Core Post #4: Jennifer Lopez- Making It Acceptable to be Non-White in Hollywood?

It's no secret that Hollywood is dominated by whiteness. White people, white culture, white actors, white directors, white executives. However, there have been numerous occasions in which other races and ethnicities penetrate the dominantly white Hollywood, and some have done so with tremendous success.

No one in the Latino community has broken into Hollywood or American culture quite so well as Jennifer Lopez. Negron-Muntaner's article Jennifer's Butt seems to argue that through Jennifer's embracing of her curves-- most notably of her well-above-average derriere, she has broken through Hollywood's beauty standards a prominately nd made it "cool" to have a Latina (or African American) body. Negron-Muntaner even claims that Lopez is figuratively "Kicking ass"--as a "form of revenge against a hostile cultural gaze" and " 'showing ass' as a sign of identity and pride." The article makes a stronger argument, however, by explaining that because she (and Hollywood) have recognized the potential to make money off of Lopez's physical assets (or really just her one asset), so this is why her body is so featured and promoted.

I don't know if I can agree with Negron-Muntaner's sentiment that Lopez is a force of "kicking ass" against Hollywood's typical standards of beauty. I am much more in agreement with Aubry's Back is Beautiful article for Salon.com. Aubry explains that yes, Lopez may be a step in the right direction for the promotion of multiculturalism, Lopez is marketable and highly successful because "like Halle Berry and many other women who date back to Lena Horne and long before, she appears racially ambiguous and therefore is more palatable to white audiences... A pale face with a black butt is intriguing... [but] a black face with a black butt has always been worse than ordinary."

Lopez celebrates her Latina heritage in Selena, yes, but she has rarely taken movie roles that portray her as Latina. In Out of Sight, she is racially ambiguous (she might be Italian?). In Maid in Manhattan, she's also Italian. She also claims to "love her curves," but has been in the media talking about her weight loss strategies, her extreme diet (she never drinks alcohol, doesn't eat after 6 pm), and her dedicated workout regimen. Lopez, and other "multicultural" (AKA non-white) actresses are successful because of their ability to blend their distinct non-whiteness with white culture.

The argument that Aubry makes that resinates the most with me is that when people of other races are shown in movies, they are often portrayed in highly negative ways. In Out of Sight, the most vicious criminals are black or "otherwise colored" (Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman), while "the most virtuous outlaws were white (George Clooney, Stephen Zahn, Albert Brooks)." This still seems true today. One of the greatest movies of last year, Precious, was a very multicultural movie with a phenomenal and arguable uplifting message. However, it still showed terrible aspects of black culture. And on top of that, the movie was not very commercially successful.

I think more and more, other races have been able to intigrate into Hollywood, and American culture is more accepting of other races' (especially in terms of their beauty). Lopez is marketable because she is racially ambiguous, but she really is a step in the right direction towards making the standard of beauty not just tall, super-thin, blonde white girls.

Questions:

1. Lopez has changed her looks and persona so often. What is her star context today?

2. What star context made Lopez the most famous? When did she have the greatest public appeal?

3. Has any other Latino/Latina star been so commercially successful as Lopez? Why/why not?

4. Has American culture become more accepting of other standards of beauty because of Lopez? Or is the standard really just the same as it always has been?