August 8, 2009

"Wise Latina" junk for purchase and ego-boosting.

And condescending admiration from the New York Times.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG MY EYES!

Warning: You cannot UNSEE the photo accompanying the linked article.

Anonymous said...

Funny part of the article:

Leticia Van de Putte, a Democratic state senator from San Antonio, said she had T-shirts made, reading “Another wise Latina woman,” as soon as she heard the controversial term ... As a Mexican-American, Senator Van de Putte said, “wise Latina” conjured images of the grandmothers and elder women who were sought for advice and comfort “in our matriarchal culture.”

As there aren't too many Hispanics named "Van de Putte," it's a reasonable guess that this woman's Latina pride didn't extend to choosing a husband.

Come of think of it, Sonia Sotomayor's ex-husband was more Vanilla than Mocha.

Peter

nbks said...

I only know a a little Spanish, but isn't the phrase "Latina woman" redundant?

William said...

I think I read somewhere that about 40% of Hispanics in America are exogamous. If you're not presently related to any Hispanic, wait a generation....I have as many prejudices as the next guy, but I honestly don't think I harbor any negative feelings towards Latin women. More the opposite. Sotomayor made a stupid remark. That doesn't disqualify her for the Supreme Court, but to be proud of that dumb remark speaks poorly of the wisdom of Latinas.....Is it unfair to stereotype Latin women as the kind of people who raised Peron, Pinochet, Castro, Chavez, et al. ad infinitum?

Mark O said...

"isn't the phrase "Latina woman" redundant?"

Both words are required to convey the heft of the woman.

Chris said...

You know who that t-shirt would look awesome on? Althouse. Maybe with the fisheye lens.

Terry Grant said...

"OMG MY EYES!

Warning: You cannot UNSEE the photo accompanying the linked article."

Oh no, your poor piggy eyes had to see a photo of real women. How offensive! The NYT could have, at the least, had the decency to get Salma Hayek to model the shirts.

Anonymous said...

I have as many prejudices as the next guy, but I honestly don't think I harbor any negative feelings towards Latin women.

There's quite a market for Latin porn, almost as big as that for Asian porn, and chances are most of the "consumers" are not Hispanic themselves. Contrast that with "ebony" porn, the market for which is very small.

Of course my taste (heh!) in porn runs toward the, ahem, unshaven variety.

Peter

Anonymous said...

The NYT could have, at the least, had the decency to get Salma Hayek to model the shirts.

Except a woman of European and Lebanese descent would be a strange model for a "Latina" shirt.

Peter

traditionalguy said...

I recall that the NYT ran the first attack piece on Sonia Sotomayor (pre-nomination even)defaming her as an intellectual lightweight that could not counter Alito and Scalia and was at best a hard working hack female Judge (anti-Catholic nuance thrown in at no extra charge). Now we see that she is being used full monte by the NYT as the stereotype for the oppressed hispanics loved by Obama. It seems that the NYT has now gotten the Word from headquarters.

Chase said...

Salma Hayek modeling the t-shirt would have smoothed over a ton of objections.

Shecan have basically anything written across her chest and . . .
I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

knox said...

I'm going to get a "Wise I don't know and couldn't be bothered to care what my cultural lineage is" tee.

Tribalism in all forms is puke-inducing.

dbp said...

"The NYT could have, at the least, had the decency to get Salma Hayek to model the shirts."

Exactly! Good God man, they are the paper of record and what do they do? Snap a picture of the first latina they come across. Bring in a model for goodness sake--some things should be done by professionals.

John Martines said...

This is cool...