Netflix’s “Wednesday” just isn’t the standard Latina illustration we’re used to seeing. Assistant professor of Media Studies on the University of South Florida’s Department of Communication Diana Leon-Boys, PhD, says we have grow to be accustomed to the “can-do Latina” lady. From exhibits like “The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia” to Marvel’s “Runaways,” this Latina can do something she units her thoughts to due to her constructive perspective. She’s a plucky go-getter, a pleaser, and if she faces any systemic boundaries, they don’t seem to be described and positively not ascribed to sexism or racism.
“She can do all of it and she will be able to carry herself up by her bootstraps, which might grow to be dangerous and problematic,” Dr. Leon-Boys, who wrote “Elena, Princesa of the Periphery: Disney’s Flexible Latina Girl,” says of the can-do Latina archetype. She’s grateful to see this new sort emerge within the final decade or so, crediting the extra empowered strategy to portraying Latina women. But she’s nonetheless not happy, telling POPSUGAR, “It’s nonetheless very repetitive, it is nonetheless very comparable, it is nonetheless very a lot a part of this financial risk-averse technique that media conglomerates use as a result of they know it is protected.”
Dr. Leon-Boys recounts an train she does together with her college students wherein she asks them to call Latinx exhibits that do not point out a quinceañera. “I’ve by no means gotten anybody to say greater than two,” she says. And often, they’ve forgotten a element just like the quince flashback in “Jane the Virgin.” There is not any quinceañera in Tim Burton’s “Wednesday.” And our protagonist, performed by Mexican and Puerto Rican actress Jenna Ortega, would hate it anyway. She’s not one for poofy attire or celebrating birthdays on the whole. Wednesday is way more all in favour of dying. Dr. Leon-Boys sees this as a constructive factor.
“I do not wish to say I’m a darkish individual, however I’d align extra with, I do not wish to say ‘pessimistic,’ however extra life like factors of views and mentalities and ideas and concepts and conversations about dying. That I do not assume you actually see quite a bit by means of the determine of a lady on tv, significantly by means of a Latina lady,” she says.
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No one goes to name Wednesday “plucky,” and that is an excellent factor. Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez, PhD, affiliate professor of English at LaGuardia Community College-CUNY, agrees. They say that the pleaser or can-do character units up the story so the “ethical lesson is you must respect your dad and mom. You must respect no matter authorities is in there . . . And so, the people-pleaser characters are all the time those which might be about the established order.”
“There’s nonetheless a number of hypersexualization of younger Latinas and Latina ladies in 2022 within the media. That remains to be one of many stereotypes of Latinas.”
Dressed in all black and “allergic to paint,” Wednesday breaks these molds in additional methods than one. “There’s nonetheless a number of hypersexualization of younger Latinas and Latina ladies in 2022 within the media. That remains to be one of many stereotypes of Latinas,” says Dr. Rodriguez. But fortunately, Wednesday escapes that destiny and does not find yourself on the virgin/asexual aspect both. Instead, she finds herself on the level of a love triangle, under no circumstances a sexual object, and actually buttoned as much as her neck.
It’s refreshing to see a Latina with a unique look. Wednesday is rarely seen in something near a bodycon costume or a brief skirt. Instead, she’s the unique goth, principally in black and all the time with a gothic vibe. “I really feel like we by no means see goth rocker Latinas on TV,” actress Michelle Ortiz not too long ago advised POPSUGAR about her punk character on the not too long ago renewed “This Fool.” And it is true: in actual life, Latinas rock the entire vary of types and identities, however we’re nonetheless vastly underrepresented in terms of our numbers within the inhabitants. And the roles we do get whereas increasing past the sexpot and the maid are nonetheless not expansive sufficient — making Wednesday’s goth lady a nice outlier.
Dr. Rodriguez has hope transferring ahead that we will see a extra assorted illustration of Latinas on display, due to the progress she sees in young-adult literature. “[In YA] the representations of Latinas are so huge, fascinated with all these completely different experiences that younger Latinos [have] within the US. What I recognize concerning the current illustration is that there is no such thing as a shaming,” they are saying. “You wish to be shy and quiet and a household individual? That’s nice, try this — we’re rooting for you. You wish to be a bit of bit extra rebellious? You wish to not be a part of the normal household dynamic? That’s nice, too.”
“Wednesday” does not shrink back from exploring household dynamics even because it bucks different tropes of Latinx illustration. “The mother-daughter relationship is a really huge trope. How do you establish, like, how do you discover your individuality and your personhood? It’s all the time in distinction to the dad and mom. For Latinas, it is all the time in distinction to the mother,” Dr. Rodriguez shares. And that is what you see in “Wednesday,” as our heroine begins the sequence defining herself in opposition to her mom earlier than coming to know herself higher.
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Indeed, Wednesday exists inside the confines of her well-known household. This could also be her story, the place she goes off on an journey of her personal, however she’s firmly rooted in her Addams-ness, due to Thing’s companionship and cameos from the remainder of her family. Dr. Rodriguez sees this dynamic quite a bit in Latinx literature. “How do you keep inside your group and your loved ones but in addition nonetheless study your self by increasing and going outdoors? It’s this actually huge rigidity [and] there’s undoubtedly no line on how you can get it proper. But [it] additionally appears like a really common young-adult expertise.” For Latinx communities, the strain is heightened, as a result of we’re additionally pressured to acculturate to the dominant US ideology that places people above households. Thankfully, as Dr. Rodriguez factors out, “Latinx authors are like saying no, we have to faucet into our tradition, we have to faucet into our traditions, we have to faucet into our household, as like a type of success.”
“We wish to be portrayed as vets, as bakers, as artists, as painters, as activists, as firefighters — every thing. But once we solely have, like, six, seven, or eight, versus 90 plus [shows], they can not do every thing that we presumably need them to.”
That collectivism is actually a part of Wednesday’s story within the new present. She could also be outdoors of her dad and mom’ house, however she’s at their alma mater and, if something, studying extra about her household and their historical past. It’s a pleasant technique to nod to Wednesday’s Latinidad with out dipping into the overplayed components that the media too typically depends on. “We wish to be portrayed as vets, as bakers, as artists, as painters, as activists, as firefighters — every thing,” Dr. Leon-Boys says. “But once we solely have, like, six, seven, or eight, versus 90 plus [shows], they can not do every thing that we presumably need them to. So what I discover is rather like a thirst of traditionally excluded populations [for] extra layers, extra nuance, extra depth.”
Hopefully, Netflix’s “Wednesday” with its anti-“can-do” protagonist helps to quench a few of that thirst. It’s a glass of water on this metaphor, not a deep spring, but it surely’s one thing.
