America Ferrera Didn’t Win Oscar but Still Inspires Latinas

There’s a purpose why we’re nonetheless speaking about America Ferrera’s “Barbie” monologue months after the blockbuster was launched. While presenting the Best Supporting Actress award throughout the 2024 Oscars, Rita Moreno gave an emotional speech about Ferrera, who was nominated for her function of Gloria within the pink-filled movie. While Ferrera did not wind up taking residence an Oscar — the award as a substitute went to Da’Vine Joy Randolph for her function in “The Holdovers” — Moreno’s speech left of us within the viewers making an attempt to know why.

“America. Your powerful Barbie monologue is perhaps the most talked-about moment in the most talked-about movie of the past year,” Moreno stated. “Your words and the passion with which you delivered them about the most impossible standards females must try to live up to galvanized not only women but everyone with a pulse.”

Even the best way Moreno pronounced “America,” with a Spanish accent and in a sing-song-y voice referencing her iconic function in “West Side Story,” was highly effective. It made the assertion that ladies like Ferrera are simply as American as anybody else residing on this nation.

By now, many individuals have seen Gloria’s impactful speech during which she tells Margot Robbie’s Barbie the reality of what it means to be a lady. She breaks down all of the unimaginable and contradicting expectations which can be consistently positioned on girls.

The shifting monologue pulled on the viewers’s coronary heart strings as a result of it put in plain phrases what girls have needed to endure for hundreds of years and in right now’s nonetheless very patriarchal society. The undeniable fact that this speech was delivered by a Latina actress taking part in a Latina character made it resonate that rather more for me. For any lady who holds intersectional identities, society’s unimaginable expectations grow to be that rather more unimaginable.

As Latinas, we’re instructed we must be skinny no matter if we have had youngsters or not and no matter any well being points we’d have. But we additionally must have huge boobs, a giant butt, and huge hips — therefore why cosmetic surgery is so fashionable in our communities. We need to be sturdy but we are also anticipated to be submissive, particularly with our companions. We’re instructed we have to lead and carry everybody from our spouses to our kids, but if we pour into ourselves, we’re egocentric. We’re imagined to be stunning and attractive sufficient to make any man lust over us, but if we’re too attractive, we’re sluts and we deserve no matter disrespect males throw at us.

While we nonetheless very a lot reside in a patriarchal society, I’m proud to be a Latina residing in a time the place we’re lastly inspired to like ourselves and acknowledge that regardless of the unrealistic expectations which can be consistently positioned on us, we’re in actual fact, sufficient. I’m proud to be residing at a time when girls are lastly throwing these oppressive expectations out the window and giving much less f*cks about current to please the male gaze. We are loving ourselves no matter our physique form or dimension. We are embracing growing old and recognizing our price, even when meaning being “boy sober” or refusing to permit the organic clock dictate our lives.

Ferrera ends her highly effective speech saying, “I’m just tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll representing women, then I don’t even know.”

While the patriarchy has continued to exist for the reason that “Barbie” film got here out and since Ferrera’s monologue went viral, I’m pleased with the influence it has had on so many women and girls. Sometimes all it takes is having our experiences defined proper again at us for us to resolve we’re not giving in to the strain.

Ferrera may not have taken residence an award Sunday evening, but just like the true artist and changemaker she is, she left a mark with that speech that’s already creating shifts in our tradition. Her efficiency is only one step ahead towards future generations of women and girls not having to expertise the unimaginable expectations which have given us a lot grief for hundreds of years. That’s price greater than any Oscar in my guide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBqlDWHkdHk

Johanna Ferreira is the content material director for POPSUGAR Juntos. With greater than 10 years of expertise, Johanna focuses on how intersectional identities are a central a part of Latine tradition. Previously, she spent shut to 3 years because the deputy editor at HipLatina, and he or she has freelanced for quite a few shops together with Refinery29, Oprah journal, Allure, InStyle, and Well+Good. She has additionally moderated and spoken on quite a few panels on Latine id. .