Latina Stereotypes

Latina Women in the media <--- Link to Article

Bell Hooks speaks about Hip Hop and rap music and concentrates on the effect of this stereotypical black culture and it effects of women. Media creates stereotypes of all types of women, one example is the Latina women and the roles she can't get out of in popular culture.

I showed a few women the website and asked them how they felt about the stereotypes their culture falls into, most were amused some were offended. 

Gaby, 24

Born: Honduras

Raised: Queens, NY.

"I dont know. I think that its important for all women to be sexy and proud of being beautiful but I feel like there is a lot of pressure for Latina women to fall into this seductive role. Growing up if you didn't have tits and ass then you were going to die alone.... okay that is kind of extreme but thats how we felt.

Christina, 22

Born: Puerto Rico 

Raised: Ridgewood, NJ

"You almost never see Latina women in shows being quiet or ugly or alone. We all have something funny to say witha  white boyfriend and a short dress on. Ok its funny I give it that but I'm not into acting like that and people call me "white", acting like your culture doesn't make you where your from, there are loud and quite people from all different backgrounds. Stereotypes are there for a resin, a lot of Latina women act like Gloria but its a small percentage that take the spotlight."

In my short essay I spoke about Modern Family and Gloria. 

Gloria is the second wife to Jack, Claire and Mitchell's father. She is decades younger than him, is very concerned with how she looks and  doesn't contribute to the family financially. Gloria doesn’t only represent women in a non-modern light, she also represents latino women in a light that stereotypes the culture. Like Claire, Gloria doesn’t have an income to contribute to her family, she relies on Jack for living. according to the US labor bureau 70.7 percent of women with children who are six to seventeen years of age are employed, neither Gloria or Claire have jobs in this series. Being a women and not having a job isn’t the worse lifestyle a television show could represent but when the theme is held throughout the show it becomes something to look into.

Gloria is represented as a character through her colombian culture. “Gloria's character embodies perceptions many Americans have regarding Latin American women, such as being "'passive', 'dependent on men'... 'hot-tempered',... and 'sexy'". This stereotype that Gloria embodies doesn't do anything to challenge the norm of what her character could be. In a way it is just safe on the series’s part to make the audience feel content with Jay remarrying. the fact that there is a age difference and that she is much more commercially more attractive than him turns back time and allows for the assumption that women need to concentrate on their looks in order to be accepted or become married to a successful man. Claire and Gloria are suppose to be opposites and represent the clash between two different cultured women but when broken down they both lead stereotypes on the surface but broken down they represent women of a time the series is trying to progress.