POWERFUL ASSES … ‘Those major buttocks speak about Afro-Caribbean music—Shakira danced champeta and JLo did the perreo with J. Balvin; they produce discomfort because, as they move those liquid hips, they remind us of the mix we are. They remind us of the Arab heritage as well as that of the Empire, with the slaveholding and painful history that underlies it. They produce discomfort, those bilingual asses, so typical of a sensuality tied to a culture that is so alien and intimidating to the Puritan spirit inscribed in the founding of the United States. ‘ … and more!!
In “¿Por qué incomodan los culos de JLo y Shakira?” Ana Teresa Toro (El País) writes, “JLo and Shakira’s sensual show raises complex questions about women. Do their solid, round, bouncing, glorious asses that move without any qualms make people uncomfortable?” [To understand the underpinnings of this article, it is necessary to get acquainted with specific cultural references, for example, the notoriety of Puerto Rican singer/performer Iris Chacón, her infamous coolant commercial, and perhaps to engage in a re-reading of Luis Rafael Sánchez’s La guaracha del Macho Camacho (Macho Camacho’s Beat)]. Here are just a few excerpts; read the full article in Spanish at El País.
[. . .] Chacón and the long list of performers who have worked on a similar aesthetic—from Tongolele to Sofía Vergara—pose a series of awkward questions both for those who criticize them and those who celebrate them.
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