Media Writing Lab

By: DaBreonna Doss I ran across Jane the Virgin one day in hopes of finding a new series on Netflix. It is about this Latina girl who grows up on strict religious views. She lives with her grandmother and mother, whom was in the country illegally, and she falls in love with a white cop that one night crashed her party. Later, she goes into the doctor for a checkup but instead received an artificial insemination in place of a wife who could not get pregnant. The storyline exaggerates from there, however, there are a few themes that I specifically want to point out. These themes include Jane’s love story, her childhood background, and circumstances her Latina body is placed in. The chapter Mobilizing the Latina Myth by author Priscilla Peña Ovalle in the book In Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom exposes the myth of the Latina body and the ways in which Hollywood media and popular culture further these themes. Ovalle begins her analysis by exploring th...

By: Helina Samson Growing up, I idolized the few shows that portrayed characters that looked somewhat like me, The Proud Family was one of those shows. I could connect with Penny Proud, being a black woman in a seemingly diverse neighborhood, I looked up to Penny and found community within her struggles. I never realized why I felt so connected to Penny but not anyone else in the show, until I learned what the term colorism meant. Colorism is defined as “discrimination or prejudice towards individuals with a darker skin tone”, and is sadly prevalent in today’s society. I didn’t realize that the show was created in a way that allowed Penny to benefit from positive characteristics by consequently instilling negative stereotypes into the darker-skinned characters. I felt connected to Penny because I was supposed to feel connected to Penny, who is portrayed as beautiful with eurocentric features and a down to earth personality. The article Pride and Prejudice: Pervasiveness of Co...