The Image of Sexuality in Color

Minorities in this country have very little power and are very vulnerable to any social issue. When dealing with body image minorities are affected even more compared to whites in society. Women of color in the United States are pressured to fit their stereotypical roles. Many of their stereotypes have roots from their culture or country of origin. Other times these body image expectations are fabricated from people in power within society. This can be specifically applied to Latina and African American women, since their bodies represent more of the hourglass image. The hourglass figure is greatly desired, honored, and attractable to many. African American and Latina women are stereotyped as being seductive, very loud, and very sexual. They do this by wearing very little clothes, dancing seductive, giving attitude to anything, and using sex to their advantage. Their roles in movies, shows, and commercials are consistent which reaffirm this expectation to the viewers. For example in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, Eva Mendes uses her Latina flare and beauty to seduce the Cuban drug dealer into believing that she was not an undercover cop.



This is also an issue in music videos specifically from hip-hop and reggaeton artists. The women in their music videos dance very seductive, many times they are used as an object, they wear very little clothes, they are submissive, and follow and do whatever the artists pleases in the video. For example the music video “I’m Still in Love” from Sean Paul portrays the women as very seductive when they dance in their room, at the nightclub, and throughout the video.



All of these images send a very strong message to young girls in our society especially to women of color. Due to this women of color think that sex and their body will get them what they desire, which does not take into account their character and intelligence. Their style of dancing and fashion reflect the media’s influence. For example the fashion line from the rapper Nelly includes “apple bottom jeans” which emphasizes women’s butt. These jeans are seen everywhere especially on young African American women. These examples are just a few ways women of color are more pressured to look a certain way by society. Latina and African American women are not the only minorities that are affected however it is seen more often.

The Media Bug

One of the greatest components to the issue of body image in our society is the media. The media has become very popular in the United States. It has the power to change views, implement ideas, raise issues, and promote ideologies. The media comes in the form of television, magazines, internet, newspapers, books and films. Everyone in the United States encounters at least one of these mediums every day. The media surrounds us therefore there is no way to avoid it, especially if celebrities are in the media then it is harder to avoid due to their fame and popularity. Many young women look up at these celebrities as role models and follow their many examples. One of them is their physical attributes. In order to learn and discover every secret they have, young women turn to the media. Since the media is overly obsessed with celebrities, specifically the females, they want to cover everything about them. This includes their relationship status, their upcoming jobs, any awards received, gossip, and other useless information. Another aspect the media predominantly covers is the physical beauty of these celebrity women which includes their fashion, make-up, hair, and diet. “How Being Unpopular Helped Her get Famous” or “534 Ways to Look & Feel Fantastic For Fall” are ways to encourage women to feel like they can one day be beautiful and famous just like celebrities if they follow in their footsteps. The media brings these models and celebrities down to the “normal” women’s level and the majority do fall for the false advertisements due to the increase in sales. Even though these celebrities and models are real human beings, a good number of magazines and advertisements employ photo shopping tactics in order to make them the ultimate beauty. Other times the women on the advertisements are not who they seem to be, at some points as much as five different body parts are used to make one. For example as discussed in the video “Slim Hopes” featuring Jean Kilbourne, Julia Roberts body is not hers in the movie cover. The media has a great power in how females are shown to the public. It has the power to define what beautiful is and to correct flaws in the women portrayed. Therefore many times the beauty we see as a society is unreal. This can be devastating in many ways because the women who are caught by this media bug attempt to fit the media’s definition of beautiful when in reality it does not represent the entire population of women.