Monthly Archives: March 2017

Beltran

The article about media fascination with Jennifer Lopez’s butt was interesting, thought-provoking and just as relevant today as it was in 2002. I have heard and read extensively on social media regarding exoticization/fetishization, even objectification of ethnic (nonwhite) bodies, however, none of them do the job of explaining the problematic nature of this phenomena, as well as Mary Beltran does.

The author talks about how Jennifer Lopez essentially used her butt to stay relevant, market herself in US, and create a niche for herself in the still white-dominated industry. Crossover success is defined as someone from as the process of becoming popular with a new audience. Many stars from different ethnicities have tried to crossover into mainstream Hollywood, however, their success has been largely determined by how closely they were able to embody “the ideals of whiteness”. Their appearance (skin colour, facial features, body type – in other words perceived ethnicity) determined what roles they will get in films – the “star-making” protagonist or stereotyped/ethnically centred roles. In cases where the available Latina actresses did not conform to the white standards of beauty, white actors (eg. West Side Story) portrayed these Latina roles.

What this leads to is: other races must mold themselves to gain acceptance in the Western society. That doesn’t sound too unfair. But, the same isn’t true the other way around – White actors/actresses don’t necessarily have to change/mold themselves gain acceptance within other ethnic demographics. This creates a dominant culture/subservient culture dynamic. Given such “conditional acceptance” environment, it’s not hard to imagine why Lopez decided to use her curves for publicity during the “crossover” stage. You do what you gotta do to thrive. The alternative, most likely, would’ve been slowly fading away from public eye; ‘she came, she saw, she didn’t conquer’.

Beltran asks whether commodification of nonwhite images in media is a process of losing or gaining power and agency. I can’t understand how can someone possibly gain power through this exoticization process. Like surely, it creates a platform for ethnic minorities in US and gives them voice, but of what use is that platform anymore when you can only employ it to further perpetuate and confirm pre-held stereotypical notions of your ethnicity? If anything, it further aggravates the situation and reinforces racism.

The least good that could come out of this EW photoshoot was decentralization of eurocentric beauty standards. However, it failed to achieve that too. JLo still went on to achieve the slender white-female body, shrink her butt and sport dirty blonde hair. Had she succeeded in changing perceptions (like Beltran claims on page 12), there wouldn’t have been the need to conform…

Beltran

The article about media fascination with Jennifer Lopez’s butt was interesting, thought-provoking and just as relevant today as it was in 2002. I have heard and read extensively on social media regarding exoticization/fetishization, even objectification of ethnic (nonwhite) bodies, however, none of them do the job of explaining the problematic nature of this phenomena, as well as Mary Beltran does.

The author talks about how Jennifer Lopez essentially used her butt to stay relevant, market herself in US, and create a niche for herself in the still white-dominated industry. Crossover success is defined as someone from as the process of becoming popular with a new audience. Many stars from different ethnicities have tried to crossover into mainstream Hollywood, however, their success has been largely determined by how closely they were able to embody “the ideals of whiteness”. Their appearance (skin colour, facial features, body type – in other words perceived ethnicity) determined what roles they will get in films – the “star-making” protagonist or stereotyped/ethnically centred roles. In cases where the available Latina actresses did not conform to the white standards of beauty, white actors (eg. West Side Story) portrayed these Latina roles.

What this leads to is: other races must mold themselves to gain acceptance in the Western society. That doesn’t sound too unfair. But, the same isn’t true the other way around – White actors/actresses don’t necessarily have to change/mold themselves gain acceptance within other ethnic demographics. This creates a dominant culture/subservient culture dynamic. Given such “conditional acceptance” environment, it’s not hard to imagine why Lopez decided to use her curves for publicity during the “crossover” stage. You do what you gotta do to thrive. The alternative, most likely, would’ve been slowly fading away from public eye; ‘she came, she saw, she didn’t conquer’.

Beltran asks whether commodification of nonwhite images in media is a process of losing or gaining power and agency. I can’t understand how can someone possibly gain power through this exoticization process. Like surely, it creates a platform for ethnic minorities in US and gives them voice, but of what use is that platform anymore when you can only employ it to further perpetuate and confirm pre-held stereotypical notions of your ethnicity? If anything, it further aggravates the situation and reinforces racism.

The least good that could come out of this EW photoshoot was decentralization of eurocentric beauty standards. However, it failed to achieve that too. JLo still went on to achieve the slender white-female body, shrink her butt and sport dirty blonde hair. Had she succeeded in changing perceptions (like Beltran claims on page 12), there wouldn’t have been the need to conform…

Hybridity and also the possible ‘end of popular culture’

Again, I apologise for the lateness of this blog, and having not done last week’s either I just thought it might be easier for all you keen readers out there to do one more substantial post on 3 pieces…

The Velazquez piece is intriguing – especially for me as a music student – she quickly references Susan McClary’s ideology that music has the power to ‘make us our experience our bodies in accordance with its gestures and rhythms’ in a unique and unparalleled way – something which I would entirely agree with. For me, music taps into an emotional and sensual stimuli in our brains which in a completely unique way. She then goes on to discuss how the relationship between body and music can differ from culture to culture, which again is something I would agree with – salsa is the focus of this: The first thing she points out is the different ways instruments are used in performance of music from different cultures, for example how a guitar is used in rock, compared to how it is used in salsa (p118) – she notices how in rock music, guitar rhythms are more linear in terms of the way that they tend to follow the rhythm of the bass/kick drum, whereas in salsa guitar rhythms tend to swing across barlines (known as ‘anticipated rhythm) – this helps to create syncopation – which is probably the most characteristic trait of salsa music (and also of other types of music such as jazz/blues which have a lot in common with salsa). McClary would seem to agree with me here: she mentions near the end of the same page (118), how salsa has come to be known as an extremely musically flexible genre, because its musical structure is derived from African rhythms and more European style melodies. Similarly, blues originated from African rhythms, but because it was originally promulgated by Black Americans, there was the Western influence of the USA. As blues spread to Europe, and was adopted by many white Westerners (notably George Gershwin), this style of music was what some might call ‘polystylistic’, as it incorporated a range of different cultures.

Anyhow, back to the article (apologies for the tangent here!): page 119 is also very interesting as it touches upon how different forms of music are assimilated into different cultures, and then become developed in different ways – with salsa, it was exported to the UK, and took on a different form there, as it was developed by a different culture. Velazquez points out how people who learn salsa in the UK would have a different experience to people learning the musical form in Columbia, or other parts of Latin America, to which salsa is indigenous.

p123 – Velazquez discusses how ‘one of the ways a Latin musical identity is established is through the use of the Spanish language’ – however, this needs to be modified within the context of an English audience (in England) – most of whom will not understand Spanish, or just some very basic terms, such as ‘hola’, ‘amigo’ and ‘hermano’ (hermano means brother in Spanish for those who don’t know ???? ).

 

Gomez-Pena reading

This reading is particularly interesting as it discusses the strategic use of the media by the guerrilla takeover in Mexico City – unlike any other takeover seen before! (all on p223) – he mentions how it has been unlike any other guerrilla seizure of power before because of the way in which they recognised the importance and power of the media. On p223, Gomez-Pena recognises how ‘from the outset, the ZLN was fully aware of the symbolic impact of their largely conceptual military actions’ – The ZLN stands for the Zapatista Liberation National Army. He then goes on to note how one of the leaders of the revolt ‘Subcomondante Marcos’ turned out to be a consumate ‘performancero’ – and went on to become ‘the latest pop hero in a noble tradition of pop activists’ (223) – this seems to me like a far more peaceful revolution than Mexico, and many other Latin American countries had received before!

Marcos, or ‘el Sup’ would then go on to become a sex symbol as leader, mainly because of his g ‘hazel eyes’ and also because no one had really seen him behind the ski mask! – the women all fell in love with him because of his mystery. However, p226 shows how he wasn’t really known at an international level – ‘though Marcos became the most famous Mexican celebrity in the world, no one knew who he really was’.

The Garcia Canclini reading on hybridisation is very interesting. The central theme of this piece is essentially that hybridisation is a consistent cycle (and an everlasting cycle) – it’s not a teleological process as was suggested by Vasconcelos in his theory of hybridisation in the his piece, ‘The Cosmic Race’, concerning mestizaje. Furthermore, he discusses how it is a process, and not a product and also how it is an extremely complex term: he believes that hybridisation defines distinction between what is popular culture and what IS NOT popular culture. Hybridisation avoids the levels of hierarchy which occur in transculturation and mestizaje, which I think is a very important conceptual point. On p223 he discusses what might be ‘the end of popular culture’ – however, what I think he is trying to get at is that it is impossible to define popular culture nowadays as it no longer has a fixed meaning. This might partly be due to how hybridisation affects the relationship between high/low/popular/not popular culture.

Beltran

Latinas in mainstream North American media have always seemed to be portrayed as hot-headed, curvy, sassy- with that certain ‘ethnic flavour’. Another big part of their “latina-ness” comes from the sexualization of their bodies. Celebrities like Jennifer Lopez have had great success playing into this stereotype and I have a somewhat divided opinion on whether this is helpful. Does this demonstrate the ability of Latinas to “cross-over” into the mainstream while proudly retaining that certain latin-ness or does it limit mainstream medias ability to view latina women as anything but these over-used stereotypes? Is it a source of pride or is it actually a limitation? Being a half-latina who really does not look “latina” and for the most part white (or Italian, I’ve been told) it’s been a struggle in coming to terms with my identity when I’ve been told I’m supposed to look and act a certain way. The reality is me and many many other latina women do not and never will conform to those ideals. And that’s fine. I’d say since Lopez’s time Hollywood has changed a little bit, but I still see this stereotype being played over and over again- like Modern Family’s Gloria- with her curvy body, sassy flare, passionate outbursts in Spanish. Maybe that’s just who she is-but maybe she has conformed to this ideal because it’s an easier pill to swallow and success in mainstream North American media has been built on this image before.

Roman-Velazquez, Beltran, and Gomez-Pena

As of 10:40pm, I have not yet read the Gomez-Pena topography piece.  While I plan to have it done by class tomorrow, I will only focus on the Roman-Velazquez and Beltran readings in this post.

I found the Roman-Velazquez reading on salsa to be particularly interesting in part because I am in UBC’s Latin Dance club and have been taking beginner salsa classes this term.  From this experience, I think that there is a lot to be said for music and dance as a point of entry into a culture.  As Roman-Velazquez comments on page 121, the initial biases associated with ethnicity often vanish quickly in salsa; evaluations of talent and level of integration are instead based on capability.  Thus, while salsa follows “Latin” rhythm and instrumental patterns, neither performance of the music nor dance is restricted to those of Latin American backgrounds (except in the area of vocals, where language and native level of fluency in Spanish still presents a barrier to entry for singers).  In my salsa class, neither of my teachers are Latin American.  Sebastian, the lead, is a caucasian man no taller than 5’3″.  Yuki, the follower, is a heavy set woman with an accent I would guess is from Southeast Asia.  I would not peg either one of them as a salsa dancer if I saw them walking down the street, yet their sense of rhythm, style, and familiarity is immediately apparent the instant you dance with them.  Also, amongst the other students in the class, it is very clear that a Latin background in no way implies an inherent salsa talent; the male lead who can out-salsa most of the other guys in the class is from Eastern Europe, while one guy who grew up in Mexico as a kid often struggles to stay on top of his feet.

The lack of obstacles involved in creating music and dancing make them two elements of culture that are fairly universally accessible and thus make them transportable, as seen in Roman-Velazquez’s example of salsa culture in London.  However, different locations have distinct styles, exemplified in the story of Colombian Roberto Pla, who had to alter his percussion style so those in Britain could “digest it” (p.122).  On page 120, Roman-Velazquez writes that “places are important sites for the meeting and exchange of different cultural practices and possible cultural transformations.”  This made me curious about a hypothetical situation: what if mestizaje mixture of White, Latin, and African cultures took place in a location other than South America.  If Portugal and Spain had decided to bring natives from South America to labor on settlements in Africa, would the resulting culture be radically different from what was created in Latin America??

I didn’t intend to write for that long on salsa.  The one thing I will say on Jennifer Lopez is that it would be interesting to compare the construction of her “cross-over” stardom to the construction of male Latin-American cross-over stars, mainly in terms of the emphasis placed on physicality vs. personality and talent.

 

Response To: The End of Popular Culture?

I grew up listening to three different types of music: rock (i.e. Journey), salsa (i.e. El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico), and classical. Listening to salsa music was a way of connecting to Puerto Rico while living in Seattle, WA—for both my parents and for their children. It is interesting then that a part of Puerto Rican, and Latin American, identity is a genre of music that has both European and African influences. It goes back to what Latin American identity actually is, and who owns it. Music—something that is considered an important part of any culture—has become widely distributed and consumed. It is identified with Latin America, but is listened to and danced to in Europe and North America by people who are not from Latin America. What is culture then if it can become so easily sold off? It must have been an important part of Latin American identity, especially for the Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in New York City, but now it is no longer just for these groups of people. Does it lose power as a result? Or can it still be an important part of Latin American culture if it is not unique to Latin America?


To jump to another topic, there is the article on Jennifer Lopez and how she is portrayed in the media. This was interesting considering the recently publicized views of Hollywood’s primarily using white actors. Jennifer Lopez and her influences on the views of Latina women by North Americans, whether positive or negative, are interesting to dissect. There’s the fact that her body challenges beauty standards, but at the same time it furthers this idea that Latina women have curvy bodies—that to be Latina is to be curvy. This can be dangerous in its own right because there are a wide variety of bodies represented by Latin Americans, especially because of the genetic diversity in this region, and it can allow certain assumptions to continue to exist—that all Latinos are darker, have dark hair, have curly hair, etc. It is difficult to say whether Jennifer Lopez really challenges these stereotypes about what Latinas look like. For example, there have been women that have been turned for movies because they do not look “Latina enough”. What does this say about our times and how we view Latinas? I do not know how to answer that, but I do think that there is still progress to be made regarding the way that Latin Americans are portrayed and represented in the media—maybe Jennifer Lopez is or will be a part of this development.

Response To: The End of Popular Culture?

I grew up listening to three different types of music: rock (i.e. Journey), salsa (i.e. El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico), and classical. Listening to salsa music was a way of connecting to Puerto Rico while living in Seattle, WA—for both my parents and for their children. It is interesting then that a part of Puerto Rican, and Latin American, identity is a genre of music that has both European and African influences. It goes back to what Latin American identity actually is, and who owns it. Music—something that is considered an important part of any culture—has become widely distributed and consumed. It is identified with Latin America, but is listened to and danced to in Europe and North America by people who are not from Latin America. What is culture then if it can become so easily sold off? It must have been an important part of Latin American identity, especially for the Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in New York City, but now it is no longer just for these groups of people. Does it lose power as a result? Or can it still be an important part of Latin American culture if it is not unique to Latin America?


To jump to another topic, there is the article on Jennifer Lopez and how she is portrayed in the media. This was interesting considering the recently publicized views of Hollywood’s primarily using white actors. Jennifer Lopez and her influences on the views of Latina women by North Americans, whether positive or negative, are interesting to dissect. There’s the fact that her body challenges beauty standards, but at the same time it furthers this idea that Latina women have curvy bodies—that to be Latina is to be curvy. This can be dangerous in its own right because there are a wide variety of bodies represented by Latin Americans, especially because of the genetic diversity in this region, and it can allow certain assumptions to continue to exist—that all Latinos are darker, have dark hair, have curly hair, etc. It is difficult to say whether Jennifer Lopez really challenges these stereotypes about what Latinas look like. For example, there have been women that have been turned for movies because they do not look “Latina enough”. What does this say about our times and how we view Latinas? I do not know how to answer that, but I do think that there is still progress to be made regarding the way that Latin Americans are portrayed and represented in the media—maybe Jennifer Lopez is or will be a part of this development.

In search of a new topography

I found this reading to be very interesting and as well as being an easier read than the previous readings. Before taking this class I was also in a Latin american revolution class that discussed Subcommandante Marcos in a more detailed way. Knowing what I know about Marcos I think the article does a very good job at outlining his revolutionary campaign and relating it to popular culture. Specifically, the article emphasized the anonymity and the mystery surrounding marcos and how that created a stronger message. One part of this article I did disagree was the classification of marcos as the first post-modern revolutionary and specifically his use of media and the radio. Looking towards the cuban revolution, Che Guevara was a master of radio communications and his radio skills were extremely instrumental in the success of the revolution. Subcommandante Marcos did indeed use modern media outlets such as the new york times in an effective way, but his incorporation of the radio was by no means original or post-modern. In addition to this I believe the anonymity of Marcos’ revolution served solely as a means to include the entirety of mexico’s population in a unified struggle whilst also removing the power dynamic that comes into play with revolutionary leaders. This tactic itself isn’t necessarily post-modern and in my opinion this classification is just part of his romanticization which is also important to talk about.

 

Beltran on Lopez was similarly an interesting read that lead me to question the representation of latin celebrities in a capitalist and post-colonialist era. The sentiments and connotations carried within the body of a latin person, specifically of a latina have always been largely constructed by the media and Lopez is a perfect example of how the sexualization of latinas has contributed to an archetype of all latin american people. Additionally, it is interesting to me the line that is drawn between proper representation of latin american identity and commodification of latin america beeple and culture. I personally think it is vital for latin americans to have some form of representation in western culture and Jennifer Lopez does a good job at representing that, but it is important to make a distinction between representation and commodification in order for culture to be preserved.

Zapatistas, Body Image & Salsa

About the first reading (Gómez-Peña, ‘In search of a new topography’): I find it interesting how at some point the author states something about the relation of Marcos to ‘the myth’ – the fact that he could hold on to his performance of an image and ideology only as long as his real identity was unknown. It makes me think of other public figures I know that are known for not revealing their true identity, and it’s interesting to see how people feed on the created image of a person through speculating about his or her real identity. It has nothing to do with this but it made me think of a current famous Italian writer who goes with an acronym, Elena Ferrante, and basically everyone I know back in Italy (and probably also outside of it) has had her in a topic of conversation; people speculating about ‘her’ being a man and so on and so forth. ‘The mystery nourishes the ideaology’ – kind of thing, like Marcos did.

Second reading (Beltrán, ‘The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Struggle): “African American characters in films often evoke and deny race simultaneously, serving as projections of white anxieties about race” – “…commodification and appropriation of Latin culture without a broadening of notions of American culture in general” –  I LOVE IT!!! Hollywood movies with main figures from non-white races: usually, I have noticed they are all, to a certain extent, ‘white looking’ or conform to western standards of beauty. Like, they make the film look like ethnically diverse and real, but in fact it’s not. Also, It’s very interesting to read about a ‘modern star’ of Hollywood through such an analysis. Women’s body image problem is still very real – especially girls with darker skin tones than the ones mainly portrayed in mass media –  and I’m glad Beltran brought this topic up. This made me think a lot about today’s ‘stars’ like Nicki Minaj or Iggy Azaela who are known for Jennifer Lopez’s same reason and the negative and positive effect this has on women watching them.

Hybridity: Hybrid Cultures in Globalized Times

The author, Néstor García Canclini begins the text regarding “Rethinking Identities through Hybridization” by stating that, “one must begin by accepting the dispute over whether ‘hybrid’ is a good or bad word. That the word is widely used is not sufficient for us to consider it respectable. On the contrary, its profuse employment favors the assignment to it of divergent meanings.”
The author highlights the common theme of ambivalence in delimiting theories of mixture, noting that the employment of such terms in different contexts makes uniform definitions  difficult.  It is also important to  note  his insistence of the removal of the good/bad dichotomy, as this allows for the understanding of hybridization as a process and not necessarily a uniform negative or positive result.  Canclini provides readers a foundational definition by delimiting his own understanding of hybridization.  “I will start with a first definition: I understand for hybridization sociocultural processes in which discrete structures or practices, previously existing in separate form, are combined to generate new structures, objects, and practices.”
The author takes the example of the common framing of Spanglish, or the “hybrid” language that takes from both English and Spanish. This notion undermines or ignores the potential for both English and Spanish to be the result of hybridization of other languages (Arabic, Latin, etc.) The author makes two points here, that hybridization is a generative process, which combines previously separate structures, to create new structures, as well as putting forth the notion that culture (and its extensions) are also inherently a processes of hybridization. The author goes on to say, “by reducing the conceptual hierarchy of identity and heterogeneity in favor of hybridization, we remove support from policies of fundamentalist homogenization or the limited (segregated) recognition of “the plurality of cultures,”  making the case for a theory of mixture that avoids hierarchy or privileging one culture over another.
The author further examines the process of hybridization as facilitated by globalization. Canclini states that, “globalizing processes accentuate modern cross-cultural contact by creating world markets for money and material goods, messages, and migrants. The flows and interactions that occur in these processes have diminished the power of border and customs agents, as well as the autonomy of local traditions, and have fostered a greater variety of hybridizations in production, communication, and styles of consumption than in the past. ” In this way we can see how physical trade and exchange by way of globalization allow for the movement of  products and cultural practices that cannot be contained by borders or territory lines.