Emily Huang Post #5 – Hollywood Women as Site of Social Struggle

In her article “The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Struggle: Media Constructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Cross-over Butt’”, Mary Beltrán discusses the politics of representation that are attached to non-white celebrities, specifically their bodies, and how these function in a celebrity culture dominated by whiteness. Beltrán also examines the context in which these stars are operating, specifically in terms of how they cross over and the types of audiences they appeal to, something that correlated closely with how well the star embodied aspects of whiteness. The author then analyzes the hierarchies of power that are conferred through the existence of the white gaze, which refers to the power that white people have to control the way that nonwhite ethnicity is constructed in popular culture in the US. Beltrán then looks at the way this affects representations of characters of color and the way that white audiences receive them.

Through a lens focusing on the intersections of race and gender and their manifestations into bodies of color, Beltrán is able to connect the systems of domination and hierarchy around race and gender to the exoticization and sexualization of nonwhite bodies. Beltrán focuses on how this manifests in the conceptualizations of African-American and Latina women in black and brown bodies, especially when posited opposite whiteness. She points out that these stars must maintain a very particular look to fit into the white gaze and its perceptions of beauty. Whenever stars step out of this mold, they are punished for not fitting into it, and even when they do fit into the mold, they often lose their agency because of the way they are regulated.

When thinking about the way that this applies to Asian stars, it must be noted that the expectations that are placed on them differ from those placed on black and Latina stars. While black and brown bodies have been sexualized as “inviting”, Asian bodies have been constructed as “submissive” and hypersexualized as a “better” version of femininity alternative to white women, as related to the “model minority” stereotype, which has also used to reinforce antiblackness. This is seen in the ways that Asian characters have long been depicted as subservient, there to serve the needs of the men without raising a fuss (think of the Asian prostitute's “me love you long time” in Full Metal Jacket). Even today, few Asian female characters are depicted as passionate, independent women, when they even have nuanced character portrayals at all. The few female Asian stars that have become more notable are still weighed down by the white gaze that keeps them in that box, which points to the desperate need for more representation that is not crippled by stereotypes and a hurtful, exploitative construction of Asian femininity.