Hispanic Women Stereotypes

However, dark skinned women are not just black women, they are also Hispanic women. Hispanic women are often overly sexualized and placed in a sexually exotic category. Hispanics are usually represented as sex symbols with limited intelligence and portrayed as home and family oriented. And although these latter traits are not necessarily negative, these types of representations hinder Hispanic women’s ability to be perceived as something more outside of nature, sex and domesticity. In other words, limiting their role to nature and domesticity gives the impression that they are not suitable for more intellectually challenging positions in society. Courtney Perales, a blog writer for The Stripes, talked about her experience throughout her narration:

There is such a pressure for women to be sexually active and seductive with a dangerous standard of feminine beauty that is unrealistic even for white women. Media should not be using women as sexual objects and setting such an unattainable standard of beauty. The media's portrayal of a rare beauty is everywhere. You turn on your television, you walk down the street, you ride the train, you go on the computer and the images are constantly telling women that they need to be a tall abnormally skinny pale skinned girl with big boobs. To this day, the hyper-sexualized beauty standards for women are set by the media: white, thin, long legs, toned abs, cleavage, and big hair (Valderrama,). Women shouldn’t be sexual objects for men. Media should portray women on a realistic standard of beauty that is attainable. The image of average women instead of model should be chosen because the models are chosen based on requirements that are only a rare body type. Another way to make a change is to further educate oneself on the portrayal of women in the media. This can be done by looking at movements or groups that are bringing light to the subject. Being educated can help you spread the word to a group of people or a community that can group together and bring awareness to the problem which can lead to change. Another way is to veto the images that media is putting out into the world. You could send

The Representation Project is a non-profit corporation that has mission to free the world of gender stereotypes and roles. It started when Jennifer Siebl Newsom, the founder, premiered the first film at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film, Miss Representation, exposed the media by showing the ways in which media under-represented women in positions of influence and power (Siebel). There was a public demand for ongoing education and social action due to the film’s message. The Representation Project was founded in April 2011 which inspires individuals and communities to create a world free of gender stereotypes and social injustices that limits people (Siebel). The Representation Project uses films and social media to start campaigns in order to “inspires individuals and communities to challenge and overcome limiting stereotypes so that everyone, regardless of gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, or circumstance, can fulfill their human potential” (Siebel). Some of the social media campaigns are #NotBuyinIt, #MediaWeLike, and #BuildConfidence. #NotBuyingIt and #MediaWeLike are campaigns that inspire people to direct attention to bad representation and cheer for good representation. Another group is the Dove Real Beauty campaign that used the hashtag #speakbeautiful to bring awareness. #Speakbeautiful was to promote the message that the physical aspect of beauty