Latina Body Research Articles

“No Ugly Women”

Current research on construction of the female body focuses on non-Hispanic women in the United States. The idealized Latina body, however, is rapidly becoming commodified and objectified in global popular culture. Using standardized and open-ended surveys and group and individual interviews, the author examines the negotiation of sociocultural ideals and body image by adolescents at the intersection of gender, race, and beauty. These young women hold racist beauty ideals but are flexible when judging the appearance of real-life women. They perceive two competing or complementary prototypes of beauty, one white and one Latina. This study fills a gap in the literature on beauty and the body by examining a non-U.S. sample that does not fit into the usual Black-white dichotomy of race.

Remembering Selena, Re-membering Latinidad

During the 1990s, both mainstream and marginal communities in the United States took part in conspicuously celebrating the Latina celebrity. This (re)emergence of the highly visible, hyper-sexualized Latina performer coincided with numerous legisla tive and discursive attacks on Latina/os and with shifting and renewed assertions of Latina/o identity, or latinidad.1 More precisely, the Latina body was often and

The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Sturggle: Media Constructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez's "Cross-over Butt"

(2002). The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Sturggle: Media Constructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez's 'Cross-over Butt' Quarterly Review of Film and Video: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 71-86.