Sexist Depictions Of Latinas Aren't Just A Hollywood Thing : Code Switch : NPR

Sexist Depictions Of Latinas Aren't Just A Hollywood Thing : Code Switch : NPR: I have a love-hate relationship with actress Sofía Vergara's rise to fame. On the one hand: Wow, there's a Latina on a major hit TV show. (As a recent University of Southern California study found fewer than 5 percent of actors and actresses, in top films are Hispanic.) The fact that I can tune into Modern Family and hear a passing reference to my mother's home country reminds me that American culture is changing.

On the other hand, watching La Sofía (as we call her in my family) sway her rear end across the screen — or have her pompis rotated onstage at the Emmys this week — destroys any scrap of hope I harbor that Hollywood is starting to get Latinas right.

But before I got too far into thinking that the solution is getting more Latinas hired in Hollywood, I considered Spanish-language television. The sad news is that even when Latina women are in the majority on TV screens, the industry still focuses on their rear ends.