Throughout the play, Blanche uses ideas of sexuality and beauty to try to escape the inevitability of death and in trying to escape it, the themes haunt her throughout. It appears that she believes loss of beauty through age is directly correlated to her desirability especially that of men younger than her. Yet she attributes her husband’s death to his homosexuality which adds an odd angle of the desires of the flesh leading to ones demise.
It appears that she is desperate for men to desire her as she feels this will somehow mean that she is not aging and therefore not approaching death itself, but this points to a greater idea of women’s dependence on men in post war America. While Blanche is an extreme and almost a caricature of this idea, it’s a good way to bring it to the attention of the audience without making light of such circumstances. 
Post war America made it almost impossible for a woman to live a full and successful life without the presence of a man in everything from money to land ownership. This idea would have been well known by any woman in the audience, but may have been looked over by a male viewer, so Blanche’s extreme dependence on men (which probably went over heads regardless) was a unique and artistic way to present this topic to show-going Americans of the time.
While not nearly as prevalent, such themes still exist– especially in American media where up until recently, the go-to fantasy of a girl was being a mother. This idea has recently shifted to being a bride and getting married, which still leans heavily on the presence of a man in a woman’s life to live the ideal American life. The themes that Blanche presents remain present but, in a modern way, can be skewed to be a somewhat negative depiction of women. In recent history we have seen a more positive depiction of sexuality, and the sexuality of women has become even something to be proud of while Blanche, as a character, puts a rather negative and even shameful spin on the sexuality of an aging women. While her character still brings to light themes worth addressing, her character as a whole has shifted with the passage of time.