Ugly Betty

One of the articles that my group picked for our presentation about the portrayal of gender in different cultures by the media was "Ugly Betty is Gone. Now Where's the Latina TV?" This article brought up important points about both cultural and gender representation in the media. Oftentimes in the media, "culture" is based on appearances rather than actual cultural groups. As shown in this article, Latinas are a perfect example of how this can play out. Latinas can look like they are of African or European descent and can often play roles as representatives of these cultures rather than their own. This makes media stereotyping an even more complex phenomenon because it gives skewed perceptions of gender in different cultures while not even correctly portraying each culture.

This article is also very interesting because it discusses nonwhite couples in the media. The author states that men that are not white can be in a tv show by themselves or can have a partner of a different race or culture. On the other hand, nonwhite women are almost always portrayed alongside a man of their culture or race. While this is a valid point in many aspects, I don't think it always applies. I think this would be a more powerful and convincing statement if it was about the ROLE the actress played rather than the actress herself. If Jennifer Lopez plays a "white" role than she can have a white boyfriend or husband. However, if she plays a Latina role, than she will almost always have a Latino boyfriend or husband.