Talent More Important than Looks? Not if You're Latina

“Naya Rivera Sizzles On Rolling Stone Flip Cover Featuring The Latin Hot List 2013” blared the headline on the Huffington Post’s "Latino Voices" section, followed by the lead “Naya Rivera is hot - if you had any doubts just check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone.”  Both the Rolling Stone cover story and the HuffPost’s coverage of it seem aimed at celebrating Rivera’s success borne from her singing talents.  Unfortunately, neither accomplishes this and it is bad for Hispanic and Latino women.


For those unfamiliar with her, Rivera is one of the many stars of the Fox network's dramedy/musical “Glee,” which centers on the lives of current and former members of a high school glee club.  Rivera portrays Santana, a former cheerleader, glee club member, mean girl starting her post-high school life in New York City with other former classmates.  Rivera’s success on “Glee” has enabled her to start the musical recording career that Rolling Stone seems to want to discuss.

Yet, the talent most on display that HuffPost celebrates is Rivera’s ability to dress scantily and pose provocatively, noting, “The 26-year-old strikes a seductive pose as the queen of Rolling Stone’s Latin Hot List…”

Image from Rolling Stone
available at
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/naya-rivera-leads-rolling-stones-latin-hot-list-2013-20131106

This is sad state of affairs for Hispanic and Latino female artists, one that does not seemed to have improved much during the past 30 to 40 years.  Linda Ronstadt, for example, famously has complained about her portrayal on the cover of Time magazine in 1977.  Ronstadt was the most famous and the highest paid woman in rock-and-roll during the 1970s, yet the Time cover seemed concerned only with the seductive image Ronstadt could project under the headline “Torchy Rock.”

Time, 28 February 1977
available at
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770228,00.html

That the music and magazine industries have done little to in the way of celebrating Hispanic and Latino female artists for their talents instead of their looks is shameful.  That these industry’s business structures compel women to think they need to use their looks to attract attention to their careers is equally so.  It has been over 30 years since Ronstadt's appearance on the cover of time.  Will it take still another 30 years before the conditions change?