Core Response #4: J.Lo vs. Shakira

I found Ovalle’s in-depth exploration of the nature of Lopez’s stardom in “Framing Jennifer Lopez: Mobilizing Race from the Wide Shot to the Close-Up” particularly interesting of the readings. Ovalle makes the case for J.Lo’s star power stemming in part from her racial ambiguity that situates her as a non-threatening figure in between black and white culture. At the end of her article, Ovalle asks how the next Latina performer will “shake her assets in the national/media spotlight,” which made me wonder who, in the wake of the late 1990s Latin invasion, has taken J.Lo’s place? I think that Shakira, of all the crossover Latino/a stars, best embodies the kind of ambiguity and power that J.Lo maintained as they both maneuver between a position of normality and the Other.

There are many parallels to be drawn between these two women: with her English-language debut in 2001, Shakira came onto the mainstream American music scene and although there were immediate comparisons between her and Britney Spears, she set herself apart in a significant way: by shaking her ass really well. Like J.Lo and other crossover stars, Shakira was racially ambiguous and could assimilate more easily into American culture. Or perhaps more accurately, she became racially ambiguous (by dying her naturally dark hair to bright blonde and toning her body) in order to assimilate more easily into American culture, which she achieved so successfully that the first time I saw the video of “Whenever, Wherever,” I asked my friend if Britney had done something to her face.

Yet, like J.Lo, Shakira as a Latina can never fully occupy a place in hegemonic white culture and so she and the media often play up her differences as signs of exoticism that “diversify” our conservative white society, which Ovalle describes: “the prototypical Latina body—not too light or too dark by Hollywood standards—effectively illustrates diversity and economizes representation: it diversifies both black and white venues” (169). As both readings on J.Lo noted, this sense of exoticism and sensuality associated with the Latina body can be perceived as threatening if it is excessive. So while no one else can shake it quite like Shakira (thus she stands out because of her difference), what she’s shaking (her hips and butt) is not so physically excessive as to force her to occupy too threatening of a position as the Other. And just as J.Lo’s increasingly straight hair and slim body mediate the potential threat she could embody as a Latina, Shakira’s blonde hair, transition to English and collaboration with other pop stars in the mainstream (Beyonce, Wyclef Jean), also alleviate her inherent position as the Other.

A primary difference between Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, however, emerges from the background of the two stars. While J.Lo, a second-generation Puerto Rican, overplays her “street credibility” from growing up in the Bronx, Shakira, a native Colombian, emphasizes her “authenticity” stemming from her Lebanese father’s roots. Shakira often incorporates Arabic-style music into her own and perhaps most importantly, her dancing revolves around belly-dancing to the point that she can release a song called “Hips Don’t Lie” and have it be the number one song in the country. For me, I find these aspects of her image interesting because as anyone who listened to her Spanish music before her crossover knows, hip and butt-shaking were not the defining characteristics of Shakira’s career or image. There are traces of her Lebanese descent in her music before 2001, but she did not identify herself primarily with these roots.

And yet, with the release of an English album and transition into mainstream American culture, her Lebanese background suddenly comes to the forefront as the defining force behind her music, image and performance style. It is through these roots that she can showcase her butt because while she does not have access to the cinematic screen like J.Lo, she does have music videos and the stage as visual forums to show off her assets. Shakira’s Lebanese background, while positioning her as Other, underscores her exoticism and sensuality which are essential to her role as a commodity for mainstream culture. And so, to answer Ovalle’s concluding question, I would say that Shakira took over to "shake her assets" in the national spotlight, although since her popularity in mainstream culture has been dwindling of late, I'll be interested to see who takes her place in the future.