While media’s fascination with female’s butts has become
almost mainstream, with stars like Iggy Azalea, Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj
being just a few who have become recognizable by their large butts. Jennifer
Lopez was one of the earlier stars whose career was aided by her figure.
At a time where the large number of leading ladies in films
were white and conformed to the stereotypical body type, JLo’s pride regarding
her different body shape allowed her to stand out among her peers. It was
through her voluptuous figure that helped her cross-over into films to happen
smoothly. Rather than audiences focusing on her race and stigmatizing her, her
butt garnered attention that was not seen on the big screen. As Mary Beltran
explains, the audience has “a pure fetishization of her posterior” that moved
one’s attention from her race onto her figure.
Since her body type deviated from Hollywood’s norms, it
began a change within the portrayal of woman to redefine ideals, “star images
serve as definers of power and identity for a society” Dyer states. So with the
audience becoming more accepting of her figure showed a positive change in the
diversification of Hollywood.
Even in contemporary media JLo is still reveled for her butt
and instead of denying its power and allure, she proudly displays it and
features it as part of her persona. In the past few years she released a song
called Booty featuring Iggy Azalea
which was a clear message of accepting her figure and the power it has in the
media. While the booty has become appropriated into mainstream media, if it
were not for JLo’s proud portrayal of her ‘booty’, the ‘ideal’ form of beauty
has moved away from the white and opened up a more diverse image.
While it could be argued that JLo is “in a still-racist
society as an ethnic sexual object”, by having her butt be featured so
prominently, it has allowed the audience to become accustomed to this
depiction. And therefore, not only allowing a more diverse image time to appear
on screen, but also paving way for other Latino or ethnic actresses to feel
more accepted for having different figures.
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