Shallow No More

In 1998 if your pocket was vibrating, it could only mean a few distinct things: either your digital Tamagotchi pet needed feeding or you were being paged. Literally. The rectangular machine clipped onto your faded Levi’s was beckoning you to work or to respond to your peers via pager.

Our rectangular pocket machines have undergone significant updates in function and fashion since then. With these updates, came great demand, as our technological presence slowly begun to outweigh our lifelike presence. A modern life is chock-full of examples for hyper-connectedness, but with award show season on the forecast it seems fitting to reference the live-feeds that invade social media during nights like Sunday’s American Music Awards.

The 41^st showing of the AMA’s was decorated with chart-topping hits from the year, and some chart-topping performers of years past. Favorable or questionable, all opinions from the night of music were littered on Twitter and stamped on Instagram.

When Jennifer Lopez took to the red carpet, close-ups, wide shots and candid photos of her dress by designer, Reem Acra, which traced the curves of the 45-year-old’s toned bodywere splashed on Instagram. Centered on the visuals, the red carpet updates on Instagram let the public make early predictions as to whether J.Lo would appear on best or worst dressed lists. According to Hollywood Life, “We knew we were gonna see something totally sexy on her, but we didn’t think it was going to be something this revealing!”

Jennifer Lopez on the red carpet at the 2014 American Music Awards, drew by Reem Acra. Courtesy Hollywood Life.

On Twitter, however, garnering “likes” on photos took lower priority to the opinion sharing and commentary that this social media platform is known to collect. On my own Twitter feed, I learned whether my thoughts of J.Lo’s performance at the end of the show were in alignment with the greater population of viewers. J.Lo had me on my feet at the television, so I was happy to find that Twitter responses included, “Well @Jlo had a killer performance at the #AMAs2014” from @BrittaaanyXx and “WOW @Jlo!!! That performance was sick.. Shut it down #AMAs” from @PiaToscano.

The hyper-connectedness between the masses, as demonstrated above, is not only a daily privilege—it’s an opportunity that connects members of nearly every subculture in the U.S. and in the world from minute to minute in modernity. For popular culture fanatics, it necessitates a virtual connection, a red carpet of sorts that bridges the common critic to the celebrities we Tweet in support of.

I’ll admit my bias, and say that award show season is my Mecca. And I’m sitting front row with binoculars and the Thesaurus app open to find as many synonyms for “awe-inspiring” to Tweet about pop divas. However, there is a digital divide within these media spheres wherein specified conversations spiral out from the primary topic. The digital divide creates the cliques of the virtual sphere. This is seen in the access and know-how that Instagram users withhold in making a post with as much visual quality of a photocopied image from a 20^th century fax machine versus a post that belongs in an editorial magazine, and likely will if the right eyes see it.

Jennifer Lopez during her performance of "Booty" ft. Iggy Azalea at the 2014 American Music Awards. Courtesy of Daily Mail.

Keeping in tune with J.Lo during the AMAs, the digital divide spun into some prevalent categories all its own. When looking to J.Lo’s gown on the red carpet, Latino Twitter users dubbed her an array of fiery titles to assure that J.Lo represents a Latina pioneer—la chica ultima. Looking at the same gown, however, middle-aged women of non-Latin descent look to J.Lo and sparked discussion over her age. “Forty-five and fabulous,” they said.

And so she was. Lopez was “bellisma” and she was fabulous for her age. Thanks to the multimedia capabilities that reside in our rectangular pocket machines, celebrities are indebted to the general public in addition to the mainstream media for criticism and appraisal.

The depths of conversation burrow much deeper now, from media sphere to hashtag and the curated conversations that happen therein. It’s true for award shows and for the daily dealings of life. Society keeps connected with more than the shallow sonars of the pager from here on out.

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A 'Booty' by Any Other Name

Of all the fan-made and artist-inspired monikers, none is as renowned as ‘J. Lo’. Withstanding the tests of time and trendiness, Jennifer Lopez has built a brand to outlast the eras of the Puff Daddies and Snoop Doggs whose images were defeated at the turn of the century. Durable and adorable as the 45-year-old has proven to be, J. Lo has also ventured to prove that her moniker comes with an identifier: her bottom.

On September 18, J. Lo released the official music video for ‘Booty’ featuring her Aussie counterpart, Iggy Azalea, with curves down under to rival the original Fly Girl herself. These two femme queens make the most of four minutes and some-odd seconds, showing audiences more dance moves to highlight your rear-end than ever previously imagined. Of course, this is no surprise as the newly ranked Billboard Hot 100 track uses J. Lo’s trademark body part as its namesake.

Jennifer Lopez in the music video for "I Luh Ya Papi" ft. French Montana. Courtesy of  jennifer-lopez.net.

For decades now, the frame through which consumers view J. Lo has been through the recognition of her Latina allure and her best asset. This is to say that the identity and purpose that Lopez serves in the media is conveyed in such a way that audiences interpret her strengths as a star to be dependent on her minority identity. As an actress she has lent beauty and relatable nature to the archetypal Latina maid, the Latin pop star and the unlikely female suitor to the fair-skinned McConaughey-male leads. As an energetic performer, she made us believe that love don’t cost a thing in the presence of catchy choruses and truly bootylicious dance moves (our apologies to Beyoncé, CC: Destiny’s Child). 

Perhaps it is Jenny from the Block’s identity as a minority and as a Latina that contributes to her resistance identity as a curvaceous female. Deserving of the resistance identity title, J. Lo’s media framing keeps her from fitting in with her female counterparts, even within her latest music video alongside Iggy Azalea, because of her warm skin and the rhythmical aptitude, which stereotypes would suggest is all too telling of her Latin upbringing.

In one of the most watched role reversals of mainstream media, Lopez made a satire of the modern music video for her song “I Luh Ya Papi” featuring French Montana. Joining in on the recent trend of female pop stars advocating for gender equity, Lopez “turns the male gaze on its head,” as stated in this music video review from the Huffington Post. Breaking the dichotomy of gender roles and the spectrum of objectification, Jennifer Lopez and her female counterparts make a mockery of men as mere décor—an effort that equity-conscious consumers can surely get behind.

What’s more important than the media frame that permits J. Lo’s booty to precede her in music and movies alike, is the way that she has taken this resistance identity, put on some gold hoop earrings, and has run with it. It is not out of defiance that this Latina from the Bronx has remained a name to know, no matter the monikers you choose. It is with compliance and maybe a little help from a stylist, that J. Lo has embraced her outlier of a silhouette in order to make the most of her Latina identity and to frame her biggest asset for decades on end.

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