In Shari Roberts’s "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti
Hat" she notes the complex star text of Carmen Miranda from an ethnic and
sexual point of view. Before I read this article I only had an impression of
her image with fruit on the top of her head from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. This
iconic image represents her as an exotic eye candy. She’s commoditized with her
stereotypical Latino costumes, mise-en-scenes, songs, dances, and even accents.
Her exotic image and body is also sexualized as stereotypical sexy Latino
woman.
However the article also argues about Miranda’s effort to
both play within the stereotype and try to change it as much as she can. She
tries to re-produce and control her image. Although she has to accept the
stereotypical image due to the American audience market without the freedom to
re-invent herself a lot, she tries her best to do so within the space she has
available. I understand that star images are all commodities for a specific
part of the market, and that many of the stars’ personas over-simplify a human
into an unrealistic figure. I respect Miranda’s choice to embrace the figure although
it’s disrespecting, and tries to change it with her power.
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