Throughout "Aurora" so far, there have been many instances of the protagonist, Aurora, being seen as somewhat of a perfect, idealized version of a woman who fulfills the desires of men, rather than most of the women in the show. No matter what Aurora does or says, the men in the show are enchanted by her beauty and immediately fall for her, regardless of whether there is a true connection. The women, on the other hand, are painted as jealous and resent Aurora. Her sister and her friends from the past all want the worst for her, and she doesn't seem to care about others' emotions as much as her own and that of her boyfriend from 20 years ago. I feel this depiction of Aurora being so sought after by the men in the show demonstrates an example of the "male gaze" that is often seen in telenovelas as a genre in general. It is almost as if the writers of the show are in love with the character of Aurora themselves. Aurora is not meant to be written as a human, flawed woman, but an idealized beauty plagued with naivety that the men in the show pine after.
It seems that Aurora is written to be very simple and does not have a lot of complexity to her which is unfortunately how a lot of shows are. I am curious though, does your supposed villain have a more complex personality and have more reasonable flaws and attributes? Or does she also seem as simply written to just hate Aurora. I do feel like in a lot of shows/telenovelas the female protagonists are written to be beyond attainable perfection, which can be annoying sometimes because it inflicts a negative attitude towards women who are not perfection.
ReplyDeleteThe male gaze is written into almost every show ever, but I think it's somewhat improved throughout the years. Popular shows/movies on Netflix have been trying to be more open and inclusive, though it does seem forced... But A for effort. I think that in almost all of the melodramas that our class is watching, the main protagonist is attractive, but like Izzy explained, they also have a beauty to them reflected in the show that is unattainable.
ReplyDeleteI find it unfortunate like Izzy that many shows continue to characterize the female lead as having "unattainable beauty" because that will lead to certain beauty standards in society. I also am curious as to why Aurora retained caring feelings towards her ex-boyfriend, and why she is apathetic towards other people? Is there some underlying backstory as to why she shows little care for others, besides her ex-boyfriend? I can also see that Aurora represents the common trope of being a "naive and beautiful woman". I do believe contemporary shows are starting to stray from these tropes, but I do hope that as you progress into the show that Aurora holds more complexity than this trope, or perhaps this complexity can be unearthed from her past.
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