Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media (Critical Cultural Communication, 5)

With images of Jennifer Lopez s butt and America Ferrera s smile saturating national and global culture, Latina bodies have become an ubiquitous presence. Dangerous Curves traces the visibility of the Latina body in the media and popular culture by analyzing a broad range of popular media including news, media gossip, movies, television news, and online audience discussions.

Isabel Molina-Guzm n maps the ways in which the Latina body is gendered, sexualized, and racialized within the United States media using a series of fascinating case studies. The book examines tabloid headlines about Jennifer Lopez s indomitable sexuality, the contested authenticity of Salma Hayek s portrayal of Frida Kahlo in the movie Frida, and America Ferrera s universally appealing yet racially sublimated Ugly Betty character. Dangerous Curves carves out a mediated terrain where these racially ambiguous but ethnically marked feminine bodies sell everything from haute couture to tabloids.

Through a careful examination of the cultural tensions embedded in the visibility of Latina bodies in United States media culture, Molina-Guzm n paints a nuanced portrait of the media s role in shaping public knowledge about Latina identity and Latinidad, and the ways political and social forces shape media representations.