Oh, dear, la Macha has bad taste

7 Oct 2009

Remember how I encouraged you all to go visit the “who has the best chest in Hollywood” poll? And how I asserted that it couldn’t possibly be anybody else other than Salma Hayek?

Ergh.

Well, I was reading a story on CNN about how the National Organization for Women is protesting David Letterman and CBS, and I came across their anti-chest petition:

Yes, the Internet is full of this kind of exploitative, sexist junk, but shouldn’t we expect better from the Huffington Post? The website links to a previous contest where readers voted on men’s chests, but that’s just a little different, don’t you think? Women are constantly judged and rated on their physical assets and sex appeal, and the Huffington Post really doesn’t need to be in the business of encouraging this practice. Not to mention, how old was the grade school boy who devised the rating scale? The use of the word “gross” is so degrading and juvenile that the folks at Huffington Post should be embarassed.

The whole post follows up with a link on how you can “take action.”

Now, admittedly, I didn’t really pay any attention at all to the rating scale, as I didn’t vote, and I never comment. I was absolutely being a dirty pervert and panting all over Salma’s cleavage, so I just didn’t notice. Upon finding out, yes, I do think it’s shitty to say that a woman could *possibly* have “gross’ tetas.

And on the whole, I do agree that the Huffington Post is singularly irritating with all it’s “naked celebrity womenz!” pictures on the sidebar. Something I’ve especially noticed is the glee it seems to take in pointing out every time Rihanna wears anything that remotely resembles any sort of S & M outfit. As if, dressing in bondage outfits for a photo shoot plus being beaten by your boyfriend some how equals “she likes being smacked around.”

So I get what NOW is saying. Huffington Post appeals to pig in all the liberal elite out there who are too conscientious and morally upright to surf porn sites. Which really sucks when you’re just trying to find out about what is going on with immigration or the latest in the Health care debate.

But at the same time…the heteronormativity (assuming all people are heterosexual) of the NOW statement also sorta irritates the shit out of me. I love tetas. I love Salma’s tetas especially. I got her as my screen saver and have seen every last one of her movies both good and bad. I would *totally* publish a “which picture of Salma’s boobs is hottest” poll on VL if VL had the capabilities of doing so–And I am certainly not a grade school boy.

Is there a way that these feminists can allow the space for queer dyky butch femme lesbian gender questioning trans unsure but totally hot for Salma Hayek people to just glory in Salma (or any other hot woman)? Without it being labeled as sexist garbage that we all have to protest?

How many chicanita dykes out there now think that to be proper feminist you must find looking at hot boobs to be sexist and disgusting?

And how is that message any different from what they are hearing in church or at school even?

What do you think?

6 Responses to Oh, dear, la Macha has bad taste

Marco

October 7th, 2009 at 8:31 pm

You’re allowed to do whatever you want, but understand that you “loving” her as your screensaver, and subjecting us to that “love,” is equivalent to loving porn of Latinas and all the repercussions that arise from that “love” of porn. Latinas are already facing a lot of issues, from high birth rates, high occurrences of STDs, to eerily high levels of depression and attempted suicides to name a few. Is porn the reason why? I don’t think there is a single reason why, but the over-sexualization and unrealistic portrayals of Latinas in the media, i.e., the numerous Latina-only porn sites, images in prime-time television, music videos, your pic, I would posit contribute in some way to this social dilemma.

I would likewise argue, putting that picture on this forum, objectifying Salma, and sexualizing her is eerily similar to the racialization Latino/as have been subjected to ever since conquistadors started converting our indigenous women and handing them out to Spaniards, for fun. (I’m sure conquistadors just thought my Incan ancestors, “were just so freakin’ hot!”)

I’d like to think this is a safe place for all. Subjecting the public to your standards of beauty would be like me posting a picture of porn on this website and saying: “Isn’t she hot yo?”

So where is the forum for something like that? I visit this blog frequently, and personally speaking, seeing that pic of her cleavage–whatever I think of Salma–cheapened the news preceding your post and following your post. I’m not going to look at anything else you write ever again. Frankly, I feel this isn’t the forum for that. But that’s just me. And I hope the organizers of this website–powerful women who I feel fight the good fight against inequality–let you know what’s up.

Write a column somewhere else for that shit.

la Macha

October 7th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

Thanks for your comments, Marco.

As an oversexualized Latina, I appreciate that you care so much about my sexuality. You have several good points about not posting any of “that shit” on a website–but you also seem to have an idea that latinas can’t be sexual at all. That one latina woman finding another latina woman amazing is the equivalent of Spanish conquistadors raping and sexually violating indigenous women seems to be overly controlling. Is this because you are respectful of all women, or because you find lesbian Latinas expressing their desires filthy and disgusting?

I am not denying for one minute that there is a problem in how Latinas are portrayed in general and how women of color and white women are portrayed, just as you said. I admitted in the post that as much as I hate NOW, I do see their point.
But I also am queer, and live in a small community and know that women and girls like me have no way to understand their desires at all until they turn to the internet. Is taking a picture of a woman who purposefully dressed with her boobs pushed up as a joke and posting it–and saying as a woman, I find this woman hot–is it really contributing to AIDs and suicide and depression? Or is it saying that it is o fucking k for a latina woman to find another latina sexually appealing?

Are you queer? Do you know how many queers of color commit suicide because they are told their desires are wrong and filthy?

Maegan La Mala

October 8th, 2009 at 8:41 am

Woah Marco, no se if you are the Marco I think you are pero as one of the powerful mujeres behind this site, I personally invited Macha to be a part of the VivirLatino community and that means that she has the power and voice to post what she likes because I trust her. I do not screen posts and when it comes to how we as Latina women express our sexuality, be that with my own personal teta pictures, which I have been criticized on VivirLatino over, or Macha’s Salma pictures, this is a safe space for us. So I’m letting you know what’s up. Like you said, men have a million and one spaces to explore their sexuality and their sexual desires, is the sexuality of Latinas, our desires and the complexities within that desire not part of the Latino experience.

Marco

October 9th, 2009 at 12:12 am

http://www.nea.org/home/32071.htm

Write about this report. Maybe a personal experience. Whether or not you agree with these findings.

I’m not trying to impose any standards of my standards of sexuality. Who we decide to love, lust, want, is an entirely personal matter. It shouldn’t be defined or dictated by anyone. Nor should human interaction be censored in any way. So I apologize if my post read this way. It was not meant to be read in this way.

I am merely stating that there is a more positive, and less-offensive, way to promote sexuality and sexual-orientation. I think many of the difficulties faced by GLBT youth stem a lack of safe spaces, and according to this report, a lack of understanding. (A GLBT youth will not think about suicide or dropping out of school if only ONE adult acknowledges him/her???) How does something like this occur in the U.S.?

My only concern are the confused. If you think showing tits, glorifying tits, and sexualizing yet another Latina is fine. If you think it’s a reclamation of LATINA SEXUALITY!!!! Then do you.

I’m fortunate enough to have resolved issues concerning my sexuality, to understand the scope of my sexuality, and ultimately to accept my sexuality. (Do all youth–those in need of safe spaces–have the opportunity to do this?) I understand Salma is physically beautiful. But it’s not about her. Or how I feel about her. It’s about others, others who I want to understand and support. Others whom society so desperately wants to marginalize because of their “deviation” from what is “normal.”

Paul

October 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

Letterman is fine; he never was the “Family Values” type. Yes, he probably cheated on his girlfriend now wife. But at least he does go around claiming he is Mr. “Family Values” like some of our politicians/ preachers (can you just see the grin on all “Fake News” reporters/ commentators and the Palin fringe). This has been a tough summer, for Dave, for our economy but at least he did not end up on the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Sanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC). Did I miss the NOW statement of outrage with Senator John Ensign? They are so irrelevant.

softestbullet

October 14th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

I’m a woman who thinks Salma Hayek is beautiful, too. The problem to me is not enjoying pictures of beautiful women, but publicly judging and ranking them against other women.

VivirLatino

Oh, dear, la Macha has bad taste

6 Responses to Oh, dear, la Macha has bad taste

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