‘Hippy’ versus Latina, Body Politics

A while back, “Sex and the City” star Krisin Davis said that she was considered “hippy” but had found a way to accept her body.  At the time, I laughed out loud at myself, and clicked to the next story.

But looking back, I think her comments were just part of a bigger, largely unspoken rule in the U.S. that only certain types of bodies are acceptable, while the rest of us non-European, non-tall, non-light, non-blonde, broad shouldered, barrel-chested, wide-footed, big-bootied folk are to be relegated to an inferior status.

This even shows up in the infamous BMI (body mass index) scale, where even when I was at my thinnest (so thin that people other than my grandmother thought I was too skinny) showed me bordering on obese, even though I was wearing clothing sizes in the single digits.  Perhaps I’m not the best example for this bias, but it’s out there.

Here are Davis’ words:  “You get a lot of criticism out in the world or on the internet about how you look. Fat here, fat there. Hippy this, hippy that.”

Now, if this skinny little thing is vulnerable to that type of judgement in the entertainment industry, is it any wonder that only Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek can ever play the Latino?