Portrayal of women in the novel

Throughout the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude,  many marital and sexual relationships are described, some of which are incestuous and unacceptable in today's society. There are many instances where women are unfairly treated and abused like caged animals. This includes the little gypsy girl who has sex with 60 different men every night for money which is collected by the older gypsies. This illegal and underage prostitution gives us our first look into how girls and young women are treated like objects at times in the story. As the novel goes on, girls, especially younger ones that have just reached puberty seem to constantly be under attack and competed for by men. It feels like once one lover finally leaves a girl alone, another one comes in to take his spot. This situation is seen multiple times with Rebecca and men like Pietro Crespi and then Jose Arcasio and also Armanta and Pietro and then Colonel Gerineldo Márquez. There are so many other examples of this. But, in the end, the women find the right lover for them , and overall, it ends up in that the unconventional relationships that would be rejected in today's society end up being more happy and sympathetic. The women who keep to the traditional standards for women's behavior like Amaranta and Fernanda del Carpio tend to not have healthy relationships. Marquez might be trying to say that women have the freedom to love who they want and have the right and ability to marry whoever they choose, instead of being forced or won over in a fight among men. Marquez's liberal views allow him to look past traditional roles of women in society and criticizes past treatment of women that still exist today like in human trafficking, which he exposes in the story. I became very sympathetic towards the poor girls and young women who were mistreated, and it made me realize how so many men do not even think before they do terrible things that could have eternal consequences and punishment.