Dangerous Curves: Mapping Latinas in the U.S. Media Landscape Foundational. BY ISABEL MOLINA-GUZMÁN (Forthcoming, New York University Press)
Latinas are central to media industry efforts to use sexuality, ethnic difference, racial ambiguity and multicultural accents to sell products and programming to global audiences. While heteronormative black, Latino and Asian masculinity remains threatening to the U.S. patriarchal and racial order, Latina, Asian and multiracial women often perform a safe sexualized femininity across racial and ethnic ambiguity. Simultaneously, however, the global commodification of ethnic and racial ambiguity embodied in contemporary media discourses of Latinas presents a dangerous moment to dominant notions of nation, nationhood and citizenship. [Excerpt from Mapping Latinas in the U.S. Media Landscape]
Mapping Latinas in the U.S. Media Landscapes examines the discourses surrounding Latinas in a variety of English and Spanish-language media outlets and on-line community spaces, such as bulletin boards and blogs. Building on the burgeoning field of Latina/o media studies, the book moves from television to film and news to tabloids to conducts a series of case studies regarding contemporary popular Latina icons (America Ferrera, Salma Hayek, Frida Kahlo, Jennifer Lopez). Through theses case studies the book maps how the contemporary media discourses about Latinas are caught between the desirable performance of ethnic femininity, domesticity and heteronormativity and the ever-present narratives of racial and sexual threat to the U.S. national body.
The book project is part of Molina-Guzmán’s long-term interested in the issues of identity, citizenship and the media. Her previous research has been published in a variety of edited collection and such journals as Latina/o Studies, Critical Studies in Mediated Communication andJournalism. Visit her faculty page for more information on her research and teaching interest:
http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/faculty/molina.html
