Female Sexuality on the Book The House on Mango Street

On the book The House on Mango Street Esperanza is a little girl that is affected by different situations. There are things that happened to her that shaped her as an individual and change her perspective of life. Female sexuality is a really strong topic where we can see how young females are affected with it and how they see it. Esperanza is a young virgin girl at the beginning of the book and she longs to have a sexual encounter for it is something new for her. She is just a child and things started to happen in her life and mind that prepared her for that special situation.

Esperanza and her friends think that by having sex they will become women, real women. Through out the book we see different situations with sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a big issue that has been taking over little girls’ minds and emotions. Esperanza and some other girls in the book are affected with sexual abuse and we can see how their perspective changes after that encounter. Esperanza is curious about sex, like her friends, she wants to become sexually active. I think that all of Esperanza’s friends consider sex as power. Some of the girls are sexually active and start dressing differently.

Big heals and mini skirts and really sensual clothes are some of the things that they wear. Esperanza envies them. They look so cool for Esperanza’s eyes. They are the best of the best, all the men want them and every time they pass by, men stare at them and desire to be having a sexual encounter with the girls and that’s what Esperanza wants. She wants to be desired by men. Sex is a really important part for Esperanza’s life. Her mind is virgin too for she doesn’t really know the consequences of being sexually active at that age. She doesn’t think about pregnancy.

She doesn’t think about what some men want, they don’t know what love is, they just want to use girls and go to bed with them but Esperanza doesn’t know that. She just thinks that if she is like those girls she will be happy. However when Esperanza was raped by some men, her perspective towards sex changed dramatically for now sex was not what she wanted. It was no longer what she most longed to have. Now she sees sex as something disgusting. Her first sex encounter was not as she expected. It was not nice at all and she didn’t feel passion or a nice feeling.

It was rather ugly and full of hate. Something she wouldn’t like to experience at all again. We can see how her mind, feelings, emotions and dreams changed. Everything changed because some men wanted to satisfy their needs with pleasure and did not think about what Esperanza wanted–They did not care. Another bad experience that Esperanza had with sexuality was when Esperanza goes to her first job. A man grabs her and kisses her forcing her to stay and he doesn’t let her go. He wanted her just for sexual reasons and didn’t care about what Esperanza wanted.

Esperanza has some friends to who she looks up to. One of them is Marina, a girl that sells make up and that has a bad reputation for she liked to get sexually involve with men. Even though people know Marina because of her closeness with men Esperanza still looks up to her and sees her as a very important person in her life. Another person that influences Esperanza is Sire. Even though Sire influences her indirectly because he is not telling her what to do, Sire touches his girlfriend Lois in a very special way.

In a way that Esperanza desires to be touched. She longs to have someone like Sire who would touch her as a real woman. Other girl that is sexually active is Sally. Sally finds comfort in sex for her father doesn’t give her love. Most of the people look for sex because in their lives they are needed for love. Sally’s dad hits her and makes her fell miserable. Esperanza’s little sister Nenny is a young girl that is growing and learning new things therefore Esperanza doesn’t want Nenny to meet her friends for they would be a bad influence.

Most of Esperanza’s friends are sexually active and thus she doesn’t want Nenny to learn all that. For women sex is one of the most valuable things in life. Their virginity is the most important thing and they protect it as much as they can and don’t give themselves to anyone. Esperanza thought like that—she desired to be touched and to have a sexual encounter with a man. Unfortunately all her dreams, passions, and longings got destroyed for her sexual encounters were not what she expected—men abused her.

For some men virginity is not that important, is easier for a man to lose virginity than a woman to lose it. Men can have sex almost with everyone but women not always do that. Thus men were the principal individuals that made Esperanza’s life hopeless, with no dreams and with no love. The desires men have finished with what Esperanza always dreamed of. I think that at a certain point women have control over men because women can create the desire men have. For instance when Esperanza and the girls dressed with high heels and nice dresses men went crazy. Like that Esperanza knew how to control men.

The negative part of controlling men and making them desire a woman is that sometimes things go out of control. Men are stronger than women and therefore it is easy for them to force women and do whatever they want with them. Thus women have certain power until men’s desires get in the way. Esperanza learned from her friends how to attract men they use their body, clothes and beauty and thus make men want them. But after she had all those terrible encounters with all those men, she learned that the control they have over men is limited and it can go out of control.