Mexican Women In The Media Essay

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Times have changed throughout the generations and the portrayal of women in the media has definitely changed over the years. Unfortunately, there is still a stereotypical appearance and social role in the media that women need to achieve in order to be socially desired. Even though it has improved, there is such a stigma towards being too fat, too skinny, too tall, or too short and the list of imperfections go on and on. Aside from body image, social roles are a big issue in the media today. When you look at any advertisement in the media, you can notice the appearance, gender, and race of the model. The media’s idea of the “perfect” body is having the unflawed and women are typically skewed for this by society.
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Latinas have not only been exposed negatively through stereotypes but they have also been largely ignored and excluded from most media within America. Society tends to assume Latinas only have long dark hair with curly a body and excluding the women with Afros, blue eyed, red hair Hispanics. Latinas are diverse group of people and features vary. To find a Latina in a magazine, the magazine generally must be directed towards the Hispanic community. Latina women are usually portrayed in the media as maids who barely speak proper English or sacrificing strict mothers. A great example of media stereotyping would be Sofia Vergara in Modern Family. When it comes to the body, representations usually adhere to a very specific construction of an authentic Latina curvy, but still thin and marked as sexually available. However, the lack of Latina diversity in the media setting contributes to the limitation of Latina youth potential. According to a study based on Census Bureau statistics, “the dropout rate for Latinas ages 16 to 24 is 30 percent compared with 8.2 percent for whites” (Perales ). The media can be placed as the main distributor that constructs this ideal image of the Latina image and perpetuates the cycle of negative body image and self-validation through sexually pleasuring

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