Latin Women Essay

In addition, some other controlling images that affect my view of Latin women include telenovelas, Spanish soap operas, that I viewed as a young adult with my grandmother. These telenovelas put into action stereotypes to portray Latin women. A stereotype is a generalized belief and sometimes is exaggerated, that associates with both an entire social category of people and each individual within that group (Jackson 2018). The characteristics of the female roles of the telenovelas were either overly emotional, highly sexualized with limited intelligence, or not as sexualized with more intelligence. The plotline of most telenovelas involved a woman facing a form of tragedy that embarks on a journey to find love with a man that satisfy her desires. These telenovelas …show more content…
The uses and gratification theory, theorizes that individuals pick and choose certain messages they receive from media (Jackson 2018). I feel that the uses and gratification theory hold as a common way for an individual to consume media. Although, there are negative stereotypes of Latinas in telenovelas they still appeal to me on the grounds that they are entertaining the idea of finding love, which I desire to obtain. I choose to selectively consume the messages of love communicated in the telenovelas and disregard the stereotypes. However, the way we consume media remains complex and I feel a combination of different aspects of media theories are how people consume the media. The cultivation theory would claim that continuous exposure to television has the capability of cultivating culture and common belief (Jackson 2018). I agree with this claim, there is a strong message of marriage represented in telenovelas. My grandmother continues to feed me notions about finding a husband that has the financial stability to support me and who has the strength to protect me. The stereotypes produced by the media in telenovelas enforce the importance of marriage and relationship for women in Latin American