Tag: Gender Stereotypes

Salma Hayek for Milk: New Advertisement, Old Stereotypes

Salma Hayek’s Milk Mustache Ad

Perhaps one of the best known,  if not actually the best known, Mexican actresses in Hollywood of our time is Salma Hayek.  Though she is widely respected, even she cannot escape being used by the dominantly white, heterosexual, male media to perpetuate potentially harmful stereotypes about the women of her culture.  Though the advertisement is apparently meant to sell us milk, what it really sells us is the oppression of the Mexican woman.

As viewers, we are immediately tipped off to contextualize Hayek with Mexicanas by the advertisers use of background music that is culturally recognizable as Mexican music.  We are also asked immediately to sexualize her, for the first shots of her are running around her kitchen in a revealing little black dress and makeup.  She opens her refrigerator and pulls out an empty milk bottle.  The next scene shows her searching frantically for more milk in an empty store refrigerator as she is ogled shamelessly by the white male cashier.

Soon, still on her desperate milk search, she breaks one of her high heeled shoes.  High heeled shoes are an icon of femininity in our society.  As one breaks, we are reminded of her femaleness, and we are being led to view it as frivolous and weak.  She finally finds success in her venture when she flags down a milk truck she is driving next to.  The milk truck, of course, is being driven by a white male.  She begs him to stop and give her milk, prostrating herself and prominently displaying her cleavage.  Shocked and enraptured by her sexuality, he gives her a bottle of milk.

In the last and final scene, we see Salma Hayek again in the kitchen in the same skimpy dress, yet it is the morning after.  Next to her is her daughter who uses the milk for her cereal.  This reaffirms the hegemonic white heterosexual male view that women, especially Latin women, can be only two things: mothers and sexual objects.

Throughout the whole advertisement, Hayek’s gender and ethnicity are used as a gimmick.  In line with popular representation of Latinas in the media, Hayek is ruled by her passions.  She is seemingly incapable of getting what she needs on her own, and it is only when she uses her sexual pull that she can be helped.  In line with patriarchal paternalism, she is helped by a heterosexual white male, and only then can she achieve her ends.

Why was she portrayed in sexualized clothing, instead of the lounge clothes usually worn by people late at night and early in the morning?  Why is she portrayed as weak, helpless, and emotional? Why are we being reminded that she is a mother?  Because these are the things that the mainstream American media would like us to believe about Latin women.  Because if we believe that they are merely sexual objects, or mothers, or people who need help in simple tasks such as finding milk, then there can be justification for their oppression.

Gender Stereotypes & Reaching The Top in the Workforce

In Chicana Feminist Thought, “A Chicana’s Message,” “El Movimiento and the Chicana,” and “Viva La Chicana and All Brave Women of La Causa” there’s an overwhelming sentiment from Chicana women that they did not feel fully supported by their men because of prevalent sexist attitudes especially, when they wanted to pursue their goals either personal or professional.  They shared an immense guilt when having to choose between their ambitions and serving their community either as wives, sisters, daughters, etc. These Chicana women expressed their disappointment and their desire to do more during the Chicano Movement, but if you fast-forward about 41 years later to learn about women today. Women are still dealing with similar struggles.

The majority of women face many obstacles in the workplace including and foremost women of color.  Although there have been many advancements, stereotypes and a lack of strong support affect women. Sheryl Sandberg, the current chief operating officer of Facebook, shared in “Why we have too few women leaders” her own experience as a businesswoman and advice in order, to get more women in the workplace.  The data she presents is meant to bring awareness that there’s need to be more changes made. Sandberg says that from 190 head of States only 9 are women, in Parliament only 13 are women and in the corporate sector it tops at 15% or 16% maximum which haven’t moved since 2002 because they have plateau. She says it’s tougher for women because they have harder choices to make. Women really feel pressured to pick between their personal fulfillment and professional success. However, she offers three pieces of advice for more women to “sit at the table, make your partner a real partner and don’t leave before you leave.” The first is about encouraging women to reach for promotions, to negotiate more, and to overcome feelings of inferiority. Feelings of doubt and insecurity are also a product of racial and gender oppression, which Chicana Women actively fought but was called “machismo” and racial hegemony in society. The second advice is also about the importance of making more progress in the home because women are still performing the “second shift” a term from Arlie Russell Hochschild which refers to the additional housework women have to perform on top of their jobs. Chicana women wanted to do more and to feel like partners with their Chicano brothers. One Chicana says, “nothing could be more truly Chicana than the Chicana who wants to be more than a wife, mother, housekeeper” (from Chicana Feminist Thought 80).  They did not want to be confined to the home neither because of their gender nor their race. The last piece of advice encourages women not to stop working or challenging themselves only because they want to start a family. Women should not slow down if they are thinking of one day getting married or having kids because men do worry about that neither should women. Women do not have to choose one or the other. That is why it is important for the equal division of work between men and women in the workplace and in the home. The point is not to stop looking for opportunities.

Furthermore in Advancing Latinas in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know, a more current report on professional Latina women mentions that even though women represent over 50% of the total U.S. workforce in the U.S., Latinas remain virtually invisible in senior management positions at Fortune 500 Companies. The fact is that Latina women are not only fighting against the statistics, but they continue to struggle with traditional gender roles in the family and in their culture.  A Latina professional shares that “Non-minority women would ask me, ‘You cook when you go home?’ And I would say, ‘Yes, I’ve got kids.’ Of course I do; my mother cooked. That’s one of the differences between [other] people and [us]. Food is very important; family is very important” (Catalyst, 2003). This reflects a similar experience most Chicana women felt. Some would feel disloyal to their husband and family if they weren’t in the home serving. Those societal expectations still exist and will continue to if double standards exist too.  They need to be challenged for the sake of all women.

In a world full of struggles, that is why Chicana women wanted to create solidarity with all women and challenge society.  The fight is far from over because there are still changes to be made locally, nationally, and globally but it must first begin in the home.

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