Graduation Year
Spring 2014
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Department
Gender and Women's Studies
Second Department
English
Reader 1
Piya Chatterjee
Reader 2
Melissa Hidalgo
Rights Information
© 2014 Anna L. Petkovich
Abstract
This dual thesis seeks to explore the implications of socioeconomic class position for the formation of gender and sexual identities. Utilizing social theories of class and gender, I suggest that because a disadvantageous class location frames social relations in terms of privilege and movement, gender and sexual identities are thus similarly conceptualized; effectively, gender performance and sexual behaviors become attached to notions of value and movement. I turn to Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street to think through the nuances of such an argument, highlighting the experiences of foiled characters Sally and Esperanza to realize how classed confines and gendered expectations literally and figuratively shape their understandings of social relations and movement.
Recommended Citation
Petkovich, Anna L., ""Her Power is Her Own": Classed Confines, Gendered Expectations, and Questions of Social Movement in The House on Mango Street" (2014). Scripps Senior Theses. 414.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/414
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
