Latina Women and Positive Self Image

Latinx Women Reclaiming Their Bodies and Self-Love

According to Stokes, Clemens, & Rios (2016), historically Latinx women have been assumed to embrace a more positive body shape and image than their Caucasian counterparts. Much like African American culture, Latino culture has been thought to be more accepting of a fuller, more voluptuous figure. However, this acceptance may have been overstated and does not fully embrace the complexities of how Latinx women relate to their bodies.

Other studies have linked media images which depict a discrepancy between body image and actual experience of the self (such as models with a substantially lower BMI than the average American woman) as a source of low self-esteem (Stokers, et al., 2016). Higher rates of media consumption are associated with higher rates of body dissatisfaction in Latinx women. “Moreover, internalization was associated positively with social comparison, and social comparison was associated positively with body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness” (Stokes, et al., 2016, p.7). In fact, Latinx women are just as likely to have eating disorders as their white counterparts, but are far less likely to be diagnosed, because of the lack of awareness among clinicians and the common perception that women of culture are less weight-conscious (Reichard, 2015).

Latinx women may find themselves in a double bind. On one hand, they are subjected to unrealistic standards of contemporary culture regarding very thin bodies, and the need for perfection in professional and personal lives. On the other hand, they are subjected to their own family and internal standards about the ideal of Latinx women. This is not only in terms of being sexy and voluptuous yet thin. It is also in terms of hair and skin. For example, one salon owner who desires to promote body acceptance among her Latinx clients notes how she must convince her clients that their natural hair should not be described as bad, or their darker skin. “Language is powerful, and if we change the way we talk about hair, we are able to change the way we look at hair” (Reichard, 2015, par.3). Latinx women are subjected to a host of complex pressures from their own culture’s standards that prioritize female beauty standards, as well as American culture. Even if Latinx women feel accepted for their bodies at home, there is pressure to assimilate to America, and this means accepting the standards of beauty, whiteness, thinness, and femininity as defined by mainstream US imagery (Reichard, 2015).

However, American culture is growing more diverse, in terms of its mainstream media. Also, Latinx women are increasingly being exposed to influencers online who are of their heritage and offering conflicting standards of beauty that neither adhere to traditional standards of Latina beauty nor American beauty. Latinx influencers’ can be plus-sized, athletic, and explicitly produce content to cater to a Latinx audience (Reichard, 2015). This can enable Latinx consumers to circumvent some of the traditional self-subverting images and messages regarding weight they might have been more apt to have been exposed to on US television in the past, as well as in schools and in the workplace.