Stand And Deliver Cultural Themes

The two films that we have watched over the course that I chose to explore both of the films cultural themes and historical background are Stand and Deliver and Real Women have curves. Both films included their own take on cultural themes and different sociological problems.
In the movie Stand and Deliver, teacher Jaime Escalante struggles as he tries to teach his math class how to apply themselves into everything that they do with ganas. He teaches them not only a subject, but the importance of furthering their education and taking it as far as they can to reach goals that they might not have even known that they had. Because of the community that they live in Mr. Escalante knew that he was in for a challenge however, he never gave up on …show more content…
There is also another factor which has to be considered as well, which includes the overall portrayal of women. Women should not be obligated to live up to cultural standards which include being a housewife. In the many cultures including the Hispanic culture it is expected for a woman to cook and clean and basically do all of the house work while the man works and provides for the family. It is this exact standard that is included in Real Women Have Curves when Ana’s mother is discouraging her own daughter from attending a great college with a full ride scholarship. Ana’s mother is telling her daughter that no man is going to marry her if she does not loose weight. Basically her only expectations for Ana is to have her get married, work, and raise a family just as she did. However, Ana knows that she does not want that for her future and goes against her mother’s expectations and attends college. Ana did it for herself, and she did it for her family. Ana’s situation represents the same situation that many young girls go through that still have families that expect them to conform to their cultural standards of being a woman. In Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising, Jean Kilbourne states, “The aspect of advertising most in need of analysis and change is the portrayal of women. Scientific studies and the most casual viewing yield the same conclusion: women are shown almost exclusively as housewives or sex objects.” Jean Kilbourne brings up the fact that the media has a lot to do with how women are expected to be housewives by the way they are depicted in advertisements, she is right however, these standards have stemmed from distant generations and it is difficult to break free from standards like this when they have been passed down from generation to to