Hot, Sexy, and Stereotyped: The Relationship Between Latina Representations on TV and their Audiences

Date

2016-05-05

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Abstract

The women in this study are described as sexy, fiery, and loud, and those adjectives exist in the context of the situations in which they present themselves. These three adjectives specifically carry negative connotations, put in place by society. But what do these adjectives really mean? That we associate beauty, spiritedness, high energy and outspokenness with Latinas is not a bad thing. However, the characters in the shows are not necessarily rewarded for or accepted because of these behaviors. When a Latina character is beautiful, a façade is created that she is being rewarded. Men look at her and are nicer to her; the camera angles literally take in every curve. The audience, our society, is conditioned to consider this attention a reward. We do not simply acknowledge her beauty and move on to her other redeeming qualities. Instead we dwell on, we fixate on it. This is a problem. When we call the character “fiery,” we are not considering what is being done to trigger such a heated reaction. This is a problem. When we call the character “loud” we are acknowledging the tone and sound of her voice, but not what she is actually saying . This is a problem. These problems illustrate how the Latinas are represented in dismissive, objectifying and shallow ways. All these are problems that have inspired this research.

Description

Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Alfred University Honors Program.

Keywords

Honors thesis, Stereotypes, Latin Americans, Women

Citation

DOI