Supplemental Post #6: Butts and Culture?

After watching Out of Sight, and having the chance to read Negron-Muntaner's article, "Jennifer's Butt", I was surprised. First, to learn that Jennifer Lopez had started as an actress and then became a singer (thought that the opposite was true), and, second, the fascination with her rear-end, and how it seemed to form the crux of the arguments for not just Negron-Muntaner's article, but others this week as well. It was interesting, having to understand Stars, and how particularly elements of their persona/image, namely specific parts of their body, are so intwined with who they are and what they do that this body part (in J. Lo's case, her bottom) becomes central to understanding who they are.

Looking at the figures in today's culture, of course, this focus on one part of the human anatomy is common practice. We saw, in previous weeks, how the focus on Marilyn Monroe was her sexuality in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Interestingly enough, Monroe's co-star in that film, Jane Russell, had faced censorship issues when she had starred in Howard Hughe's The Outlaw (1943); the showing of her curves had been enough to generate massive amounts of public outcry, and to cause the film to be banned from theatre's.

Today, it is still relevant, focusing on just single parts of the human anatomy, focusing on stars such as Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian, etc.

Another bit that I found particularly interesting in Negron-Muntaner's article was the talk about Lopez, a Puerto-Rican, Bronx-Born American, playing a Mexican-American Texas Born singer. They specifically highlight that Lopez states that "Selena and I are both Latinas" (Lopez, quoted in Muntaner, 183). It brings up issues of authentic cultural representation in film, and echoes the current movement in Hollywood today to ensure that characters are played by an actor of the same cultural background; authenticity and accuracy are becoming more key.

All in all, the screening for this week, as well as Negron-Muntaner's article, helped to revisit a lot of subjects that we had covered in class, as well as ones that are still currently happening in today's world.