Latinas on Mainstream TV: Gabrielle and Gloria

Though Hispanic women are now appearing more often on mainstream television, the ways in which they are portrayed have not improved. Two famous Latinas on mainstream TV is Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) from Desperate Housewives and Gloria (Sofia Vergara) from Modern Family. Both women are of Latin-American descent and both are stereotyped on their perspective TV shows.

I'd like to note both Gabrielle and Gloria (besides the fact both their names begin with G) are married to anglo men, and are overtly sexualized compared to the other female characters on the show. Besides these stereotypes, Gabrielle is unfaithful to her husband and portrayed as a gold digger. On the other hand, Gloria has a heavy accent, is constantly screaming, and on various occasions has tried to pick a fight.

Debra Merskin discusses Gabrielle Solis' stereotypical character in her article Three Faces of Eva: Perpetuation of the Hot Latina Stereotype in Desperate Housewives. She describes Gabrielle as a "hoop-earringed hottie," mostly shown in bright, tight fitting clothes (or merely bras and panties), who uses her body to get what she wants/needs.

The stereotypes portrayed in these Latina actresses are the same ones that appeared in My Research.

Here is a video of Sofia Vergara's depiction of Gloria on Modern Family

 

The repition of these traits attached to Latinas is why society constantly regurgitates the same stereotypes whenever describing a Hispanic female. If we had Latin female characters with traits outside of the "typical" ones then maybe the public would start to view us differently -- maybe they would see us in a better light.

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Merskin, Debra."Three Faces of Eva: Perpetuation of the Hot-Latina Stereotype in Desperate Housewives." Howard Journal of Communications 18.2 (2007):133-51. Print