Journal - Week 4 by Wanyi Wang https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm Valdivia - This Tween Bridge en-us 2021-04-06 23:22:12 UTC 2023-05-15 00:54:54 UTC hello@padlet.com Week 4: Valdivia - This Tween Bridge wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1393409036 Angharad Valdivia discusses the “hybrid Latina” as a persistent figure in girls’ popular culture. 
1) What does she mean by this and what “work” does this figure do? In your answer, be sure to reference at least one specific example from the chapter.]]> 2021-04-07 21:14:13 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1393409036 1) What does she mean by this? wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401684983 "Hybrid Latina" refers to people who have brown colour skin or mix races Latinos. Hybridity as an additional element of contemporary U.S. identities, and the use of Latinos body. Hybrid Latina representation displaces black American girl representation because A light brown Latino often subtle to the point of ambiguity, can appeal to a broad of ethnicities from white to black including Latino, Native, Asian, Middle Eastern. In this, the light brown skin tone can represent many ethnicities. For example, actress Jennifer Lopez (Fig.1) is light enough to play a white character but also dark enough to appear ethnic (Valdivia, 2011).]]> 2021-04-09 22:34:36 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401684983 References wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401689337 Valdivia, A. N. (2011). This Tween Bridge over My Latina Girl Back: The U.S. Mainstream Negotiates Ethnicity. In Blue, M., & Kearney, M. (Eds.). Mediated Girlhoods: New Explorations of Girls’ Media Culture (pp. 93-112). Peter Lang US. https://doi.org/10.3726/b13291]]> 2021-04-09 22:38:16 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401689337 2) what “work” does this figure do? In your answer, be sure to reference at least one specific example from the chapter. wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401967648 From the article, the main work that hybrid Latina does is to be an ethnic bridge to mediate the white normativity of the mainstream and ease the tensions between the dominant white culture and other ethnic cultures in dominant media. "the location of Latinidad as an in-between category that mediates the white normatively of the mainstream against the still-threatening (to the mainstream ) demands for inclusion from the historically longstanding black populations places it as a strategic bridge in continuity with ...Latina girls are the bridge over whose backs and booties ethnicity is currently negotiated in this U.S. mainstream" (Valdivia, 2011, p.95). The Latina and other tweens create a subtle and vague ethnicity that is appealing to ethnic viewers but still appealing to the dominant community. For example, the popular girl television "Wizards of Waverly Place"(Fig. 3) on Disney Channel focuses on the Russos, a family that harbours a secret. the mom is Mexican American, the dad is Italian American, and Selena Gomez (Fig.2) as a Mexican American plays the main character, Alex. "Most of the time the family's Latinidad is so subtle as to be literally invisible"(Valdivia, 2011, p.101), but the plots of some episodes would deliver Latin American traditional culture. Therefore, people would pay more attention to light brown girls through the characters they performed, then U.S. popular culture would pay more attention to girls and the multicultural components. For example, Latina stars like Selena Gomez (Fig. 2)and Jennifer Lopez (Fig.1) rise to the frame or bring to the fore celebrity Latinos within the U.S. which can promote multicultural prosperity and empower girls.

Also, the appearance of hybrid Latinos in girl's pop culture make "U.S. popular culture has begun to include a variety of potentially Latina girls in its branded approach to synergistic distribution" 
(Valdivia, 2011, p.94), which hybrid Latina girls can "work" in broadening other commercial markets like mediated doll lines. For example, "American Girl, Dora the Explorer, and Bratz incorporate hybridity and Latinidad...these three mediated doll lines challenge the narrative and the profit line of the previously dominant doll"(Valdivia, 2011, p.97). Hence, the article shows that differentiation is negotiated through an explicit selection of ethnicities within the universe of the specific media product or in comparison to other goods that are available and considered to be in the marketplace. Here, Latinidad is the distinction, the relation that connects whiteness to colour and "natural" to "other" (Valdivia, 2011).]]> 2021-04-10 03:24:02 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401967648 Fig. 1: Jennifer Lopez wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401989070 2021-04-10 03:53:02 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401989070 Fig.3: Wizards of Waverly Place wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401990286 2021-04-10 03:54:32 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401990286 Fig.2: Selena Gomez wanyiwang114 https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401990491 2021-04-10 03:54:51 UTC https://padlet.com/wanyiwang114/usw1hcpjs2ecgfmm/wish/1401990491