The Media's Influence On Latina Women

In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria,” Judith Ortiz Cofer illustrates several hardships she suffered due to the universal, misleading stereotypes propagated by the media. Cofer demonstrates various stereotypes that Latin women are subjected to, such as an experience in which she was regarded as a waitress at a California restaurant, and “the Hispanic woman as the ‘Hot Tamale’ or sexual firebrand” (63).She also states that she was taught to act like a woman when she was a teenager and encouraged to dress maturely, which made her peers laughed at her (64). At the end of the article, Cofer concludes that she hopes to change the

Both of these essays reflect on facing prejudice with a particular audience in mind: Cofer’s intended demographic is white men, while Staples is addressing society as a whole, but particularly white women. Cofer wants men to know that Latina women are not the sexual deviants they are stereotyped as; they are not simply the “whore,

Society and the media have an enormous influence on an individual’s concept of beauty and bodily perfection. Even the “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” many people allow the media’s influence into their lives, which is a dangerous thing to allow (Vogel, 2015). According to David Newman, author of Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, society is defined as the “population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members fall under the same political authority” (Newman, 2010, 18). The people within a society constantly create and add to the pressure already placed on individuals which can severely alter and harm one’s self-esteem. Self-esteem is

Stereotypes are dangerous weapons in our society. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” is a short essay in which the award winning poet and professor of English, Judith Ortiz Cofer, wishes to inform and persuade the audience that labels and stereotypes can be humiliating and hurtful. The author targets the general public, anyone that doesn’t understand that putting someone in a box because of a stereotype is wrong. Cofer starts out the essay by telling the reader a story with a drunk man who re-enacted “Maria” from the West Side Story, and how angry that made her feel. She continues by explaining how she grew up in the United States being a Puerto Rican girl trying to fit in, but always being labeled as an island girl. Cofer carries on by explaining why Latin people get dressed and act a certain way. Then she recalls some more stereotypical incidents.

This highlights that Chicanas prefer Chicanos more than they prefer each other; they perpetuate gender hierarchy by constantly placing males above females. Chicanas fear the criticism they will endure if they defy gender boundaries. Joan Riviere addresses this phenomenon in her essay “Womanliness as a Masquerade. Her essay explores the discomfort that woman feel when they act outside of the boundaries established by a male dominated society. In one example, she describes a

The Myth of a Latin Woman is the story of a young woman, Judith Ortiz Cofer, living in America as a Puerto Rican immigrant. No matter how far she tries to get from her Puerto Rican side the Island never leaves her. She shares that being clearly Latina, in her experience, can gain you some polite of attention or it can lead to a rude distancing. This is due to the fact that there are so many differences between American culture and Latin culture, which can also lead to awkward social interactions. A very obvious difference in the cultures is clothing and styles of dress. Not knowing how to properly dress for social occasion in American culture left Ortiz Cofer extremely uncomfortable and self conscious. As she grew she learned more about the stereotypes that are placed on her for being Latina. Although she had a hard time when she was growing up, Ortiz Cofer still became successful and showed that anyone can do the same thing.

What is the image of the male Latino American in the media today in television, in the movies, and in other media? Is the male Latino represented fairly in American media? And if he is often presented as a stereotype, why is he portrayed in stereotypical situations? The answers to those questions come from a number of sources that will be presented in this paper.

The physical portrayal of Hispanic women in the media has a large influence on the Hispanic women and girls that view these portrayals. The media’s physical portrayal of Hispanic women is that they are voluptuous, dark-haired, tanned skin, and petite. There are many films, TV shows, and any other media outlets that portray Hispanic women as such. Examples of these portrayals are “Modern Family,” “Maid in Manhattan,” and “Girl in Progress.” In each of these movies or shows, the main character appears as the stereotypical Hispanic woman. This is what many Hispanic women and girls believe that the world sees them as. They also believe that this is how they should look. This especially affects adolescent girls that identify as Hispanic. “media use may play a role in the body image development of Latina adolescents” (Schooler, 2008, p. 134). Most of the time when watching television, Latinas see a white woman and their beauty standards. The difference between white women in the media as opposed to Latin women is that there is a greater variety of how white women in the U.S. look. When a Latina finally sees someone who is Latina, they expect to see themselves, instead, they see Eva Mendes, long wavy hair, curvy, and petite. When young Latin women see this, they expect themselves to be the same way. If they don’t look like that, it can result in a spoiled body image of themselves. “Latina women in this sample tended to hold the lowest perceptions of their bodies, the highest awareness of Consumerism as a factor in the body/beauty standard, and scored high in racial identification” (Poran, 2002, p. 79) Latin women understand who they are and when someone is of the same background. Many are also self-conscious about their bodies, and that is likely due to the fact that not only are actresses on TV shows thin and curvy, but many commercials are about the newest way to lose weight rapidly, or what to buy to get curves. All women of any race have issues with body Image, but as a Latina, the media plays a big role in how Latinas form their body image.

The Latina women, even throughout the era resistance cinema, have not been able to make much progress in overcoming the degrading stereotypes that Hollywood has created for them. Despite the many advances that minorities have made in the cinema in recent years, Latina actresses still take on the roles of the "dark skinned lady" and other such stereotypes with strong sexual connotations. It is often debatable whether or not the role of the Latina has undergone dramatic changes since the days of Dolores Del Rio and Carmen Miranda dancing with the fruit baskets on top of their heads. However, in recent years there has been an emphasis by various Latinas in the film industry to combat such stereotypical roles and redefine themselves

The cause of these stereotypes are because of the culture of Puerto Ricans. Judith gives three anecdotes regarding her stereotypical experiences. In the three anecdotes she calls out specific audiences: educated people, Americans, and men. The author states that how Puerto Ricans “dress up” becomes an interpretation for men as a “come on”. The author also states that professional people, rich people, overall Americans conclude that Latin women are not educated because of the cultural

In the story, “The Myth of the Latin Woman”, Judith Ortiz, an English professor at University of Georgia, tells us her story of growing up in in New Jersey and juggling Puerto Rican and American cultures. She tells her childhood story, how she was raised in comparison to how her school friends were brought up. She speaks about the Puerto Rican culture and how that the conflicting messages she received affected her life throughout her childhood and teen years. She also shows examples of how people tend to look at Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics: the women are “hot tamales” and ripe for sexual conquests or people look down their noses and only see them as maids and waitresses. Oritz is taking her education and making it her job to demolish

To begin with, I approached the assignment as more than just a paper to give in to my english teacher but instead a vessel in which I can express my actual ideas. Although it may sound funny, I perceived this assignment as myself arguing with someone, trying to get my points across. Because of this, I had to picture who I was arguing against or trying to make a point to. For my specific essay, I visualized two kinds of people. Since I knew I wanted to address the effect of a Latina being sexualized in media, I figured the reader needed to be exposed to media in order to understand the problem. This audience in particular was around my age group as most teens are heavily involved with social media. The next group of people were in the opposite

In today’s society, there are intricate and subtle racial patterns in the mass media that show how powerful images play a significant role in shaping the attitudes of Whites toward Blacks. White Americans, they show, learn about African Americans not through personal relationships, but through the images shown by the media. . In short, they conclude that although there are more images of African-Americans on television now than ever, these images are often harmful to the prospect of unity between the races. With the advancement of technology such as advertisement, there has always been a stereotypical view of how women are portrayed in the media. For hundreds of years, women have been viewed as sexual objects in the eyesight of many

The assimilation of black culture is no stranger to American society. For example, society tells African Americans that their hairstyle of choice is undesirable and distasteful, but applauds that hairstyle when it appears on a white body as a “trend”. Or how the Kardashian's enhanced features are seen as new feet of beauty, while the natural features of a black woman if either fetishized over or seen as overwhelming. Some can argue that society simply “admires” these features. What these people fail to realize, however, is that when a black body is assumed or their trades “borrowed”, their black experience and struggles are erased for the sake of entertainment and pleasure of their white counterparts.

Hollywood viewed Latina women negatively. Latin American women are often portrayed in American cinema and television usually as overemotional, sexual objects or stupid and ignorant people. The Hollywood roles that portrayed Latin women translate them being passive, feeble, unintelligent, and dependent on their men. They are often stereotyped with less authority, such as housemaids, servants and prostitutes. Berumen motions that women were not only object of ethnic stereotypes but also outright sexist misrepresentation (p.12) This all goes back to the affect of the Spanish colonialism as it affected the way that women are viewed and portieres nowadays. According to Ovalle, the myth of the Hollywood Latina buries the colonial and imperial history