After reading the section about gender and
pop culture, I get to know more about the minority group of celebrity stars in
the current media. After reading the articles by Mary C. Beltran, my
understanding about Jennifer Lopez further increased. I think Beltran did a
great job of explaining how Jennifer Lopez crossover over to the mainstream as
a Puerto Rican by using her rear end. As we discussed in class, Jennifer Lopez
used her rear end as a commodity to promote herself in the media. Moreover, she
knows her strength as how to create her empire. Since Jennifer Lopez is one of
the first minority celebrity stars to become popular in the media, she became a
role model for the others in regardless of who she is. As Beltran stated in the
article, “Lopez continuously stated that she felt no need to change her body in
order to attain success as a Hollywood actress” (Beltran, 2009). This is one of
the reasons that Jennifer Lopez keeps her status in the Hollywood because she
embraces her heritage and proud of who she is. Even though she keeps the body
style that she holds, she tries to cross over into the American popular culture
by dying her hair into blonde. However, looking at the current media, who is
still dominating the whole Hollywood in terms of crossing over into which
mainstream?
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ReplyDeleteThere are lots of celebrities who crossover into mainstream American popular culture. Beyonce is a celebrity who I thought of immediately for being whitewashed in the media. She is an African American woman who has a medium complexion but for an L'Oreal hair color advertisement, her skin color was lightened and her hair was dyed lighter, almost blonde. In this ad she looks like a white woman and not like herself at all. This is something I’ve seen done repeatedly in the media with women who are of color. Their skin color is digitally lightened to appear whiter, more “American.”
ReplyDeleteI think it is very true that most of the advertisements that presents the model as flawless and appear whiter, which is more "American". The advertising firms used these idealized models on the cover or for a certain product in order to let the consumers to buy the products, which I think is misleading at some point. One of the reasons is because as a consumer, it is normal for wanting to become the flawless one as what is showing on the ad. Everyone wants to be the most outstanding one; therefore, what the media portrayed is what they are pursing for.
DeleteI think in order to break into Hollywood, women that are different from the typical "white" actress commodify their otherness to be looked at as different and interesting. For example, Jennifer Lopez used her rear end to make herself stand out from all the other actresses and singers in Hollywood at that time. Sofia Vergara is another example because she flaunts her curvy latina body and heavy accent to be different. The interesting thing is though that once these women use their "otherness" to break into the media, once they are a part of the Hollywood world they completely change their look to become more "white" and to look like the rest of the celebrities. It just goes to show how as a culture we are fascinated by people that look exotic or different, but in order to truly accept them they must inevitably look just like us. This is a huge problem and I hope the media starts to recognize this and not let it be as accepted as it is today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment that in order to break into Hollywood, women must commodify their otherness as to be different. Before, different race women that are different from the typical "white" actress are willing to use their body as a commodity to cross over into the mainstream. However, after I watched the MVA performance by Miley Cyrus that she used her typical white race to show the other side of herself that was totally different to whom she was before. The question that I was wondering about is "are the media trying to portray the "otherness" as a trend rather than having the "whiteness" as the superior one for the Hollywood actresses. As this questions proposed, it interrelated back to the questions that I had on the post, who is still dominating the whole Hollywood in terms of crossing over into which mainstream ".
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