latimes.com
Sunday, June 10, 2001
That Was No Lady
I have a difficult time believing Alma Lopez's stated reasons
for creating her so-called "feminist" version of Our Lady of Guadalupe
("Our Lady of Controversy," by Agustin Gurza, May 27). She professes
reverence, but sexualizes the images to forward her agenda on lesbian relationships.
Someone so supposedly rooted in Mexican culture would understand that Our
Lady of Guadalupe is held in the highest esteem by men and women; she is viewed
as our collective mother.
Lopez's "art" more closely represents the objectifying images in
Playboy than any of the strong and hard-working Latinas I know and respect.
Her choice of young, slim and unrealistically busty models seems to reflect
more her own personal sexual interests than any feminist perspective on women's
beauty or strength. Lopez's "art" only confirms that heterosexual
males do not corner the market on the objectification of women's bodies for
their own titillation and self-aggrandizement.
GABRIELA MAFI
Seal Beach