Maelie

I don’t see anything bad about being stereotyped as a Latin woman. We are yellers, we’re pretty, we’re sexy, and we’re scandalous. I am not scared of the stereotypes.

—

Sofia Vergara, of Modern Family, who maybe yells a little too much. (via newsweek)

Oh look, it’s a good thing I am typing this instead of, you know, actually YELLING at Newsweak.

Here is the thing: I can understand Sofia Vergara’s words, where she is coming from. Have I “used” the Latina stereotype to my advantage ever in social situations? Yes, probably. I mean, nobody is free from the social context where interactions take place. However, no amount of “making fun of our stereotypes” is ever going to fix stuff like this (from the article):

It’s a quality that DeGeneres poked fun of recently in a behind-the-scenes video for their first Cover Girl shoot, calling Vergara’s accent “phony” and claiming “to be sick of” Vergara’s struggles with the English language.

I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve had to smile politely while people made fun of my accent. We will only be truly free to embrace these stereotypes when we don’t have to deal with reactions like that. Meanwhile, no, I resent the fact that Newsweak implies we should all “exploit” it to our advantage.

(via redlightpolitics)

It should also be noted that while everyone thinks it’s funny on the show, outside of that it becomes something to judge and ridicule. The Latino/Latina stereotype of having an accent eventually becomes “Learn English” and “Why Don’t You Go Back to Mexico (because we are all from Mexico). I cannot recall the amount of times I heard someone say “Why don’t they just learn English” or “I can’t understand them with that accent”. The so-called funny accent often leads to words of hate and anger.

(via newwavefeminism)