Does Jennifer Lopez Have To Go White In Order To Have A Hit Romantic Comedy Film?

 

Although some people believe we live in a post racial world, the truth is race still matters in pop culture. Jennifer Lopez new romantic comedy “The Back Up Plan“, her love interest is once again a white man.For instance,  in order, for an actress of colour to become a mainstream movie star, her love interests must be a white heterosexual man.

If  you look at Jennifer Lopez’s career, she mostly makes romantic comedies and all her love interests are exclusively white men.

Here is a list of Jennifer Lopez white male love interests in romantic comedies:

Matthew McConaughey was the male lead  in the 2001 film “The Wedding Planner.”

The British actor Ralph Fiennes was Jennifer Lopez romantic partner in 2002’s  “Maid In Manhattan.”

Michael Vartan was the male love interest in “Monster In Law” in 2005.

If you are paying attention, “Maid In Manhattan”, “The Wedding Planner”,  and “Monster in Law”, were all hits at the box office.

In fact, the biggest hit of Lopez career was “Maid In Manhattan” the interracial comedy made $94 million dollars at the North American box office.

However, in 2006, Jennifer made the independent  film “El Cantante” with her husband Marc Anthony. Although El Cantante wasn’t a great film, the fact that is Lopez’s Latino husband Marc Anthony was the male lead.

The result was, “El Cantante” only made $7 million dollars at the box office. Although, “El Cantante” wasn’t a bomb because it was an independent film it was not a hit.  “El Cantante” also received vociferous film reviews.

In addition, some members of the Latino community in America believe Jennifer Lopez is a hypocrite. For instance, on the internet, some Hispanic bloggers criticized Jennifer Lopez for waiting so long to have a Hispanic man as her love interest in a movie.

In press interviews, Lopez proclaims she is very proud to be a Latina. However, another point to consider is, when it relates to making money in her movies Jennifer Lopez  consistently has a white male love interest.  It appears Jennifer Lopez she is following the  status quo in order to maintain her fame and generate revenue.

If Jennifer Lopez is so proud of her Latin American roots, why hasn’t she chosen a Latino male actor as her love interest for her romantic comedies?

Why is Lopez’s male love interests the interchangable, bland, white heterosexual males?

It appears in Hollywood, that Jennifer Lopez she is cognizant that  if she wants to have a hit movie she has to have a white male love interest. The white male love interest doesn’t need to be star. The only requirements for Jennifer Lopez white male love interests are that these men must be young, physically fit,  and attractive.

We live in a society that believes white heterosexual men are the most desirable men for heterosexual women of colour.

The subversive racist message is, heterosexual women of colour in pop culture are not sexually attracted to heterosexual men of colour.

Heterosexual men of colour are emasculated because they are viewed as “the other” by Hollywood.

If you watch the ABC television show “Ugly Betty”,  America Ferrera’s love interests are always white males.

The racist subliminal message is, that white men are the dominant men in society and that men of colour are inferior and less desirable.

Where does this leave male actors of colour?  How many films are created with a male actor of colour and a Hispanic or white leading actress?

Male actors of colour are caught in limbo because they cannot work with an A list actress of colour such as Halle Berry or  Jennifer Lopez.  Latino male actors also are unlikely to have a white woman as their love interest in their movies.

The only way a Latino male actor will have a white female love interest is if he is a white Hispanic. Antonio Banderas is a  white Spaniard, he is a European although he is called “Latino” by the press he is from the European Union. Banderas is still a white man.   Benicio Del Toro he also has had white female love interests because although he is Puerto Rican, he is a white Hispanic as well.

The darker skinned  Latino male actors are therefore segregated into “ethnic films” if these films are romantic comedies. Benjamin Bratt he has complained in the media that brown-skinned Latino men have a hard time obtaining leading men roles due to racism.

However, white heterosexual male actors can “shift” between white women and women of colour due to their whiteness. White male actors have white male skin privilege therefore they have the power to be the leading men for “all” women in Hollywood. White male actors are not “segregated” because they are white men.

For instance, Jennifer Lopez’ s comeback vehicle “The Back Up Plan”, will be released this month. Of course, Jennifer Lopez love interest  is a white man his name is  Alex O’ Loughlin. I have never heard of O’Loughlin, he is not a star but he’s a white male and that’s all the studio cares about.

The reason Jennifer Lopez career is very similar to Halle Berry’s career they first started to work in ethnic films and television shows. However, once  Berry and Lopez reached the mainstream their love interests skin colour became lighter and whiter.

A slight difference between Jennifer Lopez and Halle Berry is, that Lopez racial background is more racially ambiguous. Lopez’s mother Guadeloupe`s roots trace back to Spain.

Jennifer  Lopez image in Hollywood is closer to being a white Hispanic than being a Latina. Although Lopez claims she is  proud of her Latina roots,  her movies  tends to her erase her Latina heritage.

Cameron Diaz is another Latina actress that downplays her Hispanic heritage in order to be successful in Hollywood. For instance, Diaz’s  father he  is Cuban,  but

Diaz is basically a white Hispanic. Diaz she has  blonde hair,  blue eyes, and white skin,  therefore she is able to assimilate into whiteness. The marketing strategy for Jennifer Lopez is similar to Cameron Diaz, she has to erase her Latina heritage and assimilate into whiteness to make  hit movies.

Another quandary is, there are a paucity of young Latino male actors that are mainstream stars. Hollywood is  not interested in developing young heterosexual Latino male talent to be the love interests for Latino women.

However, there are gorgeous Latino men in Hollywood such as Adam Rodriguez and  Jay Hernandez. However, Rodriguez was recently the love interest of Taraji P Henson in Tyler Perry’s movie “I Can Do Bad All By Myself”” last fall.

Since Rodriguez is a Latino male, he is considered too “dangerous” to be a love interest for Jennifer Lopez due to America’s anxieties about race.  Henson and Rodriguez’s romance in “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” works because they are both actors of colour.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez doesn’t want to be viewed as a “Latina actress” she wants mainstream acceptance and appeal to white folks.  Adam Rodriguez or Jay Hernandez will never be Jennifer Lopez’s love interest in her movies because they are not white.

The racist message is, the whiter the male love interest the bigger potential a movie can “crossover” and become a box office hit.

The reason Alex O’Loughlin was chosen as Jennifer Lopez love interest is due to Hollywood politics.

Although Rodriguez and Hernandez are more established than O’Loughlin, he gets the role to be the love interest due to his skin colour.

The ideology is, white people will not watch a movie with two actors of colour in a leading role especially if it is a romantic film. The Hollywood studios care about generating revenue and if a romantic comedy has two “ethnic leads” this means the film will be branded by the white media as an “urban film”.

The word “urban” is a code word constructed by the racist media to alert white people to “avoid” a movie that a film has  people of colour in the lead roles.

Shouldn’t there be more romantic heterosexual movies with Latino actors in the English world? Will society ever change?