Essay Rough Draft

Women have always been controlled throughout history. From the Salem Witch Trials where men accused women of being witches to keep them quiet and in line, to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade where women had a large part of their bodily autonomy taken away. Men seek to control women in any way possible. From stories to make women seem evil and dangerous, to laws that keep women from having abortion which used to be a natural right. If men can’t control women, they will not be able to maintain the power they have held for all of history.

A great example of how men look to control women is seen in the folktale La Llorona. Coming from the 1800s and possibly even earlier, this folktale tells the story of the most beautiful woman in Mexico and how she ended up marrying a powerful man. The man abused the woman and abandoned her and her two children for another woman. Jealousy and rage took over the woman’s mind as she killed her two children and, depending on the version you are reading, kills herself or is executed by the town. The original moral of this story is a warning against the power of jealousy and how women can become dangerous when overwhelmed with jealousy. This is basically a cautionary tale to women to stay level headed no matter what happens to them. This is a wild lesson considering her husband was the one who abandoned her, and she is supposed to stay calm and forgive him. Men don’t care about protecting women from themselves, they care about controlling them. The men who decided Roe v. Wade was a dangerous law that needed to be overturned had the mindset that women were killing their children and need to be stopped. Why do men feel this way? Why is it a problem that they feel the need to speak when it isn’t their bodies being affected.

Different versions of La Llorona tell the story a little differently. There are many versions of La Llorona, spanning many cultures, morals, and writers. Most versions of the story have relations back to Aztec goddesses like La Malinche. The original story is the one described above. A woman marries a powerful man, they have children, and he abandons her for another woman. In retaliation, she drowns her children and then kills herself, going on to haunt waterways and take revenge on other children who remind her of her children. La Llorona, though she has origins in Mexico, does not remain there for the whole of her afterlife. She travels around southern states haunting Hispanic people wherever they go. Another popular version of this tale is the song “La Llorona” which tells the story of a man who feels trapped by a woman who is madly in love with him. He sings about trying with everything in him to leave her, but he cannot due to the immense pity he feels for her. The suffering the man goes through at the hands of Llorona parallels the suffering Llorona goes through at the hands of her husband in the original tale.

Is it possible that La Llorona could be partially based in fact? Many people throughout history have reported sightings of the weeping woman. People all over the southern part of America have come forward with their own stories of encounters with La Llorona. They either have encountered her or have seen her apparition. Some even hear her calling out to her children. I must wonder if these cases have any truth, or they are just tall tales to scare children and gain traction for the already very popular tale of the weeping woman.

Roe v. Wade is a much more current example of men having control over women. Roe v. Wade is a court case that allowed women their right to terminate their pregnancy in cases of rape, not being able to properly care for a child, or if giving birth would be dangerous or fatal to the mother. Abortion is just something women can do to protect themselves and be able to continue their lives without the work and financial responsibilities of a baby. In 2021, the decision was made to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away thousands of women’s right to abortion and making way for the total ban of abortion nationally. The main reason this law was overturned is because once fetuses begin to form features and have a heartbeat, it is seen as a human, and it is deemed unlawful to kill them. As of now, people are saying that unformed embryos are people. Lawmakers are also trying to charge women for murder and if they are found getting abortions they will be sent to jail.

Over time La Llorona has evolved into a cautionary tale, warning children to stay away from bodies of water and to prevent them from staying out too late. I believe this change was adapted as a product of the times. I think it became more necessary as women started gaining more rights to empower them and as children became the center of many people’s lives, it became necessary to protect them. This is a fear mongering tactic that scares children and, in a way, controls them. La Llorona seems to have shifted from controlling women to controlling men. Different adaptations of the story say different things and many different lessons can be interpreted from them, but I believe these are two of the most solid morals to take away.

The way women have been controlled through history by men in power and lies told to villainize them needs to be investigated more. There is a reason that men are at the top of the food chain, they always have been, and they don’t want their power to be taken away. When they

sense women are gaining too much power, running for president, and taking up places in politics, they feel they need to knock them down a peg. Why is it that we haven’t had a woman president? Why is it just now that men feel the need to overturn laws giving women bodily autonomy? Why do men fear women and feel the need to push their ideals onto others? Answering these questions will bring us closer to a solution. Nothing is going to change unless we stand up and make a change ourselves.