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Stereotypes of Hispanic females in film
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History of how hispanic and latinos are portrayed in hollywood films
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The Negative Portrayal of Latino Women in American Films
From the early ages of American film, Latino women have been portrayed in a negative light. Has this image changed over the years? The answer to this question is left up to the viewer, but there is one thing that has not changed in the portrayal of Latino women in American film. That is the clear distinction between two stereotypes of Latino women; the "innocent, passive Madonna" and the "hot blooded, fiery, sexy whore". In the case of the hot-blooded tamale, these images date back to the 1930’s in Lupe Velez and to the present Rosie Perez. Dolores Del Rio and Maria Montez represent the virgin Senorita. (Rodriguez 75-7) These are just some of the actresses that have portrayed characters that fit into these two stereotypes. Other actresses include Carmen Miranda, Natalie Wood, and Rita Moreno. These actresses are featured in the following films, West Side Story, Flying Down to Rio, Mexican Spitfire, and White Men Can't Jump. These two stereotypes have been carried out in American cinema from the thirties to today and are a common theme in many films.
The stereotype of Latino women in American film has always been one of two; "(1) Madonna- the innocent, passive, virginal Maria; or (2) Whore- the hot-blooded, fiery, sexy Anita." (Rodriguez 75) Rodriguez refers to the characters, Maria and Anita, in the musical West Side Story, which chronicles the happenings inside a Puerto Rican gang. Maria, played by Natalie Wood, is the sister of the gang leader. Natalie Wood was not a Latina actress, but born an American in California to Russian parents. She is a very naïve, beautiful Latina, who can not help falling in love with a rival Caucasian gang member.
Maria, the name whic...
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...n, dir. White Men Can’t Jump. Perf. Woody Harrelson and
Wesley Snipes. 1992
7. Lichter, S. Robert and Amundson, Daniel R. "The Silver Screen: Stories and
Stereotypes". Rodriguez 75-77. Rodriguez, Clara, ed. Latin Looks. Boulder: Westview,
1998.
8. Ramirez-Berg, Charles. "Stereotyping in Films in General and of the Hispanic in
Particular." Rodriguez 109-115.
9. Rios-Bustamante. "Latino Participation in Hollywood, 1911-45".Chon 21.
Noriega, Chon A. ed. Chicanos and Film. Minneapolis: Minnesota, 1992.
10. Rodriguez inset.
11. Sanchez, Alberto Sandoval. "West Side Story: A Puerto Rican Reading of
‘America’". Rodriguez 164-179
12. West Side Story. Writ. William Shakespeare, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and
Ernest Lehman. Dir. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. United Artists and Beta
Productions, 1961.
As showed in the film, Latino American often misrepresented and underrepresented both in front of and under the camera. American Hispanic often portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, greasy and criminal. Hispanic women often pictured comfortable sexuality as prostitution in film production; while Hispanic actors limit to criminal characters such as drug dealers, gangster, and provide the power for the white American. Audiences have less interaction with Latino in their real world might be easily framed by media images regarding the race and ethnicity. The lack of Hispanic history and culture understanding allows these media portrayals to change and form unfavorable behavior and attitude against Latino communities.
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
Most classical society’s political and social organization revolved around the idea of patriarchy, a male dominated social system. This system exacerbated the inherit difference between men and woman and assigned gender roles based on these observations. Men were generally regarded as superior to woman therefore given greater religious and political roles as well as more legal rights. As the natural inverse, women were subordinated and seen as week; their main roles reproductive and domestic. Information about patriarchy in the classical era, though abundant, was, for the most part, written by men, therefore history does not give us an accurate depiction of women’s viewpoints. Four societies of the classical era, India, China, Greece, and Rome, adopted a patriarchal system, however, due to many factors, each developed identifiable characteristics.
In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows readers how irresponsibility and the excessive need for knowledge can cause suffering among others as well as oneself. Victor never intends to cause such harm; however, he is not cautious and observant with his actions, which ultimately leads to his classification as a tragic hero. The desire to learn is most definitely a wonderful trait to have, as long as one’s knowledge doesn’t reach the extent that Victor Frankenstein’s unfortunately does.
The stories of Sandra Cisnero center on the ideas that Mexican-American women have a hard time dividing themselves between two separate worlds, countries and cultures. Traditionally, Mexican and Chicano women are quiet, obedient and not sexual. American women are outgoing, do their best to be different from traditional standards and have freedom in their sex lives. In the stories “Woman Hollering Creek” and “Never Marry a Mexican,” this separation is explored in the mode of strong, female characters. The analysis shows that the struggle for a Mexican-American woman is real in modern times, but can be overcome with a strong female identity – as a woman undefined by her ethnic background.
The Roman Empire had a social system that was based on autonomy, heredity, citizenship and property as well as distinguishing men and women by their social status. The women had the lowest position in society which were depended on the status of their husbands and fathers. They lacked independence and ...
...e seeking help and strength to take care of problems in their lives. Victor Frankenstein is a man with a loving and caring family. Family and friends are an important part of his life. He has his whole life in front of him, when creates his monster. He creates the monster in the likeness of man with same need of love and affection as man. Although, this is his creation, he lets the monster down and does not care for him. The monster begins to feel neglected and lonely and wants desperately to have a human relationship. The monster turns angry and revengeful because he is so sad and abandoned. He wants Victor to feel the way that he does, all alone. The monster succeeds and Victor ends up losing all the important in his life and his own life. In the end, the monster dies and the need for human relationship becomes the destruction for both the monster and Victor.
Judith Ortiz Cofer, a professor of english and creative writing, tackles gender roles as well as cultural stereotypes in “ The Myth of the Latin Woman” and challenges them by attempting to replace the stereotypes with the realities. In “The Myth of the Latin Woman” Cofer discusses her life in America as a Puerto Rican woman. She also shares her stories of when she was stereotyped and how gender roles play a role in how Latinos are viewed. Stereotypes will follow you around because of your appearance and how the media portrays Latinas.
This is shown in the article, “Latinos in Mainstream Media Are a Disappearing Act: The Latino Media Gap Crisis”, ”Based upon both qualitative and quantitative data, and utilizing a range of resources from the U.S. Census to interviews with top industry executives, the key findings of the “Latino Media Gap” report include...Latino stereotypes are prevalent in mainstream the media and they restrict opportunities for Latino talent, as well as the public perception of this racial/ethnic group” (Main). This means the roles and the portrayal of Mexican-Americans in the media are damaging their reputations and feeding the false stereotypes already presented in the media today. This could potentially create a society where it is even harder to gain equality for all races, then is already present. While it seems like a large accomplishment, to be represented in the media, especially in lead roles, not many of those roles are ‘good roles’, “By the 1980s, however, Latinos increasingly replaced blacks as Hollywood’s domestics. The 1987 TV show “I Married Dora” was even about a man who married his Latina housekeeper to prevent her from being deported. Even megastar Jennifer Lopez played a housekeeper in 2002’s “Maid in Manhattan,” a romantic comedy reminiscent of the Cinderella fairy tale. The late actress Lupe Ontiveros estimated that she played a maid as many as 150 times on screen. In 2009, Ontoveros told
The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, an essay written by Judith Ortiz Cofer, discusses the racial stereotypes Cofer struggles with as a Latin woman who travels across America. Throughout her life, Cofer discusses her interactions with people who falsely misjudge her as a Latin woman. Additionally, Cofer mentions other Hispanic women she has met in her life, who also suffer with racial assumptions. Although several people would disagree with Cofer and claim that she is taking racial remarks too seriously, racial stereotyping is a significant issue that should not be overlooked in our society. People should not base someone’s worth by their outward appearance or their ethnic background.
Some stereotypes of Latinas are housemaids, house cleaner, Mexicans. Alicia Machado was Miss Universe in 1996, “Trump to ask Machado and Miss Universe staff -- who Machado said were often aghast -- 'who she thought she was, ' on multiple occasions. In both angry conversations and casual ones, Trump referred to Machado as Miss Piggy, Miss Housekeeper,’ and Miss Housekeeping,’ who should know her place and do as she was told. He said it to her face. And he said it to Miss Universe staff” (CNN Politics by Daniel Diaz) it interferes with Latinas identity. Latina actresses take on roles of being maids or being minor roles, for example, in Family guy Consuela is a house cleaner who cleans everyone houses she is portrayed as a an middle age Mexican women that can 't not speak English and speaks broken English she called everyone “Mr.” and “Mrs.” and uses incorrect sentences always wears a uniform and rubber cleaning gloves and spends most of her time asking for “Le-mohn Pledge” while walking around spraying everything with Windex she seen as stereotypical Latina housemaid. In one episode, the Griffin family’s youngest son Stewie Griffin (the talking baby) accuses Consuela of stealing his play money (with yet another stereotype that all maids are thieves. Not just Hispanic women portrayed horribly, but black women even in the media are portrayed negatively they are given names as Baby Mamas, Gold
The Latino women and girls in the novel are extremely concerned about their appearances, because they feel that if they aren't attractive then they won't be noticed by men, and they are raised to believe that they need a man to fulfil their life, and that they need a husband to support them, and if they don't look attractive then they are not going to be noticed, and if they are not noticed, then they think they won't end up getting married. A good example of this is Marin. When Marin talks about a real job Marin says that the best place to work is downtown, not because of the work that is there, but because "you always get to look beautiful and were nice clothes." She also tells the girls that the only thing that matters is if your skirts are short, and your eyes are pretty, so that you are noticed by guys.
...erstood that the real monster was his ambition which led to his overall tragedy. He died miserable because of his pride; one could say he is selfish because when creating the creature he did not think of the benefit of others.
The social hierarchy of ancient Rome reflected these views of sex as a means in gaining political power where the elite upper class male possesses certain rights and powers that later allow him the personal gain of a valued wife. The value of a wife increased in this period of sex and power, now changing the responsibilities of the common housewife from domestic tasks to the responsibility of boosting the male kin’s careers behind the scenes, a useful pawn in the game of elite male politics. The growing power of women grew into their personal accounts as well at the same time trade influences luxury in Rome. This period of laziness and luxury formed the era of moral deprivation and in turn enforcing the social lows of sex within class and the negative implications of pederasty as well as homoeroticism. This constant interweaving of sex and politics creates this era of social hierarchy or rank and marriage as a means for political gain, all of which encompassing the great journey of the Roman population in their deviance from Greece and into the spotlight of mistress of the
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects. I...