“Indeed, Moraga allows her play to speak back to the many versions of the tale that only replicate false notions that a woman would sacrifice a child to simply spite a partner: ‘The official version was a lie…Who would kill their kid over some man dumping them? It wasn’t a strong enough reason. And yet everyone from Anaya to Euripides was telling us so. Well, if traición was the reason, could infanticide then be retaliation against misogyny, an act of vengeance not against one man, but man in general for a betrayal much graver than sexual infidelity: the enslavement and deformation of our sex? (2000, 145)’”  (48).

I found the segments in Tanya Gonzales’s piece “The (Gothic) Gift of Death in Cherríe Moraga’s ‘The Hungry Woman'” particularly noteworthy as it explains the reasoning behind Moraga’s attempt to flesh out to mad-mother archetype. I felt that the murder of Chac-Mool did convey this sentiment, as Medea is constantly broken by men, she would rather have a son immortalized as a boy through death than see him live to become a man.

Through a feminist reading of this novel, her decision is not quite as far-fetched as we’d like to think. Often, women who do not comply with the  hetero-normative, feminine ideal are marginalized or looked down upon. Essentially, a socially acceptable role for a woman is to be a good wife and mother. Moraga expands upon this with Medea, as she was not stereotypically domestic; she was a revolutionary, and, in the end, not a traditional mother.

Moraga and Gonzalez also explore the idea of the virgin-whore dichotomy that is typical of our patriarchal society today. This is exemplified in Mexican/Chicana/o culture by “good women/mothers” being like the Virgin Mary, and “bad women/mothers” being the blood traitor La Malinche, playing “the whore” to Cortez (51). Moraga states that women who “do not conform to the expectations of the patriarchy” are labeled “whore/witch/dyke/madwoman” which can be seen in the play through the discrimination towards homosexual people and their eventual removal. This has been seen throughout many of the works we have read in class: Concepcion’s refusal to be emotionally subservient helps label her as a witch (‘Calligraphy of the Witch’), Luna is not traditionally feminine so she is considered a dyke (‘The Hungry Woman’), Ultima’s intelligence (regarding medicine) makes her a witch (‘Bless Me, Ultima), Medea is a whore because she is open with her sexual nature, and is also mad because she could not stand to see her son become someone who will dominate her. In essence, these labels are put on anyone who challenges the patriarchy.

In fact, the myths this play is based on conform and support a patriarchal society. Because the women kill their children to spite a lover, it suggests that all women’s lives revolve around men and that little is more important to them. Moraga skillfully plays on this by fleshing out Medea as a victim of a patriarchal society, not a member of it. As someone who has had their life destroyed by men, it makes sense that Medea would find less pain in her son dying than of him becoming another person that will oppress her.