-short":"Patriarchy and Women’s Gender Ideology","journalAbbreviation":"Journal of Social Sciences","author":[{"family":"Alam","given":"M"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Alam, 2010). It is not important that in a patriarchal society only men have a typical mindset towards women, there are other women who have a patriarchal mindset. Both men and women in a patriarchal society believe that men have a superior place in society and women are inferior; maybe because of the differences in their gender roles and their physical features. This movie shows cultural patterns that may be considered as ill-actions from a sociological perspective and it is not important that all cultures have unique and valuable cultures, not necessarily.

Mayan culture is depicted in this movie that shows that girls get married at their early ages and they are sometimes exposed to intimate relations before their marriage. Ixcanul's movie shows that how power is misused to suppress those who are considered as superior because of their gender. Feminism and patriarchy are two theories that are reflected in this movie. Are age marriages in some cultures such as Mayan culture are some of long-existing issues of feminism and these issues are the result of misuse of power of patriarchy.

Women are culturally labeled as those workers who have to work within the boundaries of their homes, and they are not allowed to go out of their walls. Maria in this move was the central role who was going to get married and the decision was to be made by her parents. This does not reflect arranged marriages, but it shows early marriage for benefit of families in terms of wealth. However, Maria does not show any interest in getting married to any man, she wanted to explore a new world and she ties her interests with Pepe. Both desire to explore a new world and travel to other States. A point comes when Maria realizes that she is pregnant, and she is being abandoned by Pepe which changes her situation.

At this point of movie, I was expecting that her parents after knowing that she is pregnant would chop her or do something for abortion, but it was different, they showed no as such immunity towards societal constraints of patriarchy. Rather she gets suggestions that walking during pregnancy helps for well-being of both baby and mother. While walking in her fields, she gets beaten by a snake and her parents rush her to hospital, later she comes to know that she has lost her child and believes on that news. The problem for Maria’s family is their language and their only means of communication is Igianca with whom she was going to get married ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"FUTjXK1q","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bustamante, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Bustamante, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":453,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/98XXP2GW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/smYQhi21/items/98XXP2GW"],"itemData":{"id":453,"type":"post-weblog","title":"Ixcanul (2015)","container-title":"Watch Hot English Movies Free Online","abstract":"Storyline:María, a seventeen-year-old Mayan (Kaqchikel) girl, lives on the slopes of an active volcano in Guatemala. An arranged marriage awaits her, but her suitor must first spend months working in the city. It is a world María knows nothing of, but is forced to grapple with when problems arise.User Reviews: The director’s feature film debut. … Continue reading \"Ixcanul (2015)\"","URL":"https://moviehdz.com/movies/ixcanul-2015/","language":"en-US","author":[{"family":"Bustamante","given":"Jayro"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,25]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bustamante, 2015). He misinterprets that her child has died while that news was not real, her baby was alive, which Maria never knew that it was a lie and that were Igianca’s misdeeds.

Ending movies with a depressing scene tends a person to think about the societal constraints for women and how male-power is used against women in their society. I believe that this movie portrayed, how in Mayan culture men can use their power against suppressed people especially women in such cultures. Some cultural patterns are shaped in a way that they lead to suppressions, discrimination, and inequalities towards women, who are thought to be inferior as compared to men. These notions have to be challenged by women like Maria and her mother stood for themselves by desiring to live a life beyond the volcano.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Alam, M. (2010). Patriarchy and Women’s Gender Ideology: A Socio-Cultural Perspective. Journal of Social Sciences.

Bustamante, J. (2015). Ixcanul (2015). Retrieved November 25, 2019, from Watch Hot English Movies Free Online website: https://moviehdz.com/movies/ixcanul-2015/