Fan reaction was divided. Some Instagram users expressed outrage that Buble would make fun of a random woman because her large behind. Others thought that controversy surrounding a butt is nothing serious to get flustered over.
I find it interesting how Michael Buble's post echoes some of this week's readings about the Latina body. For example, both Negron-Muntaner and Beltran identify the Latina butt as a canvas of ambivalent emotions. While American obsession with Latina curves stereotypes Latina women as overly sexual, the Latina butt can also represent a defiance of white beauty standards. This would help us understand why Instagram reaction to Buble's butt pic is so split.
Michael Buble's own framing of the woman in question also cannot be ignored. While we may never know the ethnicity or race of the woman pictured, Buble's hashtags imply that she must be Latina and that Latinas are synonymous with this sort of look. For example, the singer's use of #onlyinmiami and #babygotback suggest that Miami's massive Latina population makes it a prime booty-watching city, and that doing so is an essential part of traveling to Miami. Buble's post highlights how excitement around the Latino butt has become so engrained in our culture.
On the other hand, Instagram itself has become a sort of visual spectacle concerning women's bodies. Instagram users like Jen Selter have become overnight celebrities because of their suggestive photos. In fact, Selter has been regarded as a fitness icon because her influence over her Instagram fanbase. She frequently posts workout routines that showcase how she maintains a tight booty. So when Buble says, "There was something about this photo Lu took that seemed worthy of Instagram," he may be clueing into the fact that Instagram has become this social network service where "outstanding" body parts are shared, liked, followed, and favorited.
"Lu" also refers to Buble's wife, Argentinian model Luisana Lopilato. By comparison, Loplato's behind is less impressive, and some Instagram users have interrupted Buble's photo to represent envy for Latina curves.
In any case, the varied reactions to Buble's Instagram photo show how the Latino butt is the site of social and cultural anxieties toward the female body and ethnic identity.
- Michael Francisco
I also think part of the fixation on and the associated fragmentation of the Latina feminine body suggests that it we/ the media does this in an attempt to include an 'other' into our prevailing definitions of beauty. Why is it that in order for an alternative body type to coexist with what society dictates is the ideal body, this body is necessarily fragmented? My best guess is that once fragmented, this body is a set of attributes and not a person. As a result, it's easier to accept something as a typically ___ ethnic group + ____ body part (so a typically Latina behind, for example) instead of as a whole. Indeed, accepting a full other would destabilize conceptions of beauty standards, and this would only make matters worse for the burgeoning beauty industry. On a related note, the fragmentation only makes easier the sexualization of the Latina feminine in popular media. If she's nothing more than a body part, she's more vulnerable and therefore easier to objectify. In a situation when her body doesn't conform to societal expectations or standards, fragmentation makes it easier for her (or, really, her body part) to be an 'acceptable' object of desire and receptor of the gaze.
ReplyDelete