Ideology of a Butt (core post 4)

In the Negron-Muntaner reading from this week, she writes about how the size of Jennifer Lopez's butt as signifcantly impacted her career. Though Lopez is a Latina, she is also American and is primarily known as being from the Bronx (aka Jenny from the Block). Despite her hispanic roots, Lopez has been able to play roles of all ethnicities because her skin is still fairly light. She is beneficial to the movie business because she can represent all different types of people, thereby driving more people to the theater to play. She has successfully passed to play lead female characters and is not reduced to a derogatory Latin stereotype. Her body is what relates her to her ethnicity but since her skin is still light and she makes deliberate references to growing up in the Bronx, she is able to relate to all different kinds of audiences.

Jennifer's most noted attribute is her rather large butt. No matter what role she inhabits or what minoritity she is playing, her butt is always there to remind us of her roots. As the author notes, when watching Lopez in the film Selena, there came a point when she stopped seeing Selena and only saw Lopez. Having such a notable body part attributes to this. Furthermore, the article quotes Jennifer as saying that costume designers tend to try and cover up her butt at all costs because it is seen as her being fat. Having a larger behind reminds audiences that Lopez is not white; therefore she is ethnic and the "Other" who poses a threat to the dominant white ideology.

Though Lopez is offended when costume designers try and cover her up, she still goes along with it in order to advance her film career. In Out of Sight, Lopez plays a strong female character with no discernible ethnicity although she is clearly not white. However, with her dark colored suits and drab wardrobe, she easily fits in amongst the white characters in the film with whom she is working. Because Lopez wants to be taken seriously as an actress, she does not draw attention to her butt by wearing colorful clothes or posing in such a way that her butt would be easily seen. Furthermore, while her character is incredibly smart and clever, she remains fairly cautious and soft-speaking. Leaving the comic and witty comments to co-star George Clooney, Lopez serves as the straight performer to his eccentric character. Had Lopez worn colorful outfits and been very outspoken and extroverted, she would be drawing to much attention to herself and therefore reminding audiences that she is in fact jennifer Lopez, big butt and all. Then once again she would be viewed as the "Other" and possibly not taken as seriously as an actor. When Lopez is performing her music, however, she wears wild and revealing costumes that accent all of her best qualities and quite often highlight her butt. In her music, Lopez can be herself because the songs are hers but when playing a role in a film, she must make herself as indescript as possible so as to fit the role she is playing.

Questions for Discussion:
1. Does Out of Sight ignore ethnic stereotypes by placing Lopez as a the female lead who is a federal officer? Or does it perpetuate them by not allowing her or the character to acknowledge her ethnicity and be herself?
2. Would the movie, and the character Karen Sisco, be taken less seriously if Lopez's character was more firm in standing up to the Jack Foley and allowing herself to be a little less stiff when handling various situations (with the exception of the one scene where she has to get drunk in order to have more of a personality)
3. Does the movie really portray her as being smart or independent or does the film suggest that she is only that way because of the men who surround her (father, boyfriend, even Jack Foley) and help her out by telling her what to do?
3.