La Virgen is an undeniably reputable and famous symbol in the Mexican household. La Virgen is displayed as the “ideal” woman, she is pure and innocent. Due to this, it has created a gender norm among Chicanas and how women should strictly behave and look like. Showing too much skin women is demeaning and that women should be respectful of their bodies. Furthermore, Guadalupe represents motherhood, the dress covering her depicts that she is pregnant, prepurating the gender norm that women only serve as a purpose to reproduce. Lopez bends those gender norms and refigures Guadalupe by showing her legs with open-toed heels. The art piece is called Walking Guadalupe (1978); Yolanda Lopez notably utilizes a lot of satire in her artwork. She challenges Patriarchy and Machismo in our communities. Women are capable of their own bodies and should never listen to anybody but themselves to do whatever they want with their bodies. Our bodies have no entitlement other than ourselves.
I resonate deeply with Yolanda and why she chose to do this particular piece. Girls are still being looked down upon with what they chose to do with their bodies. As silly as this sounds but my grandma still tells me to pull down my dress or shorts, even though they are not that high. This kind of goes to show that this is still prevalent in my community. Girls and women are shamed because of how much skin they show and it should never be questioned. Women should do whatever and wear whatever they want. Men are not shamed for this, why should women go through this?
I too have experience my elders and other people I respect call me out for wearing things that "show too much skin". I think the line is drawn where things might be inappropriate for a dress code, which is usually in place for men as well. An example would be wearing white to a wedding that is not yours. I am ok with there being dress codes whether conservative, or clubby, or what you would wear to church. But there is no reason to judge an outfit based on how much skin it shows since the same clothes can look a lot different on different people. There is a time and place for certain outfits, but it has nothing to do with how much skin is shown.
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