Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment

Jillian Hernandez

Published by Duke University Press 2020

Aesthetics of Excess

The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment

Jillian Hernandez

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012634

Overview
Contents

About this book

Analyzing the personal clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of working-class Black and Latina girls, Jillian Hernandez examines how cultural discourses of aesthetic value racialize the bodies of women and girls of color.

Author / Editor information

Jillian Hernandez is Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies at the University of Florida.

Reviews

“Aesthetics of Excess brings together culo, spandex, and style to make bold provocations on race, aesthetics, and embodiment. Making a sparkling intervention into conversations on racialized sexuality, Hernandez uses the "body narratives" we inherit to add fleshy substance to our understanding of how color, culture, and class shape how subjects traverse geographies of belonging.”

-- Juana María Rodríguez, author of Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings

“I am thrilled that Jillian Hernandez has found a thoughtful, thorough way to begin a conversation around the Latinx, academic, and institutional discomfort with what they perceive as young women's problematic, not-Latina-feminist-enough gender politics. What a joy it is to know that this highly original and downright necessary book is now in the world. Aesthetics of Excess makes an outstanding contribution to feminist scholarship.”

-- Maria Elena Buszek, author of Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture

"There’s a real beauty to being able to own yourself and how you show up in the world; Aesthetics of Excess illuminates it."

-- Evette Dionne Bitch Media

“Black and Latina aesthetic practices are carefully crafted and layered. Aesthetics of Excess treats these self-stylings with the nuance they deserve, understanding them as interventions in a visual landscape that surveilles excess as a way to continually police working-class women of color.”

-- Kristie Soares Latino Studies

“In a world that continually tells Black and Latina girls to take up less space, to be less visible, to do their work without comment, sigh, or sass, Hernandez and her team at WOTR celebrate the excess. . . . Hernandez deftly explores and theorizes the contours of blackness and latinidad in Miami.”

-- Aria S. Halliday American Quarterly

“Hernandez manages the difficult feat of crafting an approachable text that could be read by the young women she speaks with while remaining faithful to the demands of a scholarly monograph. . . . [The Aesthetics of Excess] is a thrilling work that never forgets that loving its subjects is essential to scholarly precision.”

-- Iván Ramos Lateral

"The book’s strength lies in Hernandez’s sharp arguments and the theoretical threads she interweaves. Rather than considering Black and Latina body aesthetics against the implicit whiteness of categories deemed 'standard' or 'tasteful' in mainstream US culture, the book names them, claims them, and presents them in their own light."

-- Alicia Eler Hyperallergic

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
INTERLUDE ONE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
ONE. READING BLACK AND LATINA EMBODIMENT IN MIAMI Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
TWO. SEXUAL-AESTHETIC EXCESS: Or, How Chonga Girls Make Class Burn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
THREE. “FINE AS HELL”: The Aesthetic Erotics of Masculinity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
INTERLUDE TWO Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
FOUR. ROCOCO PINK: The Power of Nicki Minaj’s Aesthetics of Fakery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
INTERLUDE THREE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
FIVE. ENCOUNTERS WITH EXCESS: Girls Creating Art, Theory, and Sexual Bodies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
INTERLUDE FOUR Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
EPILOGUE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
REFERENCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 320

eBook

Published: September 21, 2020
ISBN: 9781478012634