Hyper sexuality in the Latina Stereotype

As I eagerly looked at my tv screen, I admired the curves on Sofia Vergara as she walked gracefully up to the microphone. She continues to announce a winner for some genre that I could care less about. She emphasizes certain words, hugs her curves with her hands and seemingly mispronounces some words on purpose. I remember at that moment, I started to resent my culture. 

I have always been very proud of my Latina roots. I grew up eating pork and plantains and listening to salsa or Reggaton on repeat. “The moms at PTA would ask if I was a mistress, to my face!” my mother says to me as she grates some cheese. My mom scrunches her face and she remembers a moment that would be doomed to repeat many times in her life. “My husband is older and he looks white so all the moms just assumed…”. Stereotypes affect most minorities, I know that I was aware of these stereotypes from a young age. Being catcalled at age 10 wasn’t all that fun, nor was having every emotion I had reduced to “Oh you latinas, always so spicy”. It was frustrating to say the least and yet when I would bring it up to my family, “we’ve all gone through that”, they would say. As if allowing it to continue for my own kids would be normal. According to Everyday Feminism, these stereotypes “perpetuate the idea that all Latinas are one homogenous group of exotic woman who are only here for someone else’s pleasure. Worse, it’s often the only portrayal we get of Latinas in the media”.

Eventually, the more I would see these portrayals on telenovelas, that one awful show “Devious maids”, even a fan favorite of “Spanglish”, and the ever popular “Modern Family”, the more I would unconsciously feed into it. The Odyssey reports “The unfortunate part is that she, like many other Latinas, feed into this image because the message we internalize is that our value is based on how sexually appealing we are”. Which I cant deny, is very true. In high school, my worth became my stereotype. The more racist and ignorant “compliments” I would receive the better my ego was. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times it was assumed that I was hyper sexual, simply because I am latina and curvy. Even though I was a late bloomer in that department, it didn’t stop the assumptions and it didn’t stop me from valuing my worth in that way. Shantyana C. Lledin shares a similar experience by her saying “‘When people tell me I must be a ‘spitfire’ or a ‘freaky girl' in bed because I am Hispanic, I am not at all flattered.’…More often than I can count, I’ve been viewed as a sexual object first, and as a person second. To add to our problems with these prejudices, people like to use the stereotype of promiscuity to blame Latinas for the high rate of teen pregnancy in the community”. While the feminist movement has been gaining some traction, we need to declare a call to action to be inclusive to people of color and how their stereotypes affect women in their day to day. No child deserves to be sexualized at a young age because of their ethnicity nor should women be objectified because of the language they speak.